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Michael Christopher Sheen (born 5 February 1969) is a Welsh actor. After training at London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), he worked mainly in theatre throughout the 1990s with stage roles in Romeo and Juliet (1992), Don't Fool with Love (1993), Peer Gynt (1994), The Seagull (1995), The Homecoming (1997), and Henry V (1997). He received Olivier Awards nominations for his performances in Amadeus (1998) at the Old Vic, Look Back in Anger (1999) at the National Theatre and Caligula (2003) at the Donmar Warehouse.
In the 2000s Sheen began screen acting, focusing on biographical films. For writer Peter Morgan, he starred in a trilogy of films as British prime minister television film The Deal in 2003, The Queen (2006), and The Special Relationship (2010)earning him nominations for both a BAFTA Award and an Emmy. He was also nominated for a BAFTA as the troubled comic actor Kenneth Williams in BBC Four's 2006 , and was nominated for a fourth Olivier Award in 2006 for portraying the broadcaster David Frost in Frost/Nixon, a role he revisited in the 2008 film adaptation of the play. He starred as the controversial football manager Brian Clough in The Damned United (2009).
Since 2009, Sheen has had a wider variety of roles. In 2009, he appeared in two fantasy films, and , and in 2010, he made a four-episode guest appearance in the NBC comedy 30 Rock. He appeared in the science-fiction film (2010) and Woody Allen's romantic comedy Midnight in Paris (2011). He directed and starred in National Theatre Wales' The Passion. From late 2011 until early 2012, he played the title role in Hamlet at the Young Vic. He played a lead role in in 2012. In 2013, he received a Golden Globe nomination for his role in Showtime's television drama Masters of Sex.
Sheen played an incarcerated serial killer surgeon in Fox's drama series Prodigal Son (2019–2021), Aziraphale in the BBC/Amazon Studios fantasy comedy series Good Omens (2019–present), and appeared as Chris Tarrant in Quiz (2020). He played himself in the quarantine comedy show Staged (2020–2022) with his friend and Good Omens co-star David Tennant throughout the COVID-19 lockdown. Sheen is known for his political and social activism, and renounced his OBE in 2017.
A keen footballer, Sheen was scouted and offered a place on Arsenal's youth team at the age of 12, but his family was unwilling to relocate to London. He later said he was grateful for his parents' decision, as the chances of forging a professional football career were slight.
Sheen was raised in a theatrical family; his parents were both involved in local amateur operatics and musicals and, later in life, his father worked as a part-time professional Jack Nicholson lookalike, which took him across the world and as an after-dinner speaker. In his teenage years, Sheen was involved with the West Glamorgan Youth Theatre and, later, the National Youth Theatre of Wales. He was influenced by the performances of Laurence Olivier and the writings of theatre critic Kenneth Tynan.
In 1984, at the age of 15, Sheen, along with his friend Charles Uzzell-Edwards and Charles' father John Uzzell Edwards, helped salvage the iron and steel gate leading to the terrace of Dylan Thomas Boathouse in Laugharne; they discovered it stuck in the mud below the boathouse during a walk and dug it out. The gate was kept in the Uzzell-Edwards family garden before Charles auctioned it off at a 2014 event marking the 100th anniversary of Dylan Thomas birth.
Sheen was educated at Blaenbaglan Primary School, Glan Afan Comprehensive School and then Neath Port Talbot College, where he sat A-levels in English, drama, and sociology.
He considered studying English at university but instead decided to attend drama school. He moved to London in 1988 to train as an actor at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), having spent the previous year working in a Welsh fast-food restaurant called Burger Master to earn money. Sheen was granted the Laurence Olivier Bursary by the Society of London Theatre in his second year at RADA. He graduated in 1991 with a BA in Acting.
Sheen played the title role in Peer Gynt in 1994. The Yukio Ninagawa production was staged in Oslo, Tokyo and at the Barbican Centre, London. The Times praised Sheen's "astonishing vitality" while The Independent found him "sensationally good" and noted that "the Norwegian press were grudgingly captivated by the mercurial Welsh boyo". In other 1994 work, Sheen appeared in Le Livre de Spencer at the Odéon-Théâtre de l'Europe, Paris and starred in the cross-dressing farce Charley's Aunt at the Royal Exchange. In 1995, he appeared opposite Kate Beckinsale in a production of The Seagull at the Theatre Royal, Bath and, with the encouragement of Thelma Holt, directed and starred in The Dresser at the Theatre Royal, Plymouth. In addition, Sheen made his film debut that year, appearing opposite Kenneth Branagh in Othello. 1996 saw Sheen at the National Theatre for The Ends of the Earth, an original play by David Lan. A minor role in Mary Reilly marked the first of three film collaborations with director Stephen Frears. Sheen's most significant appearance of 1997 was the title role in Henry V, staged by the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) at their Stratford-upon-Avon theatre, which earned him a second Ian Charleson Award nomination. The Times praised "a blisteringly intelligent performance". Also in 1997, he appeared in a revival of Harold Pinter's The Homecoming at the National Theatre, directed by Roger Michell, and directed Badfinger, starring Rhys Ifans, at the Donmar Warehouse. The latter was staged by the Thin Language Theatre Company, which Sheen had co-founded in 1991, aiming to further Welsh theatre. He then appeared in the biographical film Wilde, playing Robbie Ross to Stephen Fry's Oscar Wilde. In early 1998 Sheen formed a production company, The Foundry, with Helen McCrory and Robert Delamere to promote the work of emerging playwrights, and produced A Little World of Our Own at the Donmar Warehouse, which gave Colin Farrell his West End debut.
