Early life

O'Dowd was born and raised in Boyle, County Roscommon. His father, Seán, is a graphic designer, and his mother, Denise, is a counsellor and psychotherapist. He is the youngest of five siblings.

He represented Roscommon in Gaelic football at under-16, minor and under-21 level, the highlight being his performance as a goalkeeper in the 1997 Connacht Minor final against Mayo. This was highlighted by his guest appearance on the Sunday Game.

He studied politics and sociology at University College Dublin, and subsequently attended the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. O'Dowd did not obtain a degree from UCD, telling the UCD student newspaper the College Tribune: "I didn't finish my degree. The politics part of it was fine, but I was doing sociology as well and I could never bring myself to find an interest in it." He contributed to The University Observer and was active in UCD Dramsoc and the Literary and Historical Society.

Career

O'Dowd has starred in the United Kingdom in Channel 4's comedy The IT Crowd, BBC Two's Roman's Empire, Red Cap and the award-winning documentary-drama The Year London Blew Up. He has also appeared on Irish television, having starred in the RTÉ One drama The Clinic and the drama Showbands alongside Kerry Katona. 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 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."

O'Dowd starred opposite Sienna Miller in the film Hippie Hippie Shake, which is about the groundbreaking '60s magazine, Oz. The publication was the precursor to a whole generation of lad mags. O'Dowd plays Felix Dennis, who would later become the publisher of Maxim. The story centres on the landmark indecency trial. In preparation for the role, O'Dowd met with Dennis, stating "He was an incredibly charismatic man."

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 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.

O'Dowd had a supporting role in This Is 40, basing his character on people in Hoxton who "wear skinny jeans and hate the world, which comes from an inability to deal with women." He described "fighting over Megan Fox in a pool" during filming as "one of the most fun things I've ever done".

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, currently airing on Sky 1, 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.

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 RTE documentary Man on Bridge.

Personal life

O'Dowd married Dawn Porter in 2012. After their marriage, Dawn changed her surname to O'Porter.

Despite being raised in a Roman Catholic family, O'Dowd has been a lifelong atheist, and has developed an antitheist philosophy as he aged. He has stated that he believes religion will eventually be as widely condemned as racism.

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.

On February 1, 2015, it was announced on Twitter that O'Porter gave birth to a son they named Art O'Porter a week earlier.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2003	Conspiracy of Silence	James
2004	Vera Drake	Sid's customer
2004	Shaun Of The Dead	Zombie
2005	Festival	Tommy O'Dwyer	BAFTA Scotland Award for Best Actor in a Scottish Film
2007	Hotel Very Welcome	Liam
2008	How to Lose Friends & Alienate People	Post Modern Review staff
2009	The Boat That Rocked	"Simple" Simon Swafford
2009	Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel	Ray
2010	Hippie Hippie Shake	Felix Dennis
2010	Dinner for Schmucks	Marco
2010	Gulliver's Travels	General Edward
2011	Bridesmaids	Officer Rhodes	IFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture Nominated—Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Acting Ensemble Nominated—Phoenix Award for Best Ensemble Acting
2011	Friends with Kids	Alex
2012	3,2,1... Frankie Go Boom	Bruce
2012	The Sapphires	Dave	AACTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
2012	This Is 40	Ronnie
2013	Epic	Grub (voice)
2013	The Double	Nurse
2013	Thor: The Dark World	Richard
2014	Calvary	Jack Brennan
2014	Cuban Fury	Drew
2014	St. Vincent	Brother Geraghty
2015	The Program	David Walsh
2016	Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children	Franklin Portman	Post-production
2016	Mascots		Post-production

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2003	Red Cap	Bernie Maddox	Episode: "Crush"
2003-2005	The Clinic	Brendan Davenport	18 episodes Nominated—IFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor in Television
2005	The Year London Blew Up: 1974	Dowd	Television film
2006	Showbands II	Mervin Mooney	Television film Nominated—IFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor in Television
2006	The Amazing Mrs Pritchard	Headmaster	2 episodes
2006	Doc Martin	Jonathan Crozier	Episode: "On the Edge"
2006-2010 2013	The IT Crowd	Roy Trenneman	25 episodes
2007	Roman's Empire	Jase	5 episodes
2009	FM	Lindsay	6 episodes
2010	Little Crackers	Himself / Santa Claus	Episode: "Chris O'Dowd's Little Cracker: Capturing Santa"
2011	The Crimson Petal and the White	William Rackham	4 episodes Nominated—IFTA Award for Best Actor in Television
2011-2012	Family Guy	Butler / Contestant / Guard (voices)	2 episodes
2012-2013	Girls	Thomas John	5 episodes
2012-2015	Moone Boy	Sean Murphy	18 episodes; Also creator, writer, executive producer and director International Emmy Award for Best Comedy Series IFTA Award for Best Entertainment Programme Nominated—Broadcasting Press Guild Award for Best Multichannel Programme Nominated—IFTA Award for Best Script Drama Nominated—IFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor in Television Nominated—IFTA Award for Best Actor in Television
2013-2014	Monsters vs. Aliens	Dr. Cockroach (voice)	26 episodes
2013	Family Tree	Tom Chadwick	8 episodes
2015-present	Puffin Rock	Narrator

Stage

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2014	Of Mice and Men	Lennie Small	Longacre Theatre Nominated—Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play Nominated—Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Play

Books

• Moone Boy: The Blunder Years, Chris O'Dowd and Nick V. Murphy (2015)
• Moone Boy: The Fish Detective,Chris O'Dowd and Nick V. Murphy (2016)

[ Source: Wikipedia ]