Michael Fassbender

Born in what was then West Germany to a mother from Northern Ireland and a German father, Fassbender relocated to Ireland at age two.^[a] He made his feature film debut in 300 (2006). Early roles include in the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers (2001) and the Sky One fantasy drama Hex (2004–2005). Fassbender first came to prominence playing Bobby Sands in Hunger (2008), for which he won a British Independent Film Award. Subsequent roles include in Fish Tank (2009), Inglourious Basterds (2009), Jane Eyre (2011) and A Dangerous Method (2011). He gained mainstream success for playing Erik Lehnsherr / Magneto in X-Men: First Class (2011), X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) and X-Men: Apocalypse (2016), and David 8 and Walter One in Prometheus (2012), and its sequel, Alien: Covenant (2017).


For his portrayal of a sex addict in Steve McQueen's drama Shame (2011), Fassbender won the Volpi Cup for Best Actor and was nominated for Golden Globe and BAFTA Award. His performance as Edwin Epps in 12 Years a Slave (2013) earned him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He also starred in The Counselor (2013), Frank (2014), Macbeth (2015) and Steve Jobs (2015). Fassbender received another Academy Award nomination for his portrayal of the title role in the latter. After a hiatus, he starred in the action thriller film The Killer (2023).


Fassbender began competing in auto racing in 2017 with the Ferrari Challenge. As of 2023, he races in the European Le Mans Series, driving for Proton Competition. He married Swedish actress Alicia Vikander in 2017.

Early life and education

Fassbender was born on 2 April 1977^[2] in Heidelberg in what was then West Germany.^[3] His mother, Adele, is originally from Larne, Northern Ireland, and his father, Josef Fassbender, is from Heidelberg.^[4][5] He has an elder sister named Catherine, a neuropsychologist at the MIND Institute in Sacramento, California, United States.^[6][7] According to lore on his mother's side of family, his mother is the great-grandniece of Michael Collins, an Irish leader during the War of Independence.^[3][8] At age two, Fassbender moved to Killarney, Ireland, where his parents were to operate the West End House, a restaurant where his father also worked as a chef. His parents chose Killarney because they wanted their children to grow up in the countryside, in contrast to the industrial backdrop of their previous German residence.^[3][5]


Fassbender, who was raised Catholic, served as an altar boy at the church his family attended.^[9] He and his sister spent summer holidays in Germany.^[10] He attended Fossa National School near Killarney^[11] and St. Brendan's College in Killarney itself.^[12] Fassbender decided that he wanted to be an actor at age 17 when he was cast in a play. At age 19, he left home to study at the Drama Centre London. In 1999, Fassbender dropped out of the Drama Centre and toured with the Oxford Stage Company to perform the play Three Sisters.^[6][13] Before finding steady work as an actor, he worked as a bartender, postman, manual labourer, market researcher for Royal Mail, and Dell employee.^[14][15]

Fassbender has been recognised by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for two performances:^[97]


Fassbender has received a Critics' Choice Movie Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and the Venice International Film Festival's Volpi Cup for Best Actor. He has also received nominations for four BAFTA Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, and two European Film Awards.