From 1998 to 1999, Sheen starred as Mozart in a successful revival of Amadeus. The Peter Hall-directed production was staged at the Old Vic, London, and later transferred to the Music Box on Broadway theatre. Ben Brantley, chief theatre critic for The New York Times, was particularly vocal in his praise. He noted that "Mr. Sheen elicits a real poetry from the role" and felt that, while watching him, "you start to appreciate the derivation of the term star. This actor is so luminous it's scary!" The Independent found him "quite stunning as Mozart. His fantastically physical performance convinces you of his character's genius and the play catches fire whenever he's on stage." Sheen was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award for Best Supporting Performance and an Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Actor. In 1999, Sheen explored the role of Jimmy Porter in the National Theatre's production of Look Back in Anger. In 2003, Sheen described the production as "the most enjoyable thing I've ever done ... everything came together". "Sheen has cornered the market in explosive energy", said The Independent, "but this thrilling performance is his finest yet." The Financial Times noted: "As Jimmy Porter, a role of staggering difficulty in every way, Michael Sheen gives surely the best performance London has yet seen from him ... You hang on every word he utters ... This is a dazzlingly through-the-body performance." He was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor and an Evening Standard Award for Best Actor.
Sheen returned to the stage in 2003 to play the title role in Caligula at the Donmar Warehouse, directed by Michael Grandage. It was the first of just three stage appearances during the 2000s; his young daughter was now based in Los Angeles which made more frequent stage runs in Britain impractical. The Independents critic declared it "one of the most thrilling and searching performances I have ever witnessed" and The Daily Telegraph described him as an "outrageously charismatic actor" with "an astonishing physical presence". The Times praised a "riveting performance" and The Guardian found him "highly impressive ... at one point he attacks his court poet with a single hair-raising leap across a chair and table". Sheen won an Evening Standard Award for Best Actor and a Critics' Circle Theatre Award for Best Actor, and was again nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor.
Sheen's breakthrough role was as British politician Tony Blair in 2003's The Deal. The Channel 4 film explored the so-called Granita pact made by Tony Blair and Gordon Brown prior to the 1994 Labour Party leadership election, and was the actor's first collaboration with screenwriter Peter Morgan. Director Stephen Frears cast him because "he was in Mary Reilly and I knew he was brilliant." Filmed while he was playing Caligula nightly on stage, Sheen has remarked, "It's interesting that in searching for monsters to play, you often end up playing leaders." The Daily Telegraph praised his "earnest, yet steely, portrayal" while The Guardian found him "excellent. This is intelligent and honest casting." In 2004, Sheen starred in ITV's Dirty Filthy Love, a comic film about a man dealing with OCD and Tourette's after a marital separation. Sheen spoke of "treading a fine line" because "a lot of the symptoms are intrinsically comical". He was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Television Actor and a RTS Best Actor Award. Also in 2004, Sheen played a pompous rock star in the romantic comedy Laws of Attraction and produced and starred in The Banker, which won a BAFTA Award for Best Short Film.
In 2005, Sheen starred in the National Theatre's production of The UN Inspector, a David Farr adaptation of The Government Inspector. The Times wrote of "a scathingly brilliant and inventive performance" while Variety noted that the actor "adds comic finesse to his apparently ceaseless repertoire". The Evening Standard, while conceding that the performance was "technically brilliant", expressed bemusement as to why "one of the most mercurial and inspiring actors we have seems set on impersonating Rik Mayall throughout". Also that year, Sheen took part in the Old Vic's 24 Hour Play, in which The Daily Telegraph felt he "dazzled". In 2005 film work, Sheen starred in Dead Long Enough, a small-budget Welsh/Irish film, with his longtime friend, Jason Hughes. In addition, he had a supporting role in Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven, made a cameo appearance in The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse and starred in the short film The Open Doors.
Sheen came to international attention in 2006 for his portrayal of Tony Blair in The Queen. The film focused on the differing reactions of the British Royal Family and the newly appointed Prime Minister following the death of Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997; it was Sheen's third collaboration with director Stephen Frears and his second with screenwriter Peter Morgan. He enjoyed reprising his role because Blair, at this point in his career, had "a weight to him that he didn't have before". When asked to discuss his personal opinion of Blair, Sheen admitted that the more time he spent working on the character, the "less opinion" he has of the politician: "Now when I watch him on TV or hear his voice, it's sort of like a cross between a family member, a friend and seeing a really old embarrassing video of yourself." Peter Travers of Rolling Stone praised "a sensational performance, alert and nuanced" while Empire spoke of an "uncanny, insightful performance". Sheen was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. His second film appearance of 2006 was a supporting role in Blood Diamond as an unscrupulous diamond dealer.
Also in 2006, Sheen starred as the troubled English comic actor Kenneth Williams in BBC Four's In preparation for the role, he lost two and a half stone (approx. 35 lbs), studied archival footage and read Williams' published diaries. Sheen has said he is "fascinated by finding the private side of the public face". The Times found his performance "mesmerising" while The Observer described it as "a characterisation for which the description tour-de-force is, frankly, pretty faint praise". He won a RTS Award for Best Actor, and received his second BAFTA nomination of 2006, for Best Television Actor. Sheen starred in two other BBC television productions in 2006, playing H. G. Wells in and Nero in .
