Colin James Farrell was born on May 31, 1976 in Castleknock, Dublin, Ireland. His father Eamon was a professional athlete and Colin was the youngest of four children.

Colin played soccer when he was younger, and appeared to have an interest in becoming a professional athlete until his sibling enrolled in acting school. Following his sibling’s lead, he enrolled in the Gaiety School of Drama in Dublin.

At the age of 20 Colin had a successful audition for an Irish TV series called “Ballykissangel” and dropped out of Gaiety’s. The tv show gave him enough notoriety and experience to obtain other roles in the U.K. In 1999 he landed a role in “The War Zone” and a tv series called “Love in the Twentieth Century”.

In the year 2000 Colin portrayed a young drifter named Bozz in the movie “Tigerland”. The film was not a big money maker, but Colin’s portrayal of a roughneck Texan named Bozz got noticed.

Colin’s next movie “American Outlaws” in 2001 was a flop, but Colin continued to get more roles. He married and divorced Amelia Warner that year.

In 2002 he played in “Minority Report”, “Phone Booth”, and “Hart’s War”. He was 22 that year and earned the reputation of Hollywood’s A-list young actors.

His girlfriend, model Kim Bordenave, gave birth to their son on September 12, 2003. They named him James Padraig. That same year Colin was named one of People Magazine’s 50 most beautiful people, and Company Magazine voted him 6th in “The World’s Sexiest Man of 2003”.

Colin was also extremely busy in 2003. He was in “The Recruit”, “SWAT”, “Daredevil”, “Veronic Guerin”, and “Intermission”.

In the next few years Colin’s popularity continued to grow. In 2004 he took the title role in the Oliver Stone epic “Alexander” which was originally meant for actor Heath Ledger, and in 2005 he played John Smith in the historical film “The New World”. During this time he was treated for exhaustion and prescription drug medication. He checked himself into an undisclosed treatment center for help.

Colin worked alongside Jamie Foxx in “Miami Vice” in 2006, and acted with Salma Hayek and Donald Sutherland in “Ask the Dust”. The next year he was in Woody Allen’s film “Cassandra’s Dream”.

He had a son with Alicia Bachleda on October 7, 2009 and named him Henry Tadeusz. The couple split up on October 15, 2010.

Colin is known as one of Ireland’s hottest acting exports since Liam Neeson. He continues to secure jobs and takes challenging roles. And while he rarely gets roles using his Irish accent, he is proud of his Irish heritage and continues to live in both Dublin and Hollywood.