Michael Fassbender (born April 2, 1977, Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, West Germany [now Germany]) is a German-Irish actor who is known for his ability to immerse himself in a wide range of roles and is especially adept at playing complex and difficult characters. Fassbender’s notable films include Inglourious Basterds (2009), Shame (2011), 12 Years a Slave (2013), and Steve Jobs (2015). He has also appeared in several X-Men movies.

Early years

Fassbender was born in Heidelberg, West Germany. His mother, Adele Fassbender, is from Northern Ireland, and his father, Josef Fassbender, is German. The family—which included an elder sister—moved to Killarney, County Kerry, Ireland, when Michael Fassbender was two years old. His parents later bought a restaurant, and Josef Fassbender served as the chef. The younger Fassbender occasionally worked as a bartender there.

Fassbender played guitar in a heavy metal group, but at the age of 17 he became interested in acting when he was cast in a local play. He enrolled at the Drama Centre London when he was 19 but dropped out and toured with the Oxford Stage Company’s production of the play Three Sisters. He then landed a role in the popular HBO World War II miniseries Band of Brothers (2001). However, his career stalled after that, and Fassbender worked as a bartender and held other jobs to support himself.

Career

In 2005 Fassbender landed a supporting role in 300 (2006), an action drama about the ancient Battle of Thermopylae. His big break came when Steve McQueen cast him in the 2008 movie Hunger. However, McQueen was not impressed with him at first. “When he came in to audition in 2007, I thought, ‘Who is this guy?’ He almost seemed like he couldn’t be bothered,” McQueen told The Hollywood Reporter in 2012. “What I didn’t know was all the rejection he had suffered. He was asked back for a second audition, and the lights went on.” In the critically acclaimed film Fassbender played Bobby Sands, a member of the Irish Republican Army who goes on a fatal hunger strike while imprisoned.

Fassbender’s performance caught the attention of director Quentin Tarantino, who picked him to play British Lieut. Archie Hicox in Inglourious Basterds (2009). The popular film, which starred Brad Pitt, follows a group of Jewish American soldiers trained to kill Nazis in German-occupied France during World War II. The role led to more high-profile projects. In 2011 Fassbender reteamed with McQueen on Shame, a drama about sexual addiction. For his haunting performance of a man self-destructing, he won the best actor award at the Venice Film Festival. His other credits that year include Jane Eyre, a film adaptation of Charlotte Brontë’s classic novel, and X-Men: First Class, in which he played mutant antihero Erik Lensherr/Magneto.

In 2012 Fassbender starred as an android in Ridley Scott’s sci-fi thriller Prometheus. He then reunited with McQueen for 12 Years a Slave (2013), an acclaimed docudrama about Solomon Northup, a free Black man abducted and sold into slavery. Fassbender brought an arresting intensity to his role as an unstable plantation owner obsessed with an enslaved woman (played by Lupita Nyong’o), and he earned an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actor. He received another Oscar nod for his starring role in Steve Jobs (2015), Danny Boyle’s biopic about the Apple cofounder. Also in 2015 he starred with Marion Cotillard in Macbeth. During this time, Fassbender reprised his role as Erik/Magneto in X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014), X-Men: Apocalypse (2016), and X-Men: Dark Phoenix (2019).

In 2016 Fassbender starred in Assassin’s Creed, an adaptation of the video game. He then reteamed with Scott on Alien: Covenant (2017), an installment in the popular sci-fi series. After playing the title character in the thriller Killer, Fassbender had a memorable turn as the coach of the hapless American Samoa football (soccer) team in Taika Waititi’s Next Goal Wins (both 2023). Fassbender then returned to TV in the spy drama The Agency (2024– ). Staying in the espionage genre, he costarred with Cate Blanchett in Steven Soderbergh’s Black Bag (2025), about married intelligence agents.

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Personal life

In 2017 Fassbender married actress Alicia Vikander, his costar in the movie The Light Between Oceans (2016). The couple has two children.