Sheen reprised the role of David Frost in 2008's Frost/Nixon, a film dramatisation of The Nixon Interviews of 1977. Despite appearing in the original stage production in a part written for him by Peter Morgan, Sheen was surprised to have been cast in the film: "Peter said he'd only be prepared to give the rights to someone who would cast me as Frost, which was very nice, but when the studios get their hands on something... Right up until we started filming I was prepared to be disappointed". Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times asserted that Sheen embodied his character in a "compelling, intense" performance while The Wall Street Journal felt he was "a brilliant actor" who "grows his character from a bright-eyed social butterfly to a gimlet-eyed interrogator". However, The New York Times felt "the likable, watchable Mr. Sheen has been pitted against a scene-stealer" in Frank Langella's Nixon. Frost himself later said it was "a wonderful performance". Sheen was the recipient of the Variety Award at the British Independent Film Awards 2008., while Langella was nominated for an Academy Award.
In 2009, portrayed another public figure; he starred in The Damned United as the outspoken football manager Brian Clough. The Tom Hooper-directed film focused on Clough's disastrous 44-day tenure as manager of Leeds United and marked Sheen's fifth collaboration with writer Peter Morgan. He said Clough is the real-life character he enjoyed playing most. The Guardian, writing in 2009, declared it the "best performance of his big-screen career" while The Times found him "magnificent". Entertainment Weekly asserted that, despite American audiences' unfamiliarity with Clough, "what's lost in translation is recovered easily enough in Michael Sheen's astonishing performance". Variety noted that his "typically scrupulous channelling of Clough gets the tics and mannerisms right, but also carves a moving portrait of a braggart suddenly out of his depth". Also in 2009, Sheen reprised his role as a werewolf in , a prequel to the original film. Of his decision to take part, Sheen has said: "My rule of thumb is that I want to do things I'd like to go and see myself." The New York Times felt he was "the movie's greatest asset ... taking a lively break from his usual high-crust duties to bring wit, actual acting and some unexpected musculature to the goth-horror flick". Variety said he hit "all the right notes in a star-powered performance that will amuse, if not amaze, anyone who only knows the actor as Tony Blair or David Frost" while Richard Corliss of Time noted that he "tries bravely to keep a straight face"
Sheen had a supporting role in 2009's , the second film in the highly popular vampire series. In its review, Rolling Stone said: "Late in the film, a real actor, Michael Sheen, shows up as the mind-reading Aro, of the Italian Volturi vampires, and sparks things up. You can almost hear the young cast thinking, 'Is that acting? It looks hard.' So Sheen is quickly ushered out." While The New York Times said he "preens with plausible menace", USA Today felt that he "plays the character with more high-pitched giddiness than menace". He was named Actor of the Year at GQ magazine's annual Men of the Year ceremony. Sheen made two one-off stage appearances in 2009; he performed a scene from Betrayal as part of a Harold Pinter tribute evening at the National Theatre and performed improvisational comedy as part of The Groundlings' Crazy Joe Show in Los Angeles.
In 2011, Sheen starred in and was creative director of National Theatre Wales's The Passion, a 72-hour secular passion play staged in his hometown of Port Talbot, Wales. In addition to a professional cast, over one thousand local amateurs took part in the performance and as many more volunteers from local charity and community groups were involved in preparations in the months leading up to the play. The event was the subject of both a BBC documentary and The Gospel of Us, a film by director Dave McKean. Sheen has described it as "the most meaningful experience" of his career. The Observer declared it "one of the outstanding theatrical events not only of this year, but of the decade". The Independents critic described it as "the most extraordinary piece of community-specific theatre I've ever beheld". While The Daily Telegraph bemoaned the large-scale production's logistical problems, "overall I found it touching, transformative and, in its own wayward way, a triumph." The Guardian felt it was "so much more than just an epic piece of street theatre..transforming and uplifting". Sheen and co-director Bill Mitchell were jointly honoured as Best Director at the TMA Awards. In 2013, Sheen won Best Actor at BAFTA Cymru for the production.
Sheen's most notable film appearance of 2011 was a supporting role in Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris. Allen noted that "Michael had to do the pseudo-intellectual, the genuine intellectual, the pedant, and he came in and nailed it from the start". Sheen enjoyed playing "someone who's just absolutely got no sense that he's overstepping the mark or that he's being a bore." The film opened the 2011 Cannes Film Festival and became Allen's highest-grossing film to date. Also in 2011, Sheen starred in Beautiful Boy, an independent drama focusing on the aftermath of a school shooting, voiced the enigmatic and mysterious villain House in the Doctor Who episode "The Doctor's Wife" written by his friend Neil Gaiman and made cameo appearances in and Resistance. In 2012 film work, Sheen starred opposite Toni Collette in the independent comedy Jesus Henry Christ and reprised his role as the vampire Aro in the final installment of .
