Barry Keoghan Took a Very Deep Dive for His Golden Globe-Nominated ‘Saltburn’ Role

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Latest News: Barry Keoghan Receives 2024 Golden Globe Nomination for Saltburn

One year after his acclaimed part in The Banshees of Inisherin, Irish actor Barry Keoghan is once again a major part of awards season for his role in the 2023 dark comedy-thriller Saltburn. The 31-year-old was nominated for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama for his portrayal of devious Oxford University student Oliver Quick.

In a recent interview with Vogue, Keoghan discussed his preparation for his first leading role in a major movie. He filled five notebooks with notes detailing different versions of his character throughout the film. “I wanted his demeanor, his pace, his physicality to change,” Keoghan said. “I wanted this evolution to happen, and I wanted to be on top of that, you know, especially with someone like Oliver, whose demeanor does change, and his motives do change.”

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Who Is Barry Keoghan?

Irish actor Barry Keoghan is best known for his roles in movies such as Dunkirk, The Killing of a Sacred Deer, and The Banshees of Inisherin. He overcame a tumultuous childhood, including his mother’s drug addiction and living in more than a dozen foster care homes, to become an award-winning performer. He earned Golden Globe and Academy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actor in 2023 for his scene-stealing role in The Banshees of Inisherin. Keoghan also stars in Saltburn and the upcoming World War II miniseries Masters of the Air, debuting in January 2024.

Quick Facts

FULL NAME: Barry Keoghan
BORN: October 18, 1992
BIRTHPLACE: Dublin, Ireland
CHILD: Brando
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Libra

Early Life

Barry Keoghan was born on October 18, 1992, and raised in the Summerhill neighborhood of Dublin. Keoghan had no relationship with his father, whose identity hasn’t been made public. His mother, Debbie, was addicted to heroin.

As a result of his mother’s addiction, 5-year-old Barry and his younger brother, Eric, were placed in foster care. According to The Daily Mail, they lived in 13 different homes before eventually moving into a two-bedroom flat with their grandmother Patricia, aunt Lorraine, and cousin Gemma, whom Barry refers to as his “sister.”

Debbie died when Barry was only 12 years old. Despite his mother’s personal struggles, he holds fond memories of her. He told television host Lucy Kennedy in 2019 he says a prayer to her for good luck before auditions. “She was 6 [feet tall], long black hair. That’s where I get my good looks, sure,” Keoghan said. “I really do feel it. I believe she’s here with me through this journey, the good times and the bad.”

According to a childhood friend, Keoghan “wasn’t in an academic way” and was somewhat of a troublemaker. While he was a student at the O’Connell School in Dublin, he was removed from the school play for “messing about.” Keoghan also sneaked into a local movie theater to watch films without paying; he was eventually caught and banned from the theater.

Keoghan initially aspired to become an athlete like his second cousin, Frank Stapleton, who played for the Irish national soccer team. But his favorite sport turned out to be boxing. He began sparring and training in the ring when he was in high school and participated for 10 years before temporarily stepping away to focus on his developing acting career.

Becoming an Actor and First Roles

While living with his grandmother, Keoghan began to develop an interest in acting by watching classic Hollywood films. He specifically gravitated to actors like Marlon Brando, James Dean, and Paul Newman.

Keoghan has credited his brother, Eric, for believing in his dream to pursue acting seriously. “Because where I’m from, to do acting is not heard of. Being one of the lads and all, you don’t just go, ‘Oh, I want to be an actor,’” he told The Guardian in 2018. “They’d laugh and joke about it. Not in a mean way, but like taking the piss. But once you get the seal of approval from your brother, you just know.”

When he was a teenager, Keoghan and his friends were walking around Dublin when they spotted an advertisement in a shop window looking for actors to be in a movie. The gig paid 120 euros (about $130). “I was just seeing money and, you know, you get off school and whatever,” Keoghan said. “I was like, ‘I’m good at pretending. I can do that onscreen.’” Keoghan called the number and spoke to the writer and director of the proposed film, Mark O’Connor, who said he was still working on acquiring funding to make the movie. Keoghan regularly called O’Connor asking for updates and, eventually, did get a small part in Between the Canals (2011).

Following this minor role, Keoghan studied at The Factory, an acting school in Dublin now known as the Bow Street Academy. This allowed him to pick up the short but memorable part of Wayne in the 2013 Irish crime drama series Love/Hate, which gave him a national profile. Now known across his home country, Keoghan soon saw his acting career take off globally.

Movies: Dunkirk, Eternals, and The Batman’s Joker

Keoghan was earning steady work by 2013 but was often typecast as a skittish delinquent in early roles for movies like ’71 (2014) and Trespass Against Us (2016). Then in 2017, Keoghan had his breakout on the big screen in a pair of wildly different movies.

First, he appeared as young civilian sailor George in the Christopher Nolan–directed war epic Dunkirk, also featuring Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy, and Harry Styles. Then the rising actor gave one of his most eerie performances to date in the psychological thriller The Killing of a Sacred Deer, also starring Colin Farrell and Nicole Kidman. Keoghan played Martin, a teenager with unknown sinister motives who befriends a surgeon and his family.

