Michael Fassbender's Biography

Early Life

Michael Fassbender was born on 2 April 1977 in Heidelberg, Germany, to a German father and a Northern Irish mother.

As an infant, he moved to Killarney, County Kerry, in Ireland.

He worked at his parents' restaurant West End House and attended St. Brendan's College, where he was head altar boy.

At 17, he started to explore a career in acting.

It would lead eventually to numerous strong performances usually as dark characters.

Movies

Although he was to appear in earlier movies such as 300, an important breakthrough was being cast in 2008 by Steve McQueen as IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands in Hunger. McQueen would later cast Michael Fassbender as Edwin Epps in 12 Years A Slave, for which he would be nominated for an Oscar for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role.

Other important movie credits included X-Men: First Class; A Dangerous Method, Haywire, Jane Eyre, Prometheus, Shame (another Steve McQueen film), The Counselor, and Inglourious Basterds.

In 2016, Fassbender was nominated for an Oscar for best actor for the title role in Steve Jobs.

Personal Life

In the same year (2016), his partner Alicia Vikander was nominated for an Oscar for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in The Danish Girl.

His reported romantic liaisons before Alicia Vikander include Zoë Kravitz and Nicole Beharie.

Back to Top