Peter Dinklage
Birthdate: June 11, 1969 (56 Years Old)
Birthplace: Morristown, New Jersey, USA
Peter Dinklage (birthname: Peter Hayden Dinklage) is one of the great living American actors who has taken on a remarkable range of roles (from Cyrano de Bergerac to a benefactor for serial killers) and has singlehandedly shifted popular perception of performers who have the condition of dwarfism, and whose central Emmy-winning role as Tyrion Lannister was his breakthrough after several frustrating years as a struggling actor and the fulcrum of HBO’s enormous success, Game of Thrones (2011-2019).
Dinklage was cast in supporting roles by several independent filmmakers from 1995 to 2002, including Tom DiCillo (for Dinklage’s screen debut in Living in Oblivion (1995), John Hamburg (Safe Men (1998)), Eric Schaeffer (Never Again (2001)), Michel Gondry (Human Nature (2001), Alexandre Rockwell (13 Moons (2002) and Fisher Stevens (Just a Kiss (2002).
Dinklage’s acting breakthrough came with director/writer Tom McCarthy’s acclaimed comedy-drama, The Station Agent (2003), co-starring Patricia Clarkson, Bobby Cannavale, and Michelle Williams, and winning Sundance’s Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award and the Independent Spirit’s Best Original Screenplay and John Cassavetes Award. Dinklage’s first role in a studio movie was New Line Cinema’s hit Christmas comedy, Elf (2003), starring Will Ferrell, James Caan, Zooey Deschanel, Mary Steenburgen, Ed Asner, and Bob Newhart, grossing $220 million on $33 million budget.
Peter Dinklage’s first role in a British-produced movie was in Lassie (2005), director/co-writer/producer Charles Sturridge’s screen version of Eric Knight’s Lassie Come Home, with Jonathan Mason, Peter O’Toole, Samantha Morton, John Lynch and Edward Fox, and then Dinklage was cast by director/co-writer Sidney Lumet for a top role opposite lead Vin Diesel in Find Me Guilty (2006), with Linus Roache, Ron Silver, Annabella Sciorra and Alex Rocco, and a box office disappointment for Freestyle Releasing.
Dinklage appeared opposite Christina Ricci, James McAvoy, Catherine O’Hara, Reese Witherspoon (who also produced), and Richard E. Grant in the Mark Palansky-directed fantasy rom-com, Penelope (2006), earning a weak $21 million (on $15 million costs) for distributors Momentum Pictures/Summit Entertainment/Hyde Park International.
Dinklage co-starred in another U.K.-backed movie, Death of a Funeral (2007), with Ewen Bremner, Matthew Macfadyen, and Alan Tudyk, grossing an excellent $47 million on a $9 million budget for lead producer and distributor MGM. Dinklage co-starred with Jim Belushi, John Slattery, Patrick Warburton, Brad Garrett, Amy Adams, and Jason Lee in Disney’s live-action/animated version of the 1960s animated TV series, Underdog (2007), directed by Frederik Du Chau and earning a solid $65.3 million.
Peter Dinklage stayed in the Disney stable, joining the ensemble of director/co-writer/producer Andrew Adamson’s costly ($225 million) The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (2008), the second entry in the Chronicles of Narnia series, earning only $419.6 million. Dinklage joined the comedy ensemble of the 2010 remake of the original 2007 release, Death of a Funeral, including Chris Rock (who also produced), Loretta Devine, Danny Glover, Regina Hall, Martin Lawrence, James Marsden, Tracy Morgan, Zoe Saldana, Luke Wilson and Kevin Hart under Neil LaBute’s direction, grossing $49 million on $21 million costs for Screen Gems/Sony Pictures Releasing.
Dinklage reunited with director/co-writer/producer Alexandre Rockwell as co-star/producer of the caper comedy, Pete Smalls Is Dead (2010), co-starring Mark Boone Junior, with Seymour Cassel, Steve Buscemi, Rosie Perez, Tim Roth, Lena Headey, and Carol Kane, and released by W2 Media. Dinklage delivered his first of several voice roles in major releases, with his portrayal of Capt. Gutt in Blue Sky Studios/20th Century Fox’s Ice Age: Continental Drift (2012); followed by Columbia Pictures/Sony Pictures Releasing’s The Angry Birds Movie (2016) and the sequel, The Angry Birds Movie 2 (2019); the DreamWorks Animation/Universal Pictures sequel, The Croods: A New Age (2020); Paramount Pictures’ seventh entry in the Transformers series, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts (2023); Legendary Pictures’ remake of Troma’s The Toxic Avenger (premiered in 2023 at Fantastic Fest and released in 2025 by Cineverse/Iconic Events Releasing as The Toxic Avenger Uncut), directed and written by Macon Blair and in which Dinklage voiced the title character; and then Dinklage voiced the character of Doctor Dillamond in both the megahit screen version of the musical, Wicked (2024) and the sequel, Wicked: For Good (2025), both directed by Jon M. Chu.
