Colin James Farrell (born 31 May 1976) is an Irish actor. Farrell appeared in the BBC drama Ballykissangel in 1998, made his film debut in the Tim Roth-directed drama The War Zone in 1999,[2] and was discovered by Hollywood when Joel Schumacher cast him as the lead in the war drama Tigerland in 2000. He then played the outlaw Jesse James in the film American Outlaws with a young ensemble cast, with Gabriel Macht as brother Frank as well as Ali Larter, Scott Caan, and Timothy Dalton. He then starred in Schumacher's psychological thriller Phone Booth (2003) where he plays a hostage in a New York city phone booth, and the American thrillers S.W.A.T. (2003) and The Recruit (2003), establishing his international box-office appeal. During that time, he also appeared in Steven Spielberg's science fiction thriller Minority Report (2002) and as the villain Bullseye in the superhero film Daredevil (2003).
After starring in the independent films Intermission (2003) and A Home at the End of the World (2004), Farrell headed Oliver Stone's biopic Alexander (2004) and Terrence Malick's The New World (2005). Roles in Michael Mann's Miami Vice (2006), the adaptation of John Fante's Ask the Dust (2006), and Woody Allen's Cassandra's Dream (2007) followed, underscoring Farrell's popularity among Hollywood writers and directors; however, it was his role in Martin McDonagh's In Bruges (2008) that earned him a Hollywood Foreign Press Association Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy.
Farrell starred in the black comedy film Horrible Bosses (2011), for which he received critical praise, along with the comedy-horror film Fright Night (2011) and the sci-fi action film Total Recall (2012), both remakes, and McDonagh's second feature, the black comedy crime film Seven Psychopaths (2012). He also starred in the Niels Arden Oplev action film Dead Man Down (2013), and as Travers Goff in the Tom Hanks/Emma Thompson quasi-biopic Saving Mr. Banks (2013) playing (in flashbacks) the quixotic father of “Mary Poppins” author P.L. Travers. In 2014, Farrell starred as Peter Lake in the supernatural fable Winter's Tale, an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Mark Helprin. In 2015, he starred as Detective Ray Velcoro in the second season of HBO's True Detective, and also starred in the film The Lobster, for which he was nominated for his second Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. In 2016, he played Percival Graves in the Harry Potter spin-off film Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. In 2020, he was listed at number 5 on The Irish Times list of Ireland's greatest film actors.[3] Farrell has been cast as Oswald Cobblepot / The Penguin in The Batman which is set for a 2021 release and which is intended to begin a new trilogy set apart from the DC Extended Universe.
