Despite acting since 2001 it's the last couple of years that has brought Michael Fassbender to the big time.
He returns to the big screen this week in Quentin Tarantino's World War II movie Inglourious Basterds in the role of Lt. Archie Hicox.
He made his breakthrough in 2001 when he appeared in Steven Spielberg's epic war Second World War drama Band of Brothers as Burton 'Pat' Christenson.
Off the back of this he varied his work as he moved between radio dramas, theatre work and more television appearances.
Over the next couple of years he worked on a string of UK television shows including Holby City, Gunpowder, treason & Plot, in which he played Guy Fawkes, and Murphy's Law.
In the third series of hard hitting crime drama Murphy's Law he took on the role of Caz Miller in five episodes of the series.
But by 2007 he had moved into movies and 300 looked like it was his breakthrough. An adaptation of Frank Miller's graphic novel Fassbender took on the role of Stelios, a young Spartan soldier.
The movie was a huge hit as it grossed $70,885,301 million, breaking the record held by Ice Age: The Meltdown for the biggest opening weekend in March.
Since his performance in 300 Fassbender has found himself to be super busy as he continued to mix movie and TV work.
But this worked out well for him last year with horror movie Eden Lake and TV drama The Devil's Whore with which he found success.
But it was the movie Hunger for which achieved critical acclaim as is dominated the festival circuit.
Directed by Steve McQueen the film followed Irish prisoner Bobby Sands who led the 1981 hunger strike on Long Kesh prison.
It premiered at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival, winning the prestigious Caméra d'Or award for first-time filmmakers.
Into 2009 and more praise has come his way for British film Fish Tank, the second movie from Andrea Arnold, which won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival this year.
For his latest movie Inglorious Basterds Fassbender joins the likes of Brad Pitt, Diane Kruger, Christoph Waltz and Eli Roth.
Inglourious Basterds begins in German-occupied France, where Shosanna Dreyfus (Mélanie Laurent) witnesses the execution of her family at the hand of Nazi Colonel Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz).
Shosanna narrowly escapes and flees to Paris, where she forges a new identity as the owner and operator of a cinema.
Elsewhere in Europe, Lieutenant Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) organizes a group of Jewish soldiers to engage in targeted acts of retribution.
The future looks bright for the actor with Centurion and Jonah Hex that are due for release next year. The Sweeney, in the role of George Carter, is also in the pipeline.
Inglourious Basterds is out now.
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
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