Sheen played the title role in Hamlet at the Young Vic in late 2011 and early 2012, a role he first explored in a 1999 BBC Radio 3 production. While there had been tentative plans over the years for both Peter Hall and Michael Grandage to direct Sheen in the play, he eventually asked Ian Rickson. Rickson's production was set in the secure wing of a psychiatric hospital and featured original music by PJ Harvey. The Evening Standard declared Sheen's performance "an audacious achievement" that "will live in the memory" while The Independent praised "a recklessly brilliant and bravura performance." The Daily Telegraph felt that Sheen "could be right up there among the great Hamlets", were it not for Rickson's "mindlessly modish" staging, while The Times found him "unbearably moving". The Guardian described him as "fascinating to watch ... intelligent, inventive and full of insights ... he delivers the "What a piece of work is a man" passage with a beautiful consciousness of human potential." The Observer declared him an actor "always worth crossing a principality to see and hear" whose To be, or not to be' is a marvel."
In 2013, Sheen appeared in a supporting role as the boyfriend of Tina Fey in the comedy Admission, with Stephanie Zacharek of The Village Voice describing the character as "a whiskery, elfin academic who chuckles to himself as he reads the Canterbury Tales prologue aloud in bed, in Middle English, no less. (Sheen is scarily good at this.)" In 2014, he starred in the fantasy children's film Mariah Mundi and the Midas Box. R. Kurt Osenlund of Slant Magazine said "the ever-versatile Sheen brings an artful hamminess to his role" but Matt Pais of RedEye found him "insufficiently zany" in "a part that Robert Downey Jr. would nail but never accept." His second film role of 2014 was a minor role in the political thriller Kill the Messenger. Also in 2014, he starred in IFC's six-episode The Spoils of Babylon, a television parody of classic, sweeping miniseries, in which he played the husband of Kristen Wiig's character.
In 2015, Sheen starred opposite Carey Mulligan in the romantic drama Far from the Madding Crowd as prosperous bachelor William Boldwood. His performance was well received. Anthony Lane of The New Yorker remarked: "How you prevent such a fellow, crushed by his own decency, from sagging into a bearded Ashley Wilkes is no easy task, yet Sheen succeeds, and Boldwood's brave smile grows dreadful to behold." Ignatiy Vishnevetsky of The A.V. Club found the character "pitiful, and sometimes downright painful to watch. He's not Hardy's Boldwood, but he's a Boldwood. The only sad, genuine moment of the film belongs to him." Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian remarked that Sheen's face "is etched with agony and an awful kind of abject adoration, forever trying to find ways to forgive the loved one in advance for rejection. When Sheen's Boldwood confides to Oak that he feels "grief" you really can feel his pain." Stephanie Zacharek of The Village Voice also referred to the scene where Boldwood expressed his grief, commenting: "Sheen's performance is fine-grained, and the pure Englishness of his understatement is heartrending." Also in 2015, Sheen had well-received comedic television performances in Comedy Bang! Bang!, The Spoils Before Dying and 7 Days in Hell. Mary McNamara of the Los Angeles Times said his television host in 7 Days in Hell was "played with damp lechery and cigarette-ash mastery." Liz Shannon Miller of Indiewire said he may have "stolen the show" while John DeFore of The Hollywood Reporter described him as the "scene-stealer of the bunch".
In February 2015, Sheen joined The Great Comic Relief Bake Off – the charity version of The Great British Bake Off, and won the title "Star Baker" of the episode.
Between 2013 and 2016, Sheen starred in and produced Showtime's Masters of Sex. He and Lizzy Caplan portrayed the 1960s human sexuality pioneers Masters and Johnson; the series chronicled "their unusual lives, romance and pop culture trajectory, which saw them go from a Midwestern teaching hospital to the cover of Time magazine and Johnny Carson's couch". David Sims of The Atlantic described Sheen's portrayal of Masters as "an intensely honest and unsympathetic one" while Sonia Saraiya of The A.V. Club said that Sheen played the role "so seamlessly it's hard to remember that there's a British actor there who has played flamboyant news personalities and prime ministers." Sean T. Collins of The Observer described Masters as "a singularly unappealing figure": "It's not that Michael Sheen is bad in the role. On the contrary! Sheen's skill in playing Masters as an asshole who oscillates between headache-inducing self-repression and volcanic rage renders him unpleasant to spend more than two minutes with at a time." Tim Goodman of The Hollywood Reporter remarked: "Masters has never been very likable. In fact, it's a testament to Sheen's performance— and Caplan's nuanced Johnson offsetting Masters—that anyone still cares what happens to Masters on a personal level." He received a Golden Globe nomination for his performance in late 2013.
In 2016, Sheen had supporting roles in the dramas Nocturnal Animals and Norman, and the science fiction romance Passengers. He also reprised his role as the White Rabbit in the fantasy adventure Alice Through the Looking Glass. Sheen also starred in BBC Wales documentary Michael Sheen: The Fight For My Steel Town and won BAFTA Cymru for News and Current Affairs. In 2017, he had supporting roles in the dramatic comedies Brad's Status and Home Again. In 2018, Sheen was cast as unconventional lawyer Roland Blum in season 3 of television series The Good Fight.
Continuing Sheen's professional partnership with Tennant, a third six-episode series of Staged aired in its entirely on 14 November 2022, while a second six-episode series of Good Omens premiered on 28 July 2023. In June 2023, Sheen starred in BBC One's Best Interests, which won him Best Actor in International Competition at the 2023 Series Mania. In November 2023, Sheen was cast as Prince Andrew, Duke of York for a limited series entitled A Very Royal Scandal. Sheen will continue his partnership with Tennant in the finale episode for Good Omens, a 90-minute programme currently being filmed in Edinburgh.
