Michael Fassbender was born in Heidelberg, Germany, to a German father, Josef, and an Irish mother, Adele (originally from Larne, County Antrim, in Northern Ireland). Michael was raised in the town of Killarney, Co. Kerry, in south-west Ireland, where his family moved to when he was two years old. His parents ran a restaurant (his father is a chef).

Fassbender is based in London, England, and became known in the U.S. after his role in the Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds (2009). In 2011, Fassbender debuted as the Marvel antihero Magneto in the prequel X-Men: First Class (2011); he would go on to share the role with Ian McKellen in X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014). Also in 2011, Fassbender's performance as a sex addict in Shame (2011) received critical acclaim. He won the Volpi Cup for Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival and was nominated for Golden Globe and BAFTA Awards. In 2013, his role as slave owner Edwin Epps in slavery epic 12 Years a Slave (2013) was similarly praised, earning him his first Oscar nomination, for Best Supporting Actor. 12 Years a Slave marked Fassbender's third collaboration with Steve McQueen, who also directed Hunger and Shame. In 2013, Fassbender appeared in another Ridley Scott film, The Counsellor (2013). In 2015, he portrayed Steve Jobs (2015) in the Danny Boyle-directed biopic of the same name, and played Macbeth (2015) in Justin Kurzel's adaptation of William Shakespeare's play. For the former, he has received Academy Award, BAFTA, Golden Globe and SAG nominations for Best Actor. As well as acting, Fassbender produced the 2015 western Slow West (2015), which he also starred in.

Alicia Vikander (14 October 2017 - present)

Trivia

Born in Germany, to a German father and an Irish mother, and was raised in Ireland.
Currently resides in London, England in the same flat that he has owned since he was in his late 20s.
He went on a diet of berries, nuts and sardines for his role in Hunger (2008) for which he lost 33 pounds.
First language is English and second is German.
Has formed his own production company known as Peanut Productions.
He appeared in the music video "Blind Pilots" by the British rock band The Cooper Temple Clause (2003).
The actor's second name - Fassbender (a variant of Fassbinder) - is the German for "cooper", a binder or repairer of casks and barrels.
Has an older sister: Catherine Fassbender, who is a neuropsychologist.
Was the runner-up choice for the role of Doug Quaid in Total Recall (2012), but Colin Farrell was cast instead.
Good friends with Steve McQueen.
He was listed in Time Out's "100 Most Influential People of 2012" and is a member of the Hospital Club.
Shifting between British films and American films, he resides in London, England where he has lived for the last 15 years, while making career-related visits to Los Angeles, California.
He speaks German, though he has stated that he needed to brush up a little on his spoken German before filming Inglourious Basterds (2009), as it was a little rusty. He has also expressed interest in performing in a German-language film or theatre production one day.

You know, I spent a lot of time out of work. Now I'm trying to make hay while the sun is shining.
[on creating his character David in Prometheus (2012) with Ridley Scott] We took inspiration from David Bowie and some of his looks as well. I liked the idea of having a feminine quality to him for sure.
[on his preparation for Hunger (2008)] I felt really focused, really centred, really strong. Hungry all the time, obviously.
We live in this society where nowadays if I want something, I take it, I eat it - it's so easy and readily available. When you take all that away, you actually become more appreciative of the things around you. I don't want to do it again, but there is a level where it humbles you in a good way.
[on portraying hunger-striker Bobby Sands in Hunger (2008)] I lost about 14 kilos and weighed 59 kilos by the end. It was the only way we could do it and make it convincing.
[on why he dropped out of the Drama Center] In drama school, they don't think of movies as a pure form like theater, and it's films that I love most. There's an intimacy in movies - I wanted to have the same impact on others that movies had on me.
[on picking roles] I'm just following my gut instinct.
[on Quentin Tarantino] You know the man eats, breathes, lives film. You could bring up the most obscure movie, like some fuckin' Swedish film from 1963 or whatever and he'll know it. It's quite staggering, actually, he is an encyclopedia of knowledge.
For me, Daniel Day-Lewis is in a league of his own. I think that he's amazing. And he's always been a benchmark of excellence.
[2011, on what attracted him to Jane Eyre (2011)] It's a classic, and the reason people keep doing it is because there are so many things that seem to still resonate with audiences today. They like to disappear in that world. I did it because my mother and my sister are really big fans of the book, and I wanted to see what they would think of the "Rochester" that I would bring to the table. That's the first reason I wanted to do it. And then when Cary Joji Fukunaga, [director] came on board, I was really excited, because Sin Nombre (2009) was such a good film, such a beautiful story, and so beautifully told. I was like, "This is going to be interesting, an American director coming over and doing his take on this, the classic British piece". I like that the characters are ugly and they're beautiful and they're cruel and they're nurturing. There's so much complexity to the characters, they're so well-written, and I find that interesting. There's ambiguity within the characters, and that's what really attracted me to it, to the performance.