The movie was very polarizing—receiving boos from the audience at the Cannes Film Festival but also high praise from some critics. Keoghan was proud of the film and director Yorgos Lanthimos. “Some people dig it, some don’t. I love that,” Keoghan told W Magazine. “I don’t want to be in movies that show and tell, basically, and have their happy endings. I want to be in movies where filmmakers are telling unique stories and stories that are challenging people.” He also enjoyed working with Kidman and Farrell, whom he said were “like a mother and father” on set. Farrell became a mentor and friend to the young actor and worked with Keoghan again for The Banshees of Inisherin in 2022.

Following those two roles, Keoghan appeared in movies like American Animals (2018), Calm with Horses (2019), and The Green Knight (2021) before acting in a pair of big-budget comic book movies. He played Druig in the 2021 Marvel Cinematic Universe flick Eternals, before making a short appearance as “Unseen Arkham Prisoner”—later confirmed to be legendary antagonist the Joker—in The Batman (2022).

Although he had only one short scene in the movie, Keoghan has recently hinted his iteration of the character could have a larger role for sequel The Batman Part II, scheduled for an October 2025 release. “I can’t really say anything about that, my man, but… it would be exciting, wouldn’t it, to see the Joker come to life again,” he told Canadian media outlet Etalk. “My smile says it all, you know what I mean?”

Although Keoghan had established himself as a versatile movie actor by the early 2020s, he gained little recognition when it came to major industry awards. That changed with The Banshees of Inisherin, the 2022 black comedy directed by Martin McDonagh about longtime friends (played by Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson) who have a falling out.

The New York Times called Keoghan’s supporting character Dominic the “MVP” of the film and said the actor “steals every scene he’s in.” Keoghan was nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, Golden Globe Awards, and Academy Awards, and won the category at the BAFTA Awards.

Keoghan’s most recent movie role was a hit as well. He played scheming Oxford University student Oliver Quick in the 2023 thriller Saltburn. This performance earned him another Golden Globe nomination, this time for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama.

TV Roles: Rebellion, Chernobyl, and Masters of the Air

Keoghan is primarily known for his movie roles but has also continued to act in television after getting his early break on Love/Hate. In 2016, he played soldier Cormac McDevitt in the miniseries Rebellion about the 1916 Easter Rising in Ireland. Three years later, Keoghan played Pavel in two episodes of the acclaimed HBO miniseries Chernobyl, a dramatized account of the infamous 1986 nuclear plant disaster and the cleanup surrounding it.

Most recently, Keoghan appeared in the 2023 British crime drama Top Boy. He is also set to play Lt. Curtis Biddick in the 2024 war miniseries Masters of the Air, a spiritual sequel to 2001’s Band of Brothers that Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg produced. Also starring Austin Butler, the series debuts January 26 on Apple TV+ and tells the story of the 100^th Bomb Group of the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II.

Son and Dating Life

Off-screen, Keoghan is a parent to his son, Brando—born in August 2022 and named after one of Keoghan’s aforementioned favorite actors, Marlon Brando—with his ex-girlfriend Alyson Sandro.

In an October 2023 interview with Esquire, Keoghan revealed he models his parenting skills for Brando off his relationship with his grandmother. “We all usually have someone we base our father figure on and our lessons,” Keoghan said. “She raised 10. She had a great, what do you call it, attitude about everything. Man or woman, that’s what I base it on. She was my father and mother in one.”

Romantically, Keoghan has recently been linked to Sabrina Carpenter. In December 2023, photographers spotted Keoghan going to dinner in Los Angeles with the American actor and former Disney Channel star, sparking rumors the pair were dating. Neither has confirmed or denied the potential relationship.

Prior becoming a father, Keoghan dated Shóna Guerin from County Kerry, Ireland, from 2017 through 2020. Then in February 2021, Keoghan met Scottish orthodontist Alyson Sandro at a pub in London, and the couple began a relationship. They appeared together in the public for the first time that October. Keoghan and Sandro split almost a year after their son’s birth in July 2023, with the actor removing pictures of the couple from his Instagram page.

ADHD Diagnosis

In 2020, Keoghan was diagnosed with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). The neurodevelopmental disorder is usually diagnosed in childhood but can affect adults as well. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, symptoms include trouble paying attention, controlling impulsive behaviors, or being overly active.

The actor said in a 2022 podcast interview that, although he was undiagnosed during childhood, he knew ADHD affected him because he was easily distracted and struggled to concentrate. He has said he never read a book in full. He now takes medication for the disorder and says it has made a huge difference. “My mind used to be like a traffic jam, crazy, and then with the medication it’s like: One car goes, then another car goes,” he said.

Quotes

• My thing is, if I want something, I’m going to show you my version. I can’t guarantee I’ll get the part or promise I’ll get the part, but I can promise you that you’re going to see something that you’ve never seen, which is my version, because no one else can do that.

• We tend to be very, very critical of ourselves, and I just don’t want to put myself in that place. But I also see [it] as a learning curve. I don’t ever want to get to a place where I think I absolutely nailed it because then there’s no room for improving. I constantly want to figure out this craft and what it is that I’m doing.

• On his role in The Killing of a Sacred Deer: One day you’re talking with Tom Hardy, the next day you have Nicole Kidman kissing your feet. I never thought I’d be able to say that in my lifetime, Nicole Kidman kissing my feet. It’s mad.

• I was looking for something. I was looking to mess around, to joke. And get paid! But on a deeper level, [acting] was very therapeutic for me. I could be someone else. I think you get to release a few of your problems there through being another person.

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