In April 2024, Sheen guested on BBC's The Assembly for Autism spectrum Acceptance Week, and was praised for his "heartwarming" interaction with Neurodiversity journalists. Sheen answering a question from journalist Leo was nominated for TV Moment of the Year at the Edinburgh TV Festival Awards. The Assembly half-hour special with Sheen won Media Moment at the 2025 Scope Awards.
In June 2024, Sheen joined the BBC Radio 4's environmental documentary podcast Buried Series 2: The Last Witness as the hearsay witness who recorded dead witness Douglas Gowan's final testimony. Along with husband-and-wife journalists Dan Ashby and Lucy Taylor, Sheen investigated the potential harm caused by chemical waste dumped in South Wales following reports from researcher Douglas Gowan, whom Sheen interviewed in 2017 and was mentioned in his 2017 Annual Raymond Williams Memorial Lecture. Buried Series 2: The Last Witness was named the third best podcast of 2024 by The Guardian. The podcast was Short list in the 2025 Amnesty International UK Media Awards for Radio & Podcasts, but did not make it to the list of finalists. Buried: The Last Witness won Grand Award at the 2025 New York Festivals Radio Awards in the Documentary: Environment & Ecology category, won Best Podcast at the 2025 DIG Awards, and was shortlisted in the 2025 True Crime Awards for Podcast: Impact For Change.
A Very Royal Scandal was released on 19 September 2024 on the streaming service Amazon Prime Video.
On 10 March 2025, the documentary Michael Sheen's Secret Million Pound Giveaway was aired on Channel 4, which explains why people are vulnerable to debt spirals, how debt-buying practices work, and how Sheen wrote off £1,000,000 of debt for 900 people in South Wales using £100,000 of his own money by secretly spending two years setting up a debt acquisition company. The programme was well-received and Sheen's heist was hailed as inspiring and "Robin Hood-like", although questions remain as to whether it will get the UK government to pass the Fair Banking Act.
On 2 April 2025, Sheen's Welsh National Theatre (WNT) company revealed plans for their inaugural season with two plays: Thornton Wilder's Our Town told from the Welsh perspective, and a new play by Gary Owen called Owain & Henry, about Owain Glyndŵr's rebellion against the rule of Henry IV of England in the 15th century. Sheen will star in both plays, as Stage Manager and Owain Glyndŵr respectively.
On 18 June 2025, it was announced that the company’s first headquarters will be in Swansea’s civic centre, overlooking the beach of Swansea Bay, where Sheen's theatrical journey began.
Along with WNT, Sheen also founded Welsh Net – a talent scouting network across Wales to find and develop amateur and professional Welsh talent. On 22 September 2025, it was announced that BBC Studios would fund the recruitment of a team of top talent scouts for Welsh Net.
On 25 September 2025, Matthew Rhys announced his return to the Welsh stage from 16 to 28 November 2025 in the acclaimed one-man play Playing Burton, celebrating the 100th anniversary of Richard Burton's birth and raising funds for the Welsh National Theatre.
On 28 September 2025, Sheen was the castaway for BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs. His choices included "Vienna" by Ultravox, "Desire" by Talk Talk from their album Spirit of Eden, "Ready For Drowning" by Manic Street Preachers from This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours, and the title track from Passion by Peter Gabriel.
Sheen is a patron of British charities, including Scene & Heard, NSPCC's Child's Voice Appeal, Healing the Wounds, The Relationships Centre, WGCADA (West Glamorgan Council on Alcohol and Drug Abuse) and Adferiad Recovery, a new organisation providing support for vulnerable people in Wales and their families and carers. He has taken part in a number of charity football matches, including captaining the winning team at Wembley Stadium, as well as appearing in the 2012 and 2014 matches. He is a patron of the British Independent Film Awards, an ambassador for the Dylan Thomas Prize and vice-president of Port Talbot Town F.C. In October 2018, Sheen sponsored a women's football team in Wales.
In 2014 Sheen designed a Shakespeare-themed Paddington Bear statue. Placed outside Shakespeare's Globe, it was one of fifty statues of Paddington located around London prior to the release of the film Paddington, which were auctioned to raise funds for the NSPCC. In 2017, Sheen founded the End High Cost Credit Alliance working to promote more affordable ways to borrow money. That same year Sheen became a Patron of Social Enterprise UK, a charity which supports social projects which benefit local, environmental and co-operative causes. In October 2018, Sheen and Natasha Kaplinsky became vice-presidents (an ambassadorial role) of the Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH). Sheen is a fundraising partner with the non-profit organization, The White Curl, which supports Welsh charities. As of 2023, his campaigns with The White Curl raised over £110,000 for Welsh charities and causes.
In 2019, Sheen sold his own houses to fund the Homeless World Cup in Cardiff when its £2,000,000 funding fell through at the last minute. In 2020, he raised more than £33,000 to help people in Wales whose homes have been hit by flooding in the wake of Storm Dennis.
