Early life

Cunningham was born in East Wall, which is an inner city area of the Northside of Dublin. He has three sisters and a brother, and was brought up in a Roman Catholic household. Cunningham dropped out of secondary school at 15 and pursued a career as an electrician. In the 1980s, Cunningham moved to Zimbabwe for three years where he maintained electrical equipment at a safari park and trained Zimbabwean electricians. After returning to Ireland, Cunningham became dissatisfied with his work as an electrician and decided to pursue his interest in acting. He attended acting classes and began to work in local theatre. He appeared in a production of "Studs" at The Tricycle Theatre in Kilburn, London.

Career

Cunningham's debut film role came in Into the West, where he played a police officer. His on-screen acting continued with roles in War of the Buttons, and A Little Princess, before making his first major break-out role in Jude, playing Phillotson. He continued with character roles in RKO 281, Falling for a Dancer, Shooting the Past, When the Sky Falls and Stranded. Cunningham came to international prominence with his role as Captain Ryan in the critically acclaimed, independent horror film, Dog Soldiers. Since then, he has starred in acclaimed films roles including, The Wind That Shakes the Barley, Hunger, The Guard, Black Butterflies and The Escapist and in numerous high budget British and American films including The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, Clash of the Titans, Centurion, and Harry Brown. On television, he appeared as President Richard Tate in the BBC programme Outcasts.

In 2012, Cunningham joined the main cast for the second season of HBO's Game of Thrones portraying former smuggler Davos Seaworth, and in 2013 he starred in The Numbers Station alongside John Cusack. He was also cast in season 5 of the BBC series Merlin as a sorcerer. He featured in the music video for "High Hopes" by Irish alternative rock band Kodaline from their EP The High Hopes. In April 2013 he was cast in the seventh season of the hit BBC1 series Doctor Who in the episode Cold War, where he played Captain Zhukov, the commander of a Russian submarine in 1983 facing one of the Ice Warriors. 2015 was Guest of Manchester based Grimmfest.

Personal life

Cunningham currently resides in Dublin with his wife Colette, with whom he has three children, daughter Ellen and sons Liam Jr. and Sean.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1992	Public Toilet		Short film
1992	Heaven Only Knows	Paul Clarke	Short film
1992	Into the West	Police Officer
1993	The Sea		Short film
1994	Undercurrent	Greg Laughton
1994	War of the Buttons	The Master
1995	A Little Princess	Capt. Crewe / Prince Rama
1995	First Knight	Sir Agravaine
1996	Jude'	Phillotson
1997	The Doherty Brothers	Connor Doherty	Short film
1997	The Life of Stuff	Alex Sneddon
1998	The Tale of Sweety Barrett	Detective Bone
1999	A Love Divided	Sean Cloney
2000	When the Sky Falls	John Cosgrave (The Runner)
2001	Revelation	Father Ray Connolly
2001	The Island of the Mapmaker's Wife	John Wyndham
2002	Dog Soldiers	Capt. Ryan
2002	The Abduction Club	John Power
2003	Mystics	Sean Foley
2003	The Crooked Man	Hamilton
2004	The Card Player	John Brennan
2004	Screwback	Harry	Short film
2003	The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse	Director
2005	Breakfast on Pluto	1st Biker
2006	The Wind That Shakes the Barley	Dan
2008	The Escapist	Brodie
2008	Hunger	Father Dominic Moran
2008	Paris Noir	Douglas
2008	The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor	Mad Dog Maguire
2009	Blood: The Last Vampire	Michael Harrison
2009	The Tournament	Powers
2009	Perrier's Bounty	The Mutt
2009	Harry Brown	Sid Rourke
2010	Centurion	Brick
2010	Clash of the Titans	Solon
2010	The Whistleblower	Bill Hynes
2011	Pitch Black Heist	Liam	Short film; also executive Producer
2011	The Guard	Francis Sheehy-Skelfington
2011	Black Butterflies	Jack Cope
2011	The Silence of Joan	The English Captain
2011	War Horse	The Army Doctor
2012	Safe House	Alec Wade
2013	SLR	Elliot	Short film
2013	The Numbers Station	Grey
2014	I Am Here	Father	Short film
2014	Noble	Thomas
2014	Let Us Prey	Six
2015	Ladygrey	Angus
2015	Dusha shpiona	Hillsman
2015	The Childhood of a Leader	The Father
2015	Pursuit	Fionn

