Chris O'Dowd

Since 2017, he has appeared as Miles Daly in the Epix comedy series Get Shorty. He had a recurring role on the comedy-drama series Girls. His performance in the British comedy TV series State of the Union, won him a Primetime Emmy Award. He made his Broadway debut in the play adaptation of Of Mice and Men in 2014, for which he was nominated for a Tony Award.

On 1 February 2015, it was announced on Twitter that O'Porter gave birth to a son they named Arthur "Art" O'Porter a week earlier. On 1 July 2017, O'Porter gave birth to their second son, Valentine.

From April to July, 2014, O'Dowd starred in the Broadway revival of Of Mice and Men, directed by Anna D. Shapiro and co-starring James Franco and Leighton Meester. For this, he was nominated for a Drama Desk and Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play. He starred as a Catholic school teacher in the 2014 film St. Vincent with Bill Murray and Melissa McCarthy. O'Dowd was the narrator for the 2014 RTÉ documentary Man on Bridge.

In April 2014, O'Dowd presented at Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS Easter Bonnet Competition with Leighton Meester and James Franco, after raising donations at his Broadway show Of Mice and Men.

O'Dowd played Dave in Wayne Blair's 2012 debut feature Australian musical The Sapphires. Based on a popular stage show, it was shot across Australia and Vietnam and produced by Goalpost Australia. He is to write and executive produce a new American comedy series called Big Men, after NBC won the bidding war for it.

He co-wrote a series based on his childhood called Moone Boy for Sky 1. Segments of the series, which ran from 2012 to 2015, were filmed in his hometown, Boyle. A book based on the series and also co-written by O'Dowd, Moone Boy: The Blunder Years, was published in May 2015. Subsequent releases include Moone Boy: The Fish Detective, published in October 2015, Moone Boy: The Notion Potion, published in September 2017, as well as an activity book, Moone Boy: The Marvellous Activity Manual, published in May 2017.

O'Dowd married British writer, director, and television presenter Dawn Porter in 2012. After their marriage, Dawn changed her surname to O'Porter.

O'Dowd appeared in the 2010 film Dinner for Schmucks, an American version of the French farce, Le Dîner de Cons. He also appeared on panel show Never Mind the Buzzcocks (Season 21, episode 11), and starred in an ITV2 comedy series entitled FM. In 2010, he took part in Little Crackers, writing and directing a short film loosely based on his own childhood and Christmas in his family home from 1984–88. In April 2011, he starred in the BBC adaptation of The Crimson Petal and the White as William Rackham and appeared in the May 2011 release Bridesmaids as Officer Nathan Rhodes.

He starred in the 2009 film The Boat That Rocked, released in Canada and the U.S. as Pirate Radio. The film was inspired by the story of offshore pirate broadcasters Radio Caroline. O'Dowd plays Simon, the station's breakfast DJ."The breakfast jock on Radio Caroline at the time was Tony Blackburn, so there's definitely an element of him in it," says O'Dowd of his character. "And then I called in different Irish DJs that would have been contemporaries of Tony Blackburn at the time, a guy called Larry Gogan and a couple of other people."

In April 2009 it was announced that O'Dowd had been cast in a remake of Gulliver's Travels as General Edward. "It's shooting in Pinewood from the end of April", he said, shortly after his participation was announced. "I'm just going back to England to learn how to ride a horse... I'm a general in the army, so there's going to be a little bit of horse riding. I think it's going to be really fun though, we're all kind of learning together."

O'Dowd was born and raised in Boyle, County Roscommon. After failing to complete a degree in politics and sociology at University College Dublin, he relocated to England to study at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. He came to broad attention as Roy Trenneman, one of the leading characters in the Channel 4 comedy The IT Crowd, which ran for four series between 2006 and 2010. Moving into film, he appeared in Bridesmaids (2011), This Is 40 (2012), The Sapphires (2012), Thor: The Dark World (2013), Calvary (2014), and St. Vincent (2014). O'Dowd created and starred in the Sky 1 television series Moone Boy, which aired between 2012 and 2015, earning O'Dowd Irish Film and Television Award nominations in acting, writing and directing.

O'Dowd has appeared in How to Lose Friends & Alienate People in a minor role. O'Dowd has also had roles in a number of films, including the 2005 film Festival where he played stand-up comedian Tommy O'Dwyer, a role for which he won a Scottish BAFTA award, and a small role in Vera Drake. O'Dowd appears in Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel, a comedy sci-fiction film with Marc Wootton, Dean Lennox Kelly and Anna Faris. He played Liam in the 2007 German film Hotel Very Welcome.

He represented Roscommon in Gaelic football at the under-16, minor and under-21 levels, the highlight being his performance as a goalkeeper in the 1997 Connacht Minor final against Mayo, in a game covered by RTÉ Sport for highlights on its The Sunday Game programme.

Christopher O'Dowd (born 9 October 1979) is an Irish actor and comedian. He has appeared in a range of television shows, films, and plays, mostly in the United Kingdom and United States.