In 2021, Sheen invested £250,000 of his own money to launch Mab Gwalia(meaning Sons of Wales), a fund to fund community projects in Wales. The organisation currently supports 16 projects, including Mothers Matter, GROW Cymru (Growing Real Opportunities for Women), ASD Rainbows, Cwm Taf People First, Escape Artists North Wales, Street Football Wales, and Mab Gwalia Welsh Drama Student Scholarship programme in partnership with Manic Street Preachers. Each academic year, the Mab Gwalia Welsh Drama Student Scholarship awards up to £15,000 to support up to three eligible students. “Opportunity should not only be available to those who can afford it,” Sheen said. He also funds the Michael Sheen Bursary for Welsh undergraduates at Jesus College, Oxford, pledging £50,000 over five years.
In December 2021, Sheen announced that he would be giving all of his future earnings to charities, declaring himself a "not-for-profit actor". That same year, he co-founded A Writing Chance, which gives new and aspiring writers from working-class and lower-income backgrounds resources and access to the writing industries. The writers and their stories would then be introduced on the Michael Sheen: Margins to Mainstream podcast on BBC Radio Wales.
In October 2024, it was reported that Sheen had used his own money to write off personal debts for hundreds of people in South Wales. On 10 March 2025, the process of Sheen clearing £1,000,000 of debt for 900 people in South Wales with £100,000 of his own money was shown in Channel 4's documentary Michael Sheen’s Secret Million Pound Giveaway.
In May 2025, a literary magazine and online platform called The Bee, an extension of Sheen's earlier project A Writing Chance and aims to "fight the increasing marginalisation of working-class writers, and of working-class people in publishing", was launched.
On 20 May 2025, Sheen was listed in Time 100 Most Influential People in Philanthropy 2025 by Time magazine.
On 5 June 2025, Sheen's debut picture book on homelessness called A Home for Spark the Dragon was published in association with the homelessness charity Shelter. Publisher Puffin Books and Sheen will donate £1 from every hardback sale and 50p from every paperback sale of the book in the UK and Ireland.
On 18 October 2013, Sheen published a full-page open letter to the local newspaper the South Wales Argus, in which he strongly condemned the "absurd and tragic" demolition of the Chartist Mural. On 2 November 2013, he spoke at a conference in Newport, and was invited by city council leader Bob Bright to advise a committee on a proposal to replace the mural. 6 years later, on 4 November 2019, exactly 180 years since the Newport Rising, a new mural that is a replica of the original was unveiled in Newport.
On 24 February 2015, to mark the 175th anniversary of the Chartist Rising in Newport, Sheen made the BBC Cymru Wales's documentary Michael Sheen's Valleys Rebellion. In it, he retraced the journey of 20,000 Chartism who walked from the Gwent Valley to the centre of Newport, exploring Welsh attitudes to politics and social change in 2014, and why ordinary people and politicians seemed so far apart. Michael Sheen's Valleys Rebellion was nominated for Best Single Documentary and Sheen himself was nominated for Best Presenter at the 2015 BAFTA Cymru. The documentary was also nominated for a Torc Award at the 2016 Celtic Media Festival.
On 1 March 2015, Sheen joined the People’s March for the NHS in Tredegar, the birthplace of the founder of the NHS Aneurin Bevan, and gave a speech on the importance of the NHS and the welfare state to a civilised, equal and compassionate society, opposing the privatisation of the NHS and opposing Conservative's austerity cuts to the UK's health service. His NHS speech went Viral video, with many posting and sharing clips of him speaking at the march, lauding him as "an upcoming face in politics". When asked by BBC News if he was surprised by the reaction to the speech, Sheen said: "I didn't know it was being filmed. It was a cold and very wet day. The fact that anyone turned up at all was amazing and that they stayed around was amazing." Sheen also told BBC News that he was not affiliated to any political party and that "they're all doing terrible jobs on the whole", but that he would still speak out about what he witnessed whenever he got the chance.
On 21 December 2015, Sheen started a petition calling on the Welsh Government to put an end to homeless teenagers being put into unsuitable bed and breakfast accommodation on Change.org following news of young people being murdered while staying in B&Bs with potentially dangerous ex-offenders. The petition raised more than 115,000 signatures and Sheen presented the issue directly to the Minister for Communities and Tackling Poverty Lesley Griffiths, who announced in March 2016 that the Welsh Government had issued stricter statutory guidance to local authorities to stop the use of B&B accommodation for 16 and 17 year olds once and for all.
On 8 June 2016, the documentary Michael Sheen: The Fight for My Steel Town was broadcast on BBC One Wales, in which Sheen returned to Port Talbot, the town where he grew up, to see for himself the impact on families of hundreds of jobs lost at the steelworks. Michael Sheen: The Fight for My Steel Town won BAFTA Cymru for News and Current Affairs.
On 3 June 2017, Sheen delivered his Aneurin Bevan Lecture at Hay Festival 2017 about "culture and society and the humane vision and tradition that Bevan inspires".
On 16 November 2017, Sheen spoke at the Annual Raymond Williams Memorial Lecture organised by Learning and Work Institute Wales and Open University in Merthyr, Wales. His lecture "explored themes of Welsh culture and identity, its past and its present and to look again at the question Williams once asked – Who speaks for Wales?", Brexit, the decline of local journalism in Wales, and the environmental threats to Wales from PCBs pollution near Brofiscin Quarry reported by researcher Douglas Gowan. Sheen learned about Gowan's studies when he first read an article on Wikipedia, and was then invited to visit and record a seven-hour interview as evidence for his testimony.
