For 39-year-old New York City native Kieran Culkin, this year’s Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actor-Television marks a wonderful moment in his career but is not the first one in his young and brave trajectory. This is his fourth Golden Globe nomination, the third for the role of Roman Roy in the Golden Globe-winning drama series Succession. Previously Culkin had previously been nominated in 2019 and 2020.
Born in 1982, he had his first acting gig in a feature film as Fuller McAllister in 1990 Home Alone, a global hit headlined by his older brother, Macaulay. He kept on working as a child and teenage actor for several years, costarring with Golden Globe nominee Steve Martin in Father of the Bride, in 1991. He worked with Rosanna Arquette in the crime action Nowhere to Run, in 1992. He turned the century having already worked with Golden Globe nominee Charlize Theron in the drama The Cider House Rules, with the Golden Globe winners Sharon Stone in the coming-of-age dramedy The Mighty, with Meryl Streep in the drama Music of the Heart. In 2002, Kieran Culkin received a lead role that brought him critical and audience acclaim in 2002. As Igby, opposite Golden Globe winner Claire Danes in 2002 Burr Steers’ comedy-drama Igby Goes Down, this talented and diligent actor earned his first Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor-Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, at the age of 19.
In the early 2000s, Culkin’s theater career commenced with The Moment When in New York. He followed it with This Is Our Youth, a 2003 production by London’s Garrick Theatre. The play, written by Kenneth Lonergan and set in 1980s Manhattan, was the first collaboration between Culkin and Lonergan. Almost a decade later, Culkin returned to this story about privilege and youthful nihilism, this time around in a different role: his performance drew rave reviews and made him a star of the play in three consequent productions: at the Sydney Opera House in 2012, on the stages of the Chicago Steppenwolf Theater, and by Cort Theater of New York, in 2014.
Culkin’s acting credits also include Paper Man, starring Golden Globe nominee Ryan Reynolds, and Golden Globe winner Emma Stone (2009). He starred in Edgar Wright’s Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010) and revisited the humanism of Kenneth Lonergan in Margaret, in 2011. This year, apart from a riveting season turn on Succession, he had a role in No Sudden Move, by Steven Soderbergh.
In 2015 Culkin appeared in two episodes of the Fargo series. Since 2018 he has been playing the youngest of Logan Roy’s clan, in the HBO hit Succession. Culkin shines under the general tone of satire and high drama about corporate power. Interestingly, back in 2016, the casting director of the show wanted Culkin to read for the role of Cousin Greg. Our Golden Globe nominee did something else instead. He put three Roman scenes on tape and sent them in. Three Golden Globe nominations later, he still drives the conversation.