Michael Fassbender (born 2 April 1977) is a German-Irish actor and racing driver who first gained critical acclaim for his role as Bobby Sands in Hunger (2008) before becoming a global star as Magneto in the X-Men films (2011–2019) and in the Alien franchise (2012–2017). His powerful performances in Shame (2011), 12 Years a Slave (2013), and Steve Jobs (2015) earned him a Volpi Cup for Best Actor and two Academy Award nominations, cementing his reputation as one of his generation's finest actors. After taking a four-year hiatus from acting in 2019 to pursue auto racing—competing in the European Le Mans Series in 2023—he returned to the screen with the thrillers The Killer (2023) and Black Bag (2025), as well as the spy series The Agency (2024–present). Raised in Killarney, Ireland, from age two, he studied at the Drama Centre London and worked as a bartender and postman before his breakthrough, and he has been married to Swedish actress Alicia Vikander since 2017, with whom he has two sons. His early life included serving as an altar boy and spending summers in Germany, and he was later ranked ninth on The Irish Times list of Ireland's greatest film actors in 2020.