The Paper Star Domhnall Gleeson’s TV & Movie Roles from Harry Potter to About Time

There’s a new Editor-in-Chief of the Toledo Truth Teller, and you’ve definitely seen him before.

On Peacock’s new comedy series The Paper, Domhnall Gleeson plays Ned Sampson, the ambitious fresh face at the head of a dying local newspaper. In the mockumentary-style comedy, the same film crew that followed Dunder Mifflin on The Office is now following Ned’s attempts to revive the paper with volunteer reporters.

As the show’s trailer reveals, The Paper’s Ned speaks with an American accent. But in real life, the 42-year-old Tony and Golden Globe-nominated actor who plays him was born in Dublin, Ireland and thus speaks with an Irish accent (hear it in this interview with Graham Norton). Fortunately, Gleeson’s accent work is just as varied and impressive as his acting career, and he’s proven he can play pretty much anyone: Star Wars villain, Weasley brother in the Harry Potter franchise, time traveler, crooked lawyer, and more.

Learn all about Domhnall Gleeson’s acting career below.

Domhnall Gleeson played a Weasley in the Harry Potter movies

In the early years of his career, Gleeson wrote and directed short films while also acting on stage and screen, but his breakout role came when he was cast in the Harry Potter franchise.

In 2010, Gleeson made his wizarding world debut as Bill Weasley in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1. The older brother of Ron, Fred, George, Charlie, and Ginny, he returned from his work with Gringotts Bank to help defeat Voldemort in the final battle. He also married Fleur Delacour (Clémence Poésy) and was mauled by a werewolf leaving him with scars and a love for rare steak.

Gleeson also appeared in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011) and even reprised the role in new footage for the Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts ride at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida.

Domhnall Gleeson walks the carpet of the 80th Annual Golden Globe Awards

Fun fact: Domhnall Gleeson’s father, Brendan Gleeson, also appeared in the Harry Potter film series as Alastor ‘Mad-Eye’ Moody! Watch the complete Harry Potter film series on Peacock anytime.

2010 also saw Domhnall Gleeson star with Andrew Garfield, Carey Mulligan, and Kiera Knightley in the dystopian romance Never Let Me Go.

Domhnall Gleeson starred with Rachel McAdams in About Time

Gleeson starred opposite Rachel McAdams in the 2013 Richard Curtis movie About Time. He stars as Tim, a young romantic who learns from his father (Bill Nighy) that all the men in their family have the ability to time travel. As he falls in love with Mary (McAdams), he learns how to wield time travel to change his life for the better.

In 2014, Gleeson had another starring role alongside Oscar Isaac and Alicia Vikander in the science fiction horror movie Ex Machina, followed by 2015’s Brooklyn with Saoirse Ronan and The Revenant with Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy.

Ned (Domhnall Gleeson) stands on top of a desk in an office as people look up from their cubicles.

Domhnall Gleeson played a terrifying Star Wars villain

In 2014, Gleeson was cast as General Hux, commander of the Starkiller Base, in a new Star Wars trilogy. He spent all of The Force Awakens (2015) and The Last Jedi (2017) trying to defeat the resistance before switching sides to help them — and to reunite with Ex Machina co-star Isaac — in The Rise of Skywalker (2019).

In 2017, he starred alongside his brother Brian Gleeson and Jennifer Lawrence in the horror film Mother! and played a CIA agent with Tom Cruise in American Made. In 2018, he played a workaholic trying to evict bunnies from his late uncle’s home in Peter Rabbit, and returned in 2021’s Peter Rabbit 2.

Domhnall Gleeson starred with The Office’s Steve Carell in the miniseries The Patient

After starring in The Little Stranger (2018) and The Kitchen (2019), he took on several high profile TV projects. In 2020’s Run, he starred alongside Merritt Wever, Archie Panjabi, and Phoebe Waller-Bridge, and then joined his brother Brian Gleeson in 2021’s Frank of Ireland.

He played Watergate lawyer John Dean in the 2023 miniseries White House Plumbers, and notably starred opposite The Office alum Steve Carell in 2022’s The Patient. He played Sam Fortner, a serial killer who decided to get therapy for his addiction to killing people.

Gleeson has already starred in two streaming movies in 2025. In Fountain of Youth, he played a wealthy benefactor funding an expedition for Office alum John Krasinski and Natalie Portman. In Echo Valley, he played a terrifying drug dealer who tormented Julianne Moore and Sydney Sweeney.

Domnhall Gleeson’s father and brother are also successful actors

Gleeson was initially reluctant to follow in the footsteps of his father, Brendan Gleeson, who was nominated for a 2022 Academy Award for The Banshees of Inisherin (and hosted Saturday Night Live in Season 48).

“I’d been very certain about not wanting to do the acting thing because of my father,” Domhnall Gleeson told Broadway.com in 2006, when he earned a Tony nomination for The Lieutenant of Inishmore. “I thought I’d always have the father-son thing of ‘He got you the part.'”B

Brendan Gleeson was well known for his stage work in the 1980s, and began appearing on screen in the 1990s in movies like Braveheart, 28 Days Later, Mission: Impossible II, and A.I. Artificial Intelligence. Cast as Alastor Moody in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire in 2005, his son Domhnall would join him in the franchise a few years later.

Brendan and wife Mary Gleeson have four sons: Domhnall, Brian, Rory, and Fergus. Like Domhnall, Brian Gleeson is an actor who’s appeared in shows including Bad Sisters, Peaky Blinders, and The Lazarus Project. Fergus is a musician and Rory is a novelist, playwright, and screenwriter.