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1993	A Handful of Stars	Stapler	Television film
1993	Poor Beast in the Rain	Danger Doyle	Television film
1994-1995	Roughnecks	Chris	13 episodes
1995	Cracker	Stuart Grady	2 episodes
1997	Police 2020	DCI Billy O'Connell	Pilot
1998	Falling for a Dancer	Mossie Sheehan	Television film
1999	Shooting the Past	Christopher Anderson	Television film
1999	Too Rich: The Secret Life of Doris Duke	Alec Cunningham-Reid	Television film
1999	RKO 281	Gregg Toland	Television film
2000	A Likeness in Stone	Bill Armstrong	Television film
2001	Rebel Heart	Michael Malone	Television film
2001	Attila	Theodoric I	2 episodes
2002	Stranded	David Robinson	Television film
2003	Final Demand	David Milner	Television film
2003	Prime Suspect	Robert West	Episode: "Part 1"
2005	Showbands	Tony Golden	Television film
2005	The Clinic	Malcolm Keown	5 episodes
2006	Hotel Babylon	Adrian McBride	Episode #1.8
2006	Showbands II	Tony Golden	Television film
2006	Murphy's Law	Drew Johnstone	3 episodes
2007	Afterlife	Jonathan	Episode: "Your Hand in Mine"
2007	The Wild West	Wyatt Earp	Episode: "The Gunfight at the OK Corral"
2007	Northanger Abbey	General Tilney	Television film
2007	Anner House	Neil Barry	Television film
2007	The Catherine Tate Show	Father	Episode: "Christmas Special"
2009	The Street	Thomas Miller	Episode #3.1
2011	Outcasts	President Richard Tate	8 episodes
2011	Camelot	Colfur	Episode: "Justice"
2011	Strike Back: Project Dawn	Daniel Connolly	2 episodes
2012	Saving the Titanic	Narrator (voice)	Documentary
2012	Titanic: Blood and Steel	Jim Larkin	5 episodes
2012-present	Game of Thrones	Davos Seaworth	Main role
2012	Merlin	Ruadan	2 Episodes
2013	Doctor Who	Captain Zhukov	Episode: "Cold War"
2013	Vera	Sam Harper	Episode: "Prodigal Son"
2015	The Musketeers	Belgard	Episode: "The Prodigal Father"

Video games

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2016	Squadron 42	Captain Noah White	Motion Capture

Music videos

2013

High Hopes'

By Kodaline

Awards and nominations

Year	Film/Television	Award	Result
1999	Falling for a Dancer	Irish Film and Television Award for Best Actor in a Lead Television Role	Nominated
1999	A Love Divided	Irish Film and Television Award for Best Male Actor in a Lead Film Role	Nominated
2006	Showbands II	Irish Film and Television Award for Best Actor in a Lead Role in Television	Nominated
2006	Murphy's Law	Irish Film and Television Award for Best Actor in a supporting Role in Television	Nominated
2006	The Wind That Shakes the Barley	Irish Film and Television award for Best Supporting Actor in a Film	Won
2008	Hunger	London Film Critics' Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor of the Year	Nominated
2008	Hunger	Irish Film and Television Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Film	Won
2008	Hunger	British Independent Film Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Film	Nominated
2012	Pitch Black Heist	BAFTA Award for Best Short Film	Won
2012	The Guard	Irish Film and Television Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Film	Nominated
2014	Game of Thrones	Irish Film and Television Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role - Drama	Nominated
2015	Game of Thrones	Irish Film and Television Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role - Drama	Nominated
2016	Game of Thrones	Irish Film and Television Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role - Drama	Nominated

[ Source: Wikipedia ]