Kieran Culkin: From Child Star’s Sibling To Acclaimed Actor With Roles In Succession & A Real Pain
Discover how Kieran Culkin rose from Macaulay's shadow to stardom with Succession and A Real Pain—a look at his journey, challenges, and career highlights.
Kieran Culkin Career Rise (Photo Credit – Instagram)
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Kieran Culkin has become a prominent name in Hollywood circles in recent years. After his rise to prominence with the leading role of Roman Roy in the acclaimed HBO drama Succession, he’s had another career success with his role in the film A Real Pain. With the recent high-profile successes of the brother of famous child actor Macaulay Culkin, let’s look at Kieran’s career trajectory and accomplishments and how he grew to become a well-respected screen actor in his own right.
Kieran Culkin, alongside Macaulay, was one of seven children. His father was former theatre actor Christopher “Kit” Culkin, and his mother was road traffic controller Patricia Bentrup.
Kieran has spoken about his difficult upbringing
Kieran Culkin has been publicly open about his difficult circumstances. For the first nine years of his life, he lived in a railroad apartment in Yorkville, Manhattan. Kieran doesn’t hold his father in high regard, considering him neglectful and a poor role model. He largely credits his mother for unconditionally loving him during his upbringing.
As a child, Kieran was overshadowed by the successful career of his sibling Macaulay. Macaulay was among Hollywood’s most famous child stars in the 1990s, headlining blockbuster films such as Home Alone and Richie Rich. Macaulay’s success brought the Culkin family to the spotlight but also led to significant struggles with them, mainly when the patriarch, Kit Culkin, tried to leverage his son’s success for his ambitions.
As a result, Kit Culkin eventually became estranged from his family, and none of the Culkin siblings, including Kieran, had any contact with him during adulthood.
Kieran has gradually become a respected actor in his own right.
Like Macaulay, Kieran also got his start as a child actor, though he was often overshadowed by his brother early on in his career. That changed when the brothers reached adulthood, as Macaulay would pull back from acting after his role in 1994’s Richie Rich. Kieran himself remained conflicted on how much he wanted to commit to acting as a career until he starred in Igby Goes Down, a 2002 black comedy directed by Burr Steers. In an interview with Vanity Fair, Kieran credited his experience on the film with properly initiating him into the world of professional acting.
Further success followed with roles in This Is Our Youth and especially the 2010s and 2020s smash hit Succession, where he played one of the leading roles as Roman Roy. Kieran’s performance in Succession brought him international recognition and kept him in the limelight throughout the series’ four-season run, enabling him to secure further projects, including A Real Pain.
In A Real Pain, Kieran plays Benji Kaplan alongside Jesse Eisenberg’s David Caplan. The two are Jewish cousins on a pilgrimage to Poland, where their late grandmother rests. Kieran was initially reluctant to join the production as he wanted to take a break from acting following the ending of Succession, but his co-star Emma Stone persuaded him to stay on.
