You’d be living under a rock if you haven’t heard the name of Barry Keoghan yet. At the age of only 27, the Dublin-born actor has accomplished much. Here we summarise Keoghan's career so far and look at his upcoming roles.
Though the first TV job Barry Keoghan got was on ‘Fair City’, the Irish actor had his breakthrough role in the acclaimed series ‘Love/Hate’. His character Wayne violently crashed into audiences’ lives when he killed a cat in the first episode he appeared in. It put him on par with the show’s other vicious characters played by Tom Vaughan-Lawlor and Peter Coonan.
From there, Keoghan booked gig after gig, frequently starring opposite some of the biggest actors working today. In 2016, he starred in 'Trespass Against Us' with Michael Fassbender and Brendan Gleeson. There was also 'The Killing of a Sacred Deer' with Nicole Kidman, Colin Farrell and Alicia Silverstone. The latter performance, which saw Keoghan play a young man who becomes enveloped in the lives of his doctor’s family, won the actor an Irish Film and Television Award.
The young actor featured on industry bible Variety's annual 10 Actors To Watch list in 2017. In 2019, he was nominated for the BAFTA Rising Star Award. In the same year he played Pavel in the highly revered series 'Chernobyl'.
Keoghan’s biggest project to date though has undoubtedly been the war epic 'Dunkirk', directed by the legendary Christopher Nolan and co-starring Cillian Murphy, Tom Hardy, Mark Rylance and Kenneth Branagh. He's got more on the way too. Later this year he'll star in 'The Green Knight' opposite Dev Patel, Alicia Vikander and Joel Edgerton.
Keoghan has proven his talent for playing both the creepy villain, in the likes of 'Love/Hate' and 'The Killing of a Sacred Deer', and the devoted but somewhat naïve young man, in the film ‘Dunkirk’. Interestingly, his role in 'American Animals' fell somewhere in between as it saw him play an art student who participates in a heist that becomes increasingly morally complex.
The same can be said for 'Calm With Horses', a new Irish film about a boxer torn between two families. Keoghan plays Dympna in the movie, something of the black sheep of his drug dealing clan. Too scared to carry out any violence, he presses his friend Arm to do the dirty work for him.
We chat with Keoghan alongside his co-star Niamh Algar about the film below.
And of course let's not forget Barry Keoghan has the much anticipated 'The Eternals' set to hit cinemas later this year. Bagging a Marvel superhero epic is a huuge deal. Barry will star opposite Angelina Jolie, Kumail Nanjiani, Richard Madden, Salma Hayek and Kit Harrington in the feature.
Keoghan will play Druig, leader of the Eternals' enemies, The Deviants, in the filum. We just know he's going to be fantastic in this one as well.
'Calm With Horses' is in cinemas from Friday (13th March).
'The Eternals' lands in cinemas 6th November.