Peter Dinklage is an American actor. Since his breakout role in
The Station Agent (2003), he has appeared in numerous films and theater plays. Since 2011, Dinklage has portrayed Tyrion Lannister in the HBO series
Game of Thrones (2011). For this role, he won an Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series (four times) and a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor - Series, Miniseries or Television Film in 2011.
Peter Hayden Dinklage was born in Morristown, New Jersey, to Diane (Hayden), an elementary school teacher, and John Carl Dinklage, an insurance salesman. He is of German, Irish, and English descent. In 1991, he received a degree in drama from Bennington College and began his career. His exquisite theater work, which brilliantly expresses the unique range of his acting qualities, includes remarkable performances full of profundity, charisma, intelligence, sensation, and insights in such plays as "The Killing Act," "Imperfect Love," and
Ivan Turgenev's "A Month in the Country," as well as the title roles in
William Shakespeare's "Richard III" and in
Anton Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya."
Peter Dinklage received acclaim for his first film,
Living in Oblivion (1995), in which he played an actor frustrated with the limited and caricatured roles offered to actors who have dwarfism. In 2003, he starred in
The Station Agent (2003), written and directed by
Tom McCarthy. The movie received critical praise as did Dinklage's work, including nominations for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role at the Screen Actors Guild and Best Male Lead at the Film Independent Spirit Awards. One of his next roles was as Miles Finch, an acclaimed children's book author, in
Elf (2003).
Find Me Guilty (2006), the original English
Death at a Funeral (2007), its American remake
Death at a Funeral (2010),
Penelope (2006),
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (2008), and
X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) are also included in his brilliant work concerning feature films.
Dinklage's fine work in television also includes such shows as
Entourage (2004),
Life as We Know It (2004),
Threshold (2005), and
Nip/Tuck (2003). In 2011, the primary role of Tyrion Lannister, a man of sharp wit and bright spirit, in
Game of Thrones (2011) was incarnated with unique greatness in Dinklage's unparalleled performance. The series is an adaptation of author
George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series, and Dinklage's work in it has received widespread praise, highlighted by his receiving of the Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series at
The 63rd Primetime Emmy Awards (2011),
The 67th Primetime Emmy Awards (2015),
The 70th Primetime Emmy Awards (2018), and
The 71st Primetime Emmy Awards (2019), as well as of the Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for Television.
Dinklage has voiced, among other characters, Captain Gutt in
Ice Age: Continental Drift (2012) and the Mighty Eagle in
The Angry Birds Movie (2016), and starred in the comedy horror film
Knights of Badassdom (2013) while his tour de force interpretations as a multifarious chameleon of substantial mastery and artistic generosity also include film and TV gems such as
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017),
Three Christs (2017), and
I Think We're Alone Now (2018).