He has made calls for discussions about Welsh independence and has made comments about the institution of the "Prince of Wales" title.
On 8 March 2018, Sheen participated in CARE International UK's March4Women on International Women's Day. He paid tribute to suffragist Keir Hardie and made a speech calling for gender equality.
In July 2022, Sheen made a documentary with BBC Wales Investigates called Michael Sheen: Lifting the Lid on the Care System about the experiences of children in care and found that homeless young people are still staying in B&Bs and sleeping rough, six years after the Welsh government said it wanted to eradicate the practice.
In September 2022, Sheen's stirring motivational speech for the Wales national football team ahead of the 2022 FIFA World Cup on A League of Their Own went Viral video. He was then invited into the Welsh camp's inner circle to deliver a team talk to coach Rob Page and the players.
In January 2024, Sheen showed support to a cross-party campaign of Plaid Cymru and Welsh Labour focused on Devolution the Crown Estate to Wales.
In May 2024, Sheen joined series 2 of BBC Radio 4's award-winning podcast Buried, called Buried: The Last Witness, as the hearsay witness who recorded dead witness Douglas Gowan's final testimony. Together with presenters and investigative journalists Dan Ashby and Lucy Taylor, Sheen conducted a field investigation in South Wales and discovered the lasting impact of 'forever chemicals' on the environment, food chain and communities, and issued a warning for the future.
In October 2024, Sheen called for a Fair Banking Act to help tackle the unaffordable credit crisis in the UK. On 10 March 2025, in his Channel 4 documentary Michael Sheen’s Secret Million Pound Giveaway, he paid off the debts of 900 people in South Wales using his own money while continuing to call on the UK government to enact the Fair Banking Act.
In 2025, Sheen became ambassador for Calon Afan - a community Interest company researching and promoting the lesser-known histories of Port Talbot and the River Afan.
Sheen had a long-distance relationship with English ballet dancer Lorraine Stewart from late 2004 until mid-2010. He dated Canadian actress Rachel McAdams from autumn 2010 to early 2013 and American comedian and actress Sarah Silverman from early 2014 to early 2018. He was also in a relationship with Irish comedian and actress Aisling Bea at some point.
Sheen moved from Los Angeles back to his home town of Port Talbot, Wales, around 2018. He revealed in 2019 that he was in a relationship with Swedish actress Anna Lundberg, who is 25 years younger than him. She appeared as herself in Staged, and the couple have appeared together on Gogglebox. They have two daughters together, born in September 2019 and May 2022.
He is a supporter of Swansea City. After the death of his father Meyrick in 2025, Sheen described him as "an extraordinary character" and said he and his family had received "an outpouring of love and messages".
