Cillian Murphy was born in 1976 in Cork, Ireland.
Along with his brother he formed a band named The Sons of Mr Greengenes, they were offered a five album deal by Acid Jazz Records but hey did not sign the contract.
He made his professional acting debut in Enda Walsh's Disco Pigs in 1996 with which he toured through Europe, Canada and Australia for two years, Subsequently he starred in a number of independent films and stage plays.
In 2001 he reprised his Disco Pigs role for the 2001 film version by Kirsten Sheridan.
He first came to international attention in Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later, for which he won Breakthrough Male Performance at the 2004 MTV awards.
In 2003, he starred in the independent Irish film Intermission alongside Colin Farrell, as well as supporting roles in his first Hollywood movies-Cold Mountain and Girl with a Pearl Earring.
In 2004, he toured Ireland playing the title role in Sean O'Casey's The Playboy of the Western World, directed by Garry Hynes.
He starred in two blockbusters in 2005, Batman Begins and Red Eye in which he played villains.
That same year he starred in Neil Jordan's Breakfast on Pluto, playing the role of Patrick 'Kitten' Braden, a transgender Irish orphan, for which he won the Irish Film and Television Award for Best Actor.
In 2006 he starred in Ken Loach's The Wind that Shakes the Barley which won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
In 2007, he re-united with director, Danny Boyle in the film Sunshine.
He starred alongside, Keira Knightly, Sienna Miller and Matthew Rhys in the 2008 Dylan Thomas biopic The Edge of Love.