Michael Fassbender

Michael Fassbender? Oh, this guy’s got quite the backstory. Born in Germany but basically raised Irish—his dad’s a chef, his mom’s from Northern Ireland, and the family ran a restaurant down in Killarney. He didn’t waste any time making moves, either. Fassbender’s been knocking around London for a while, but Americans really started paying attention after he showed up in Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds in 2009. That crazy bar scene? Pure gold. 2011 was a wild year for him—first, he put on the Magneto helmet in X: First Class, bringing that complicated Marvel antihero to life, and then he went way off the deep end in Shame, playing a guy with a sex addiction. Critics ate it up, and he snagged the Volpi Cup at Venice, plus a bunch of nominations. Then there’s 12 Years a Slave—Fassbender as Edwin Epps, just vicious. That role got him his first Oscar nod, and it was his third team-up with director Steve McQueen, after Hunger and Shame. Not to mention, he popped up in Ridley Scott’s The Counselor, and then he turned around and played Steve Jobs for Danny Boyle in 2015. That performance pulled in all the big nominations again—Oscars, BAFTA, Golden Globes, SAG, you name it. And he doesn’t just act; he produced and starred in Slow West, a weird little western from 2015. Dude’s got range, no doubt.