Michael Sheen

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.
Early this century Sheen began screen acting, focusing on biographical films. For writer Peter Morgan, he starred in a trilogy of films as British prime minister Tony Blair—the 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 Fantabulosa!, 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, Underworld: Rise of the Lycans and The Twilight Saga: New Moon, and in 2010, he made a four-episode guest appearance in the NBC comedy 30 Rock. He appeared in the science-fiction film Tron: Legacy (2010) and Woody Allen's romantic comedy Midnight in Paris (2011). He directed and starred in National Theatre Wales's 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 The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 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 politically engaged, and in 2017 he renounced being an OBE after conducting research on Wales's relationship with England.
Sheen was born on 5 February 1969 in Newport, Monmouthshire, Wales, the son of Irene, a secretary, and Meyrick, a British Steel Corporation personnel manager. He has one younger sister, Joanne. The family had already been living in Llanmartin for seven years prior to his birth. When he was five, the family moved to Wallasey for work, but settled in his parents' home town of Port Talbot, Glamorgan, three years later.
Director Sam Mendes has described Sheen as "a stage creature" and attributed that to the actor's Welsh roots: "I'm serious. He's Welsh in the tradition of Anthony Hopkins and Richard Burton: fiery, mercurial, unpredictable." 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 "so slim".
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. In his teenage years, Sheen was involved with the West Glamorgan Youth Theatre and, later, the National Youth Theatre of Wales. "It was a brilliant youth theatre", Sheen has said, "and it taught me not only a lot about acting, but also about work ethic; it was very disciplined." He was influenced by the performances of Laurence Olivier and the writings of theatre critic Kenneth Tynan, saying "the combination of those two things kind of blew my head off." Sheen was educated at Blaenbaglan Primary School, Glan Afan Comprehensive School and, finally, 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 worked predominantly in theatre in the 1990s and has since remarked that he will always feel "slightly more at home" on stage. "It's more of an actor's medium. You are your own editor, nobody else is choosing what is being seen of you." His first professional role, while still in his third and final year at RADA, was in When She Danced at the Globe Theatre in 1991. He later described the role as "a big break. One day, I was at RADA doing a movement class, the next I was at a read-through with Vanessa Redgrave and Frances de la Tour." Milton Shulman of the Evening Standard praised an "excellent" performance while The Observer wrote of "a notable West End debut". In 1992, Sheen's performance in Romeo and Juliet at the Royal Exchange received a MEN Theatre Award nomination and led theatre critic Michael Coveney to declare him "the most exciting young actor of his generation ... a volatile, electrifying and technically fearless performer". His 1993 turn as Perdican in Alfred de Musset's Don't Fool With Love at the Donmar Warehouse was nominated for the Ian Charleson Award. and was described by The Independent as "quite thrilling". Also in 1993, Sheen appeared in the world premiere of Harold Pinter's Moonlight at the Almeida Theatre and made his television debut in the 1993 BBC mini-series Gallowglass.
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. 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.
At this point in his career Sheen began to devote more time to film work. Heartlands, a little-seen 2002 film about a naive man's road trip in the Midlands, was his first leading film role. While The Guardian dismissed the "cloying bittersweet-regional-lottery-Britfilm", it noted that "Sheen himself has a childlike, Frank Spencer-ish charm". "It was great to do something that was so different", Sheen has said of the role. "I usually play very extreme characters." Also in 2002, he had a minor role in the action-adventure film The Four Feathers. In 2003, Sheen appeared in Bright Young Things, the directorial debut of his Wilde co-star, Stephen Fry. An adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's novel Vile Bodies, the film followed high society partygoers in decadent, pre-war London. Sheen played a gay aristocrat in an ensemble cast which included James McAvoy, Emily Mortimer, David Tennant, Dan Aykroyd, Jim Broadbent and Peter O'Toole. While the Los Angeles Times said he "shone", The Guardian felt the role "drastically under-uses his talents". Sheen described his character as "possibly the campest man in cinema history" and relished a scene "where I do drugs with [a then 95-year-old] Sir John Mills." In other 2003 film work, Sheen portrayed the werewolf leader Lucian in Underworld and made a brief appearance in the sci-fi film Timeline.
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 Independent's 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, he 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 Fantabulosa! 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 H. G. Wells: War with the World and Nero in Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire.
From 2006 to 2007, Sheen starred as the television broadcaster David Frost in Frost/Nixon at both the Donmar Warehouse and Gielgud Theatre in London and the Jacobs Theatre on Broadway. The play, written by Peter Morgan, directed by Michael Grandage and co-starring Frank Langella, was a critical and commercial success but Sheen initially accepted the role as a favour to his friends and "never thought it was going anywhere". The Guardian said the actor "exactly captures Frost's verbal tics and mannerisms while suggesting a nervousness behind the self-assurance". "He's got the voice, the mannerisms, the blaze," said the Financial Times, "but, more than that, Sheen – as viscerally exciting an actor as any in Britain today – shows us the hunger of Frost's ambition .. and fox-like instinct for the hunt and the kill." Sheen was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor and a Drama League Award for Distinguished Performance. Sheen next appeared in the 2007 film Music Within as a political activist with cerebral palsy. He spoke of having a "responsibility" to accurately portray the condition. Variety said his performance was "remarkable.. utterly convincing", USA Today found him "outstanding" while the Los Angeles Times felt he was "reminiscent of Daniel Day-Lewis in My Left Foot, bringing a vibrancy and wit to the role". Also that year, Sheen starred in the short film Airlock, or How To Say Goodbye in Space with Derek Jacobi and was invited to join the actors' branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences.
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 Underworld: Rise of the Lycans, 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 Twilight Saga: New Moon, 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 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 2010, Sheen had a supporting role in the science fiction sequel Tron: Legacy. Referring to his David Bowie-esque character, Sheen has said, "I was paid to show off basically". The Wall Street Journal found little fun in the movie "except for a gleefully campy turn by Michael Sheen" while The New York Times said he "shows up to deliver the closest thing to a performance in the movie". The Daily Telegraph felt his "lively hamming as a cane-swishing nightclub owner merely underlines how impersonal—how inhuman—much else here is". However, USA Today felt his "scenery-chewing performance ... is meant as comic relief, but this movie thunders along so seriously that the attempt at humor feels jarring". In other 2010 film work, Sheen voiced Nivens McTwisp, the White Rabbit, in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland and Dr. Griffiths in Disney's Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue and appeared as a terrorist in Unthinkable. On television, Sheen's performance in the third instalment of Peter Morgan's Blair trilogy, The Special Relationship, was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor – Miniseries or Movie. The HBO film examined the "special relationship" between the US and the UK in the political era of Blair and Bill Clinton. It was the sixth collaboration between Sheen and Peter Morgan; both parties have since said they will not work together again "for the foreseeable future". Sheen also made a guest appearance in four episodes of NBC's 30 Rock as Wesley Snipes, a love interest for Tina Fey's Liz Lemon. Fey, the sitcom's star and creator, has said that "he was so funny and delightful to work with". In November 2010, Sheen received the BAFTA Britannia Award for British Artist of the Year.
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 Independent's 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 Theatre Awards UK 2011. In 2013, Sheen won Best Actor at Welsh BAFTA 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 The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 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 The Twilight Saga.
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 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 Welsh BAFTA Award 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.
In May 2019 Sheen starred alongside David Tennant in Good Omens, based on the novel of the same name written by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman and was cast as Chris Tarrant in the TV adaptation of James Graham's stage play Quiz. From September 2019 through May 2021, Sheen played the role of Martin Whitly in the American television series Prodigal Son on Fox. In April 2020, Quiz was shown on ITV. On 14 April, when the ITV channel broadcast the second instalment, the continuity announcer introduced him as "Martin Sheen", a different actor. Sheen reacted to this by changing his Twitter handle to "Martin Sheen". In June 2020, Sheen starred alongside David Tennant again in a six-part television lockdown comedy entitled Staged, which was made using video-conferencing software. A second eight-episode series started airing in January 2021. In June 2021, Sheen returned to the London stage, after its protracted period of Covid-19 shutdown, in Dylan Thomas's Under Milk Wood in the Olivier Theatre at the National Theatre. A new production of Amadeus, scheduled for December 2022 at the Sydney Opera House, was announced in July 2022 with Sheen as Salieri. Sheen won Best Performer in a Play at the 2023 BroadwayWorld Australia – Sydney Awards for his performance.
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 program currently being filmed in Edinburgh.
From 19 February to 4 March 2024 Sheen directed and starred in a three-part television series called The Way on BBC One and BBC iPlayer. From February to June 2024, Sheen performed on stage as Aneurin Bevan in Nye, a play written by Tim Price and directed by Rufus Norris. The play ran in the Royal National Theatre from 24 February until 11 May, and at the Wales Millennium Centre from 18 May to 1 June. Sheen was nominated for Best Performer in a Play at the 2025 WhatsOnStage Awards for this role. Following a sell-out run in 2024, Sheen will reprise his role as Aneurin Bevan in the play Nye in 2025. The second run will be at the Royal National Theatre from 3 July to 16 August 2025, and at the Wales Millennium Centre from 22 to 30 August 2025.
In April 2024, Sheen guested on BBC's The Assembly for Autism Acceptance Week, and was praised for his "heartwarming" interaction with neurodivergent journalists. Sheen answering a question from journalist Leo was nominated for TV Moment of the Year at the Edinburgh TV Festival 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.
A Very Royal Scandal was released on 19 September 2024 on the streaming service Amazon Prime Video.
On 10 January 2025, Sheen announced that he had launched a new national theatre for Wales named Welsh National Theatre after the National Theatre Wales was forced to close due to the company's £1.6m funding from the Arts Council of Wales being cut. He would personally fund the Welsh National Theatre from the outset as well as taking on the role of artistic director.
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 2 years setting up a debt acquisition company. The program 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 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.
In June 2025, Sheen's debut picture book on homelessness called A Home for Spark the Dragon will be published by Puffin Books. £1 from every hardback sale and 50p from every paperback sale of the book in the UK and Ireland will be donated to the national housing and homelessness charity Shelter. Speaking about the book, Sheen said: “I feel very fortunate that I got to grow up in a safe and happy home, but knowing that, for many people, this isn’t the case, has increasingly made me want to do what I can to help. I’ve always believed that telling stories is an important way to make change in the world, and, in the long run, stories for children can make the most change of all. For these reasons, I wanted to try to tell a story for young readers about a character who loses their home. Working together with storyteller Jess Webb and illustrator Sarah Massini, I created Spark the Dragon, his animal friends, a magical woodland world and a quest to find a new place to call home. I hope Spark’s adventure is fun to read, and, at the same time, that his story gives a way in for young readers to talk about what it is to be homeless – and to start to think about ways to make a difference. I’m proud to be publishing Spark’s story in partnership with the charity Shelter, supporting the important work they do to fight the housing emergency.”
Sheen is honorary president of Wales Council for Voluntary Action, the lead national body for the voluntary sector in Wales. Accepting the role he explained, "I plan to use my role to actively challenge and support WCVA in their impact and role in supporting the community and keeping us focused on what matters locally as well as the need for national leadership". He is also an ambassador for TREAT Trust Wales, and is the Welsh ambassador of Into Film, a charity which offers after-school film clubs to state primary and secondary schools in an effort to improve literacy levels. He is also an ambassador of the environmental charity Keep Wales Tidy.
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 Soccer Aid 2010 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 June 2025, Sheen's debut picture book on homelessness called A Home for Spark the Dragon will be 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.
Sheen is known for political and social activism. Examples include campaigning against high-cost credit agreements, crises in local journalism and describing himself as a not-for-profit actor due to his contributions to social causes.
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, 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 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.
In September 2022, Sheen's stirring motivational speech for the Wales football team ahead of the 2022 FIFA World Cup on A League of Their Own went viral. 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 devolving 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.
Sheen was in a relationship with English actress Kate Beckinsale from 1995 until 2003. They met when cast in a touring production of The Seagull in early 1995, and began living together shortly afterwards. Their daughter Lily Mo was born in 1999 in London. Their relationship ended in January 2003, soon after the couple moved to Los Angeles. Beckinsale had persuaded director Len Wiseman to cast Sheen in Underworld; but while on set, she and Wiseman began a relationship, and subsequently married in 2004.
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.
Sheen now lives in Port Talbot, Wales with his current partner, actress Anna Lundberg. The couple have two daughters together, born September 2019 and May 2022.
He is a supporter of Swansea City A.F.C.
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 British state, 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.
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 and Cardiff University, 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.
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 AudioBooks: 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 player 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.