Awards and recognition
Theatre awards
Manchester Evening News Theatre Awards
1992 Best Actor Romeo and Juliet
Ian Charleson Award
1993 Commendation Don’t Fool with Love 1997 Special Commendation Henry V
Laurence Olivier Awards
1998 Best Supporting Performance Amadeus 1999 Best Actor Look Back in Anger 2003 Caligula 2006 Frost/Nixon
Outer Critics Circle Awards
1999 Outstanding Actor Amadeus
Evening Standard Theatre Awards
1999 Best Actor Look Back in Anger 2003 Caligula
Critics Circle Theatre Awards
2003 Best Actor Caligula
Drama League Awards
2007 Distinguished Performance Frost/Nixon
UK Theatre Awards
2011 Best Director The Passion
BroadwayWorld Australia - Sydney Awards
2023 Best Performer in a Play Amadeus
WhatsOnStage Awards
2025 Best Performer in a Play Nye
Screen awards
Royal Television Society Awards
2004 Best Actor Dirty Filthy Love 2006 Fantabulosa!
British Academy Television Awards
2005 Best Actor Dirty Filthy Love 2007 Fantabulosa! 2021 Best Supporting Actor Quiz
British Academy Film Awards
Broadcasting Press Guild Award
2006 Best Actor in a Supporting Role The Queen +
!Year
!Category
!Nominated work(s)
!Result
!Ref. 2007 Best Actor Fantabulosa!, and
Chicago Film Critics Association Awards
2006 Best Supporting Actor The Queen
Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards
2006 Best Supporting Actor The Queen
New York Film Critics Online
2006 Best Supporting Actor The Queen
Kansas City Film Critics Circle Awards
2006 Best Supporting Actor The Queen
Toronto Film Critics Association Awards
2006 Best Supporting Actor The Queen
Utah Film Critics Association Awards
2006 Best Supporting Actor The Queen
International CinePhile Society Awards
2007 Best Supporting Actor The Queen
St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association Awards
2007 Best Supporting Actor Music Within
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BAFTA Cymru
Celtic Media Festival
2016 Torc Award Michael Sheen's Valley's Rebellion
Evening Standard British Film Awards
2008 Best Actor Frost/Nixon
London Film Critics Circle Awards
2008 British Actor of the Year Frost/Nixon
Screen Actors Guild Awards
2008 Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture Frost/Nixon 2012 Midnight in Paris
British Independent Film Awards
2008 Variety Award
Valenciennes International Festival of Action and Adventure Films
2009 Best Actor Frost/Nixon
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GQ Magazine
2009 Actor of the Year
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[[Satellite Awards
2009 Best Actor - Motion Picture The Damned United 2014 Best Actor in a Drama Series Masters of Sex
[[Digital Spy Movie Awards/" itemprop="url" title="Wiki: Digital Spy">Digital Spy
2009 Actor of The Year
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Emmy Awards
2010 Outstanding Lead Actor - Miniseries or a Movie The Special Relationship
OFTA Television Awards
2010 Best Actor in a Motion Picture or Limited Series The Special Relationships Best Actor in a Comedy Series 30 Rock 2020 Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture or Limited Series Quiz
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[[Britannia Awards
2010 British Artist of the Year
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[[Empire Cinemas Alternative Movie Awards
2013 Best Film Villain
Golden Globe Awards
2013 Best Actor - Television Series Drama Masters of Sex
Critics’ Choice Television Awards
2014 Best Actor in a Drama Series Masters of Sex
Fright Meter Awards
2018 Best Supporting Actor Apostle
Variety Club Showbiz Awards
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!Year
!Category
!Nominated work
!Result
!Ref. 2009 Film Actor of the Year Frost/Nixon and The Damned United
Saturn Awards
2019 Best Supporting Actor in a Streaming Presentation Good Omens
Tell-Tale TV Awards
2020 Favorite Actor in a Limited Series or TV Movie Good Omens 2024 Favorite Performer in a Sci-Fi / Fantasy / Horror Series
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Series Mania
2023 Best Actor in International Competition Best Interests
[[TV Choice Awards/" itemprop="url" title="Wiki: TV Choice">TV Choice
2024 Best Actor Best Interests 2025 Best Drama Performance A Very Royal Scandal
ASTRA Television Awards
2024 Best Actor in a Streaming Comedy Series Good Omens
Edinburgh TV Festival Awards
2024 TV Moment of The Year Leo has a question for Michael Sheen - The Assembly
National Television Awards
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!Year
!Category
!Nominated work
!Result
!Ref. 2025 Best Drama Performance A Very Royal Scandal
Scope Awards
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!Year
!Category
!Nominated work
!Result
!Ref. 2025 Media Moment The Assembly
Literary awards
Audio Production Awards
2018 Audiobook Narrator of the Year La Belle Sauvage
British Book Awards
2018 Audiobook of the Year La Belle Sauvage
CAMEO Awards
2019 Book to Audio La Belle Sauvage
CAMEO Awards USA
2019 Book to Audio La Belle Sauvage
New York Festival Radio Awards
2019 Best Narration - Solo La Belle Sauvage 2020 Best Narration - Solo The Secret Commonwealth
Odyssey Award
2018 Excellence in Audiobook Production La Belle Sauvage Honor
Earphones Awards
2019 AudioFile Earphones Award The Secret Commonwealth
Philanthropy awards
Return of OBE
Sheen was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2009 New Year Honours for his services to drama. In 2020, Sheen revealed, during an online interview with Owen Jones, that he had "handed back" the medal after doing research for a lecture on the relationship between Wales and the United Kingdom, saying "I didn't mean any disrespect but I just realised I'd be a hypocrite if I said the things I was going to say in the lecture about the nature of the relationship between Wales and the British state". Individuals who voluntarily renounce an honour continue to legally hold it unless it is annulled by the monarch.
Other honours
He was awarded the freedom of the borough of Neath Port Talbot, Wales in 2008 for his services in the field of the dramatic arts. He is an Honorary Fellow of the University of Wales, Newport, the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama, Swansea University, Aberystwyth University, Swansea Metropolitan University, Cardiff University, and Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and has been awarded the James Joyce Award by University College Dublin. Sheen was given an Honorary Doctorate as Doctor of Arts by University of Wales in 2013.
List of performances
In addition to theatre, film and television credits, Sheen has also appeared in many radio productions, particularly in the early years of his career. Notable radio play appearances include Strangers on a Train (1994) opposite Bill Nighy, The Importance of Being Earnest (1995) opposite Judi Dench, Romeo and Juliet (1997) opposite Kate Beckinsale, Troy (1998) and The Pretenders (2004) both opposite Paul Scofield. He has narrated six novels for BBC Radio 4 and Naxos Records: Crime and Punishment (1994), The Idiot (1995), The Picture of Dorian Gray (1995), A White Merc With Fins (1997), Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (2011) and The Ocean at the End of the Lane (2013). In 2010, he starred as a chess in the music video for the Manic Street Preachers' single "(It's Not War) Just the End of Love", alongside actress Anna Friel. In 2020, Sheen played a man who discovered that his toaster is magical in the music video for the track "Corner Of My Sky" by Kelly Lee Owens featuring John Cale.
External links
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> Michael Sheen at the British Film Institute
Categories: 1969 Births, 20th-century Welsh Male Actors, 21st-century Welsh Male Actors, Alumni Of The Royal Academy Of Dramatic Art, Critics' Circle Theatre Award Winners, Living People, Officers Of The Order Of The British Empire, People Educated At Glan Afan Comprehensive School, Male Actors From Newport, Wales, Welsh Male Film Actors, British Male Television Actors, Welsh Male Shakespearean Actors, Welsh Male Stage Actors, Welsh Male Radio Actors, Welsh Male Television Actors, Welsh Male Voice Actors, Welsh Nationalists, Welsh Television Producers, People Educated At Neath Port Talbot College
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