Pádraic Delaney

Pádraic Delaney is an Irish actor born on 6 November 1977 in Adamstown, County Wexford, to parents Sheelagh and Michael Delaney. He grew up with three older brothers, Philip, Conor, and Emmett, and two younger sisters, Tracey and Gemma. Delaney attended Colaiste Abbain Secondary School in Adamstown before briefly pursuing engineering at university, a course of study he left after four months. He subsequently enrolled at the Beckett Centre at Trinity College Dublin, graduating in 2001 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in drama and theatre studies.

Delaney began his career in theatre, taking on roles in productions including Hamlet, The Madman and the Nun, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and The Hollow in the Sand. He transitioned into screen work with the 2003 short film An Cuainín, followed by appearances in the Irish television series Pure Mule and The Clinic in 2005, and later a lead role in the RTÉ series Legend.

His international profile rose significantly in 2006 when he portrayed Irish revolutionary Teddy O'Donovan in Ken Loach's The Wind That Shakes the Barley, opposite Cillian Murphy. The film received the Palme d'Or at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival. Delaney received two Irish Film and Television Award nominations in 2007, for Best Actor in a Supporting Role and Breakthrough Talent, and was named the Irish Shooting Star at the 2007 Berlin International Film Festival. He later reunited with Murphy and co-star Liam Cunningham for the 2009 comedy Perrier's Bounty.

Delaney was also a cast member of the Showtime series The Tudors, playing George Boleyn, Anne Boleyn's brother, alongside Jonathan Rhys Meyers as King Henry VIII. In late 2007, he appeared at the Tricycle Theatre in the role of Father Flynn in John Patrick Shanley's Doubt: A Parable. In 2010, he filmed the western Blackthorn, playing Sundance alongside Sam Shepard, Eduardo Noriega, Stephen Rea, and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau.

Between 2013 and 2014, Delaney starred in Martin McDonagh's dark comedy The Cripple of Inishmaan alongside Daniel Radcliffe. The production originated in London's West End before transferring to Broadway in 2014, marking Delaney's Broadway debut. In 2015, he appeared alongside Dev Patel and Jeremy Irons in The Man Who Knew Infinity, and in 2017 he acted in Jeremy Renner's television series Knightfall. Delaney is based in London, England.