Kieran Culkin

Kieran Culkin
Culkin in 2024
Born	Kieran Kyle Culkin (1982-09-30) September 30, 1982 (age 42) New York City, U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1988–present
Spouse	Jazz Charton ​ (m. 2013)​
Children	2
Father	Kit Culkin
Relatives	Macaulay Culkin (brother) Rory Culkin (brother) Bonnie Bedelia (aunt)

Kieran Kyle Culkin (born September 30, 1982) is an American actor. His accolades include a Primetime Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award and a National Board of Review Award.

Culkin began his career as a child actor in Home Alone (1990), Father of the Bride (1991), Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992), The Mighty (1998), and The Cider House Rules (1999). He achieved a career breakthrough after starring in the film Igby Goes Down (2002), for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor. He appeared in the films Margaret (2011), Wiener-Dog (2016), and No Sudden Move (2021), and played Wallace Wells in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010) and Scott Pilgrim Takes Off (2023).

Culkin garnered renewed mainstream recognition with his portrayal of Roman Roy in the HBO television series Succession (2018–2023), which won him the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series. He has since starred in Jesse Eisenberg's A Real Pain, which earned him a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor.

On stage, he made his Broadway debut in the 24 Hour Plays in 2006. He returned to Broadway in the 2014 revival of Kenneth Lonergan's play This Is Our Youth.

Kieran Kyle Culkin was born on September 30, 1982, in New York City to Christopher Cornelius "Kit" Culkin, a former Broadway stage actor, and Patricia Brentrup, a native of North Dakota who met Kit in 1974 while working as a road traffic controller in Sundance, Wyoming.^[1][2] The couple relocated to Kit's native New York City, and had seven children: Shane (b. 1976), Dakota (1978–2008),^[3] Macaulay (b. 1980), Kieran (b. 1982), Quinn (b. 1984), Christian (b. 1987), and Rory (b. 1989).^[1] He also had a paternal half-sister, Jennifer (1970–2000).^[4] Culkin's paternal aunt is actress Bonnie Bedelia.^[5]

Kieran Culkin spent his youth in the Yorkville neighborhood of Manhattan, where he lived with his parents and siblings.^[1] During his early childhood, the family struggled financially; his mother worked as a telephone operator, while his father served as a sacristan at a local Catholic church.^[1] In September 1995, Culkin's parents separated, and he has been estranged from his father since.^[6]

Culkin's first professional acting gig was through a television commercial based on learning disabilities.^[7] He was six years old at the time, and was repeatedly berated by the unnamed director in a failed attempt to make him method act.^[8] At age seven, Culkin made his feature film debut as Fuller McCallister in the comedy Home Alone (1990), directed by Chris Columbus.^[9] He had "no idea" what the film was about when he attended its premiere,^[10] nor did he know that his brother Macaulay starred as his older cousin, Kevin.^[11]

Culkin worked with Columbus again on the romantic comedy-drama Only the Lonely and starred as Matthew "Matty" Banks" in Father of the Bride (both 1991).^[12][13] For his performance in the latter film, he earned a Young Artist Award nomination for Best Young Actor Co-Starring in a Motion Picture at the 14th Youth in Film Awards.^[14] Culkin reprised his role as McCallister in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992),^[15] starred in the action film Nowhere to Run (1993),^[16] appeared in the comedy My Summer Story (1994),^[17] reprised his role as Banks in Father of the Bride Part II (1995),^[18] and starred as a farm boy who overcomes his fear of animals in Amanda (1996).^[19]

As he entered adolescence, Culkin alternated between lead roles in independent films and small parts in mainstream films. He earned a nomination for the Young Artist Award for Best Leading Young Actor in a Feature Film for his performance in the coming-of-age drama The Mighty (1998).^[20][21] The following year, Culkin appeared in Music of the Heart, a biographical film about violinist Roberta Guaspari,^[22] the teen comedy She's All That, which grossed over $100 million worldwide against a production budget of $7–10 million,^[23] and Lasse Hallström's The Cider House Rules, which grossed over $88 million worldwide.^[24] He then made his off-Broadway debut with James Lapine's play The Moment When in 2000,^[25] and starred in his first regular role in a television series with the short-lived NBC sitcom Go Fish (2001).^[26]

Culkin achieved a career breakthrough for playing the rebellious and sardonic teenager Jason "Igby" Slocumb Jr. in the comedy-drama Igby Goes Down (2002).^[27] Film critic Stephen Holden for The New York Times praised his performance, writing that the role was "even richer" than the Catholic schoolboy he portrayed earlier in the year in Peter Care's The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys.^[27] For his work in the former, Culkin won the Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Young Actor/Actress and was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy.^[28][29]

Igby Goes Down was the first gig that profoundly impacted Culkin's personal life.^[30] He realized in the midst of the film's success that acting had become his career, which was "terrifying" because he was never granted the decision to pursue it.^[31] As he needed time to figure out whether he genuinely wanted to be an actor or not, he took a break from the film and television industries and only focused on the acting jobs that interested him.^[31] A majority of those jobs were in theater, starting with replacement work in Kenneth Lonergan's West End production of This Is Our Youth (2002–2003) at the Garrick Theatre.^[32] He then starred as Justin Hammond in Gina Gionfriddo's After Ashley (2005) at the Vineyard Theatre,^[33] which won him an Obie Award for Performance.^[34]

From 2018 to 2023, he was one of the ensemble main cast members in the HBO series Succession, portraying immature and entitled COO Roman Roy. In 2018, 2020, and 2021, he was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film for performance on the show. Culkin's performance on the fourth season of the series received multiple accolades, which include the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Television Series Drama as well as the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, where he was nominated alongside his Succession castmates Jeremy Strong and Brian Cox.

Culkin acted in Jesse Eisenberg's film A Real Pain which premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival.^[35] The comedy-drama revolves around a two cousins reuniting after their grandmother's death and end up going on a Holocaust tour in Poland. Owen Gleiberman of Variety praised Culkin's performance writing, "He’s doing a sensational piece of acting as a compulsive wiseacre addicted to the ways of one-upmanship".^[36] His performance earned him a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture.^[37]

It was announced that Culkin will return to Broadway in the 2025 revival of the David Mamet play Glengarry Glen Ross acting opposite Bob Odenkirk and Bill Burr.^[38]

Culkin first met Jazz Charton, a native of London, at a New York bar in 2012.^[2] They eloped on June 22, 2013, in Iowa while they were embarking on a cross-country road trip.^[39][40] The couple have two children together: a daughter born in September 2019,^[41] and a son born in August 2021.^[42]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Kieran Culkin.

• Kieran Culkin at IMDb 
• Kieran Culkin at the Internet Broadway Database
• Kieran Culkin at the Internet Off-Broadway Database