Charlie Cox

Charlie Thomas Cox, born on 15 December 1982 in London, England, is an English-American actor. Raised in East Sussex, he is the youngest of five children born to Patricia Cox and Andrew Frederick Seaforth Cox, a publisher, and has one brother and three half-siblings from his father's first marriage. Cox was educated at Ashdown House School in Forest Row, East Sussex, and Sherborne School in Sherborne, Dorset, both private boarding schools. He did not seriously consider acting as a profession until his final years at Sherborne, from which he graduated in 2001. He subsequently relocated to London and enrolled at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School the following year.

Cox's first professional role came at age eighteen in the 2003 psychological thriller Dot the i, filmed before he began his studies at Bristol Old Vic. During his first year at the school, he was cast as Lorenzo in the 2004 Al Pacino film The Merchant of Venice, a production that led him to leave the school and continue working professionally. He appeared in supporting roles in the 2005 historical drama Casanova and the 2006 BBC science fiction film A for Andromeda before landing his breakout role as Tristan Thorn in the 2007 fantasy film Stardust, opposite Claire Danes. The following year, Cox made his West End debut in a revival of Harold Pinter's The Lover and The Collection at the Ambassadors Theatre in London, directed by Jamie Lloyd, with previews beginning 15 January 2008 and the production opening on 29 January. He appeared in the 2008 film Stone of Destiny as Ian Hamilton and the 2009 historical drama Glorious 39 before taking the title role in Heinrich von Kleist's The Prince of Homburg at the Donmar Warehouse in London in 2010. That same year, he played the Duke of Crowborough in the first episode of the ITV drama series Downton Abbey.

Cox's television profile rose considerably in 2011 when he joined the Martin Scorsese-produced HBO series Boardwalk Empire as Owen Sleater, an Irish enforcer with ties to the IRA, a recurring role in the second season that became a regular part of the third season in 2012. He received a Screen Actors Guild Award as part of the ensemble cast in 2011 and received a nomination the following year. In 2014, he portrayed Jonathan Hellyer Jones, the second husband of Jane Hawking, in The Theory of Everything, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and received a Best Picture nomination at the 2015 Academy Awards. Also in 2014, Marvel Studios announced Cox had been cast as Matt Murdock in the Netflix series Daredevil, a role the studio had reportedly considered him for since 2012. The series premiered in April 2015, ran for three seasons, and concluded in late 2018, also encompassing the 2017 team-up miniseries The Defenders. His performance earned him a Helen Keller Achievement Award from the American Foundation for the Blind. Between filming seasons of Daredevil, Cox made his New York theater debut in an off-Broadway production of Incognito at the Manhattan Theatre Club. He also appeared in the 2018 film King of Thieves alongside Michael Caine, Jim Broadbent, and Ray Winstone, based on the true story of the 2015 Hatton Garden jewelry heist.

Following the conclusion of Daredevil, Cox starred opposite Tom Hiddleston and Zawe Ashton in a West End revival of Harold Pinter's Betrayal, directed by Jamie Lloyd, who had also directed Cox in the 2008 Pinter production. The production opened on 14 March 2019 and closed on 8 June. The production then transferred to Broadway with its original cast for a 17-week limited engagement, beginning previews on 14 August 2019 and closing on 8 December 2019, marking Cox's Broadway debut.

In fall 2020, Cox began filming the RTÉ Dublin crime drama Kin, alongside Aidan Gillen, Clare Dunne, Maria Doyle Kennedy, Ciarán Hinds, and Emmett Scanlan. The eight-part first season was released on 9 September 2021 on AMC+ in the United States and Canada, and on 12 September 2021 on RTÉ in Ireland, with a second season broadcast in 2023. Cox also starred in the Netflix spy miniseries Treason in 2022. In December 2021, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige confirmed Cox would reprise the role of Matt Murdock in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. His first MCU appearance was in Spider-Man: No Way Home, followed by She-Hulk: Attorney at Law in 2022 and Echo in 2024. In 2025, he starred in the Disney+ revival series Daredevil: Born Again, which was subsequently renewed for a second season, and provided his voice for the character in the animated series Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. That same year, Cox made his video game debut as Gustave in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.