Brendan Gleeson

Brendan Gleeson is an award-winning Irish actor, working across film, TV and theatre.

Brendan Gleeson made his film debut in The Field in 1990, before his breakthrough role in Braveheart in 1995 opposite Mel Gibson. His other famous movies include In Bruges, and The Banshees of Inisherin for which he was nominated for an Academy Award.

Gleeson started his acting career on stage in Dublin, before performing at the RSC in Stratford upon Avon. He is a member of the Passion Machine Theatre company in Dublin, starring in plays including Roddy Doyle’s Brownbread, Wasters and Home; and writing three plays for the company. His other Dublin stage work includes Patrick Süskind’s The Double Bass, John B. Keane’s The Year of the Hiker; and The Walworth Farce directed by Seán Foley.

Brendan Gleeson’s film credits include: The Field (1990), Far and Away (1992), Into the West (1992), The Treaty (1991), Braveheart (1995), Michael Collins (1996), Mission: Impossible II (2000), Lake Placid (1999), Turbulence (1997), The General (1998), The Tailor of Panama (2001), Steven Spielberg’s A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), 28 Days Later (2002), Gangs of New York (2002), Cold Mountain (2003), Troy (2004), The Village (2004), the Harry Potter film series (2005–2010), Kingdom of Heaven (2005), Beowulf (2007), In Bruges (2008), Green Zone (2010), The Guard (2011), Safe House (2012), Calvary (2014), Suffragette (2015), Live By Night (2016), Assassin’s Creed (2016), Paddington 2 (2017), Hampstead (2017), The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018), Frankie (2019), The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021), The Banshees of Inisherin (2022), and Joker: Folie à Deux (2024).

Notable TV work credits include: Into the Storm (2009) for which he received a Primetime Emmy Award; as Donald Trump in The Comey Rule (2020); crime series Mr Mercedes (2017-2019), and his Emmy-nominated performance in Stephen Frears’ State of the Union (2022).