Peter Dinklage played a supporting role in the jazz biopic, Low Down (2014), starring John Hawkes, Elle Fanning, Lena Headey, Flea, Caleb Landry Jones and Glenn Close under Jeff Preiss’s direction, premiering at the Sundance Film Festival and released by Oscilloscope Laboratories, and then Dinklage appeared in his first superhero movie as Bolivar Trask in director/producer Bryan Singer’s Oscar-nominated sequel, X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014), with Hugh Jackman, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Halle Berry, Anna Paquin, Elliot Page, Ian McKellan and Patrick Stewart, earning a potent $746 million against $205 million costs. Dinklage joined Adam Sandler (who also produced), Kevin James, Michelle Monaghan, Josh Gad, and Brian Cox in the critically savaged Chris Columbus-directed sci-fi comedy for Columbia Pictures/Sony Pictures Releasing, Pixels (2015), grossing a poor $245 million against over $110 million in expenses.
Dinklage played support in star/co-writer/producer Melissa McCarthy’s comedy, The Boss (2016), with Kristen Bell and Kathy Bates under co-writer Ben Falcone’s direction, with audiences preferring it over critics via a $78 million return for Universal Pictures. Dinklage won acclaim—though the movie around him did not—for his starring role in director/writer Mark Palansky’s sci-fi mystery, Rememory (2017), with Julia Ormond and Anton Yelchin, and released theatrically to little business after premiering at the Sundance Film Festival.
Peter Dinklage was recruited by British-Irish director/writer/producer Martin McDonagh for the stellar cast of the acclaimed Oscar-nominated drama, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017), topped by two Oscar-winning performances from Francis McDormand (Best Actress) and Sam Rockwell (Best Supporting Actor), with Woody Harrelson, Abbie Cornish and John Hawkes, delivering a knockout $162.7 million global box office (on $15 million costs) for Fox Searchlight Pictures after launching at the Venice Film Festival. Dinklage joined the ensemble of Richard Gere, Walton Goggins, Bradley Whitford, Charlotte Hope, Kevin Pollak, and Julianna Margulies for director/co-writer/producer Jon Avnet’s drama, Three Christs (2017), based on Milton Rokeach’s 1964 non-fiction book, The Three Christs of Ypsilanti (1964), released by IFC Films after premiering at the Toronto Film Festival.
Dinklage produced and starred with Elle Fanning in writer/producer Mike Makowsky’s post-apocalyptic drama, I Think We’re Alone Now (2018), with Paul Giamatti and Charlotte Gainsbourg under director/cinematographer Reed Morano’s helming, premiering at the Sundance Film Festival before a minimal Momentum Pictures release. Dinklage appeared as the character of Eitri in the vast ensemble of Anthony and Joe Russo’s massive MCU sequel, Avengers: Infinity War (2018), ranking as the seventh highest-grossing movie (to date) with a return tipping $2 billion worldwide, and then Dinklage joined lead Rosamund Pike and cast mates Eiza Gonzalez, Chris Messina and Dianne Wiest for director/writer/producer J Blakeson’s Netflix black comedy, I Care a Lot (2020).
Peter Dinklage took his fine stage-created role as Cyrano (2021) to the big screen under Joe Wright’s direction, adapted from her stage musical by Erica Schmidt (with composers Aaron and Bryce Dessner, Matt Berninger, Carin Besser and Glen Hansard), with Haley Bennett, Kelvin Harrison Jr. and Ben Mendelsohn, and premiering at the Telluride Film Festival before a disappointing commercial rollout ($6.4 million gross against $30 million) via United Artists Releasing (U.S.)/Universal Pictures (international).
Dinklage co-starred with Shirley MacLaine in director/producer Paul Dektor’s and writer/producer Theodore Melfi’s adaptation of a segment of NPR’s This American Life titled American Dreamer (premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2022, but delayed in release until 2024 by distributor Vertical), with cast mates Danny Glover and Matt Dillon. Dinklage also starred in another Vertical release, director/writer/producer Rebecca Miller’s romantic drama, She Came to Me (2023), produced by Killer Films’ Christine Vachon and Pamela Koffler and co-starring Marisa Tomei, Anne Hathaway, Joanna Kulig, Brian d’Arcy James, premiering at the Berlin Film Festival and receiving tepid reviews and quiet box office.
Peter Dinklage joined another franchise movie as the character of Casca Highbottom in the sequel, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (2023), starring Tom Blyth, Rachel Zegler, Hunter Schafer, Jason Schwartzman, Viola Davis and Fionnula Flanagan under Francis Lawrence’s direction, and released by Lionsgate to a solid $349 million global gross (on a $100 million budget).
Dinklage turned to the double duties as star/producer on two successive crime movies: the Joe R. Lansdale adaptation, The Thicket (2024)—which Dinklage had wanting to make for a decade--co-starring Juliette Lewis and directed by Elliott Lester, and released to excellent reviews by Samuel Goldwyn Films; and Brothers (2024), co-starring Josh Brolin (who also produced), Taylour Paige, M. Emmet Walsh, Brendan Fraser and Glenn Close under Max Barbakow’s direction, and released by Amazon MGM Studios.
Dinklage continued in the crime comedy mode when he joined director/co-writer Derek Cianfrance for the biopic co-written by Kurt Gunn, Roofman (2025), co-starring Channing Tatum, Kirsten Dunst, Ben Mendelsohn, Uzo Aduba, Juno Temple, LaKeith Stanfield, Melonie Diaz, Tony Revolori, and Jimmy O. Yang, and released by Paramount Pictures/Miramax after launching at the Toronto Film Festival. Dinklage, a veteran of Shakespeare theater, took on his first filmed Shakespeare as The Fool in Lear Rex (date to be announced), director/writer Bernard Rose’s adaptation of King Lear starring Al Pacino (as Lear), Jessica Chastain, Ariana DeBose, Rachel Brosnahan, Stanfield, Chris Messina, Ted Levine, Danny Huston, and Stephen Dorff.
Personal life
Peter Dinklage was born and raised in Morristown, New Jersey, by his parents, Diane (an elementary school teacher) and John (an insurance salesman). Dinklage has one brother, musician Jonathan. Dinklage graduated from Bennington College, where he graduated with a B.A. in Drama. Dinklage has been married to writer/producer Erica Schmidt since 2005; the couple has two children. Dinklage’s height is 4’ 4”. Dinklage’s estimated net worth is $25 million.
Peter Dinklage Movies
Actor
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Previous (21)
- 2025 |
- 2025 |
The Toxic Avenger Unrated
asWinston
A horrible toxic accident transforms downtrodden janitor, Winston Gooze into a new evolution of hero: The Toxic Avenger.
- 2024 |
The Thicket
asReginald
West Texas. A boy who, after his sister is kidnapped by a violent killer known only as Cut Throat Bill, enlists a fierce bounty hunter named Reginald Jones who becomes the leader of the group of outcasts searching for the stolen girl.
- 2024 |
American Dreamer
asPhil
Phil's a dreamer. Most dreams don't come true. Phil hates that. But that's not going to stop Phil from dreaming.
- 2023 |
She Came to Me
asSteven Lauddem
A composer who suffers writer's block rediscovers his passion after an adventurous one-night stand.
- 2022 |
- 2020 |
The Croods: A New Age
asPhil Betterman
The prehistoric family the Croods are challenged by a rival family the Bettermans, who claim to be better and more evolved.
- 2020 |
Three Christs
asJoseph
Three Christs follows Dr. Alan Stone who is treating three paranoid schizophrenic patients at the Ypsilanti State Hospital in Michigan, each of whom believed they were Jesus Christ. What transpires is both comic and deeply moving.
- 2020 |
Human Nature
asFrank
A breakthrough called CRISPR opens the door to curing diseases, reshaping the biosphere, and designing our own children. A provocative exploration of its far-reaching implications, through the eyes of the scientists who discovered it.
- 2019 |
The Angry Birds Movie 2
asMighty Eagle
The flightless birds and scheming green pigs take their feud to the next level.
- 2017 |
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
asJames
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
A mother personally challenges the local authorities to solve her daughter's murder when they fail to catch the culprit.
- 2016 |
The Angry Birds Movie
asMighty Eagle
When an island populated by happy, flightless birds is visited by mysterious green pigs, it's up to three unlikely outcasts to figure out what the pigs are up to.
- 2016 |
- 2015 |
- -- | Ice Age: Continental Driftas Captain Gutt
- -- | Elfas Miles Finch
- -- | as Dr. Dillamond
- -- | as Dr. Dillamