A soft-spoken, fair-skinned actor with startling blue eyes, a penchant for playing volatile characters, and a reluctance to forsake his critically lauded stage career for a life in film, American audiences may best know ****** as the bike courier making his way through infected London in director Danny Boyle's apocalyptic thriller *****. Though the film may have been his first to find wide stateside exposure, he has been appearing onscreen in the U.K. and his native country since 1997. Born in Douglas, Cork, Ireland, in 1974, **** father was a school inspector and his mother a French teacher. Attending school at Presentation Brothers College Cork while intending to enter into a career in law, Murphy was an avid rugby player who was turned on to the {~Concordia Theater}'s unique stage productions in his fourth year. he soon signed up for a workshop with {~Concordia}'s Pat Tiernan and it quickly became apparent that he had a natural flair for the stage.