Daryl McCormack

McCormack was born on 22 January 1993 in Nenagh, County Tipperary.^[1] He is the son of an Irish mother, Theresa McCormack, and an African-American father, Alfred Thomas, from Baltimore.^[2] He maintains a good relationship with the paternal side of his family, especially his grandfather Percy Thomas, who would visit McCormack and take him to the theatre.^[3]

McCormack attended Gaelscoil Aonach Urmhumhan and St. Joseph's CBS. He played basketball and participated in the Choral Society.^[4][5] He went on to study at the Gaiety School of Acting, and at Dublin Institute of Technology's Conservatory of Music and Drama (now TU Dublin Conservatoire) graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in drama 2014.^[6][7][8][9]

McCormack made his West End debut in 2018 as Brendan in The Lieutenant of Inishmore. In his early career, he was almost cast in Star Wars: The Force Awakens.^[10][2][11] In 2019, he starred alongside Olivia Cooke and Ben Hardy in Barnaby Thompson's comedy-thriller film Pixie and joined the cast of Peaky Blinders for its fifth series as Isaiah Jesus.^[6][7][12]

In 2021 he was named as a Screen International star of tomorrow.^[13] He had a recurring role as Aram in the first season of the Amazon Prime fantasy series The Wheel of Time in 2021. In 2022, he starred as Matthew Claffin in Sharon Horgan's Apple TV+ series Bad Sisters and opposite Emma Thompson as the titular character of Sophie Hyde's film Good Luck to You, Leo Grande,^[14][15][16] the latter of which earned him nominations for two British Academy Film Awards and a British Independent Film Award.

In 2023, he starred in Alice Troughton's thriller film The Lesson and the BBC thriller series The Woman in the Wall.^[17][18]

McCormack appeared in Lee Isaac Chung's Twisters in 2024, and in 2025 he had roles in the family thriller Anniversary^[19][20] and in Rian Johnson's Wake Up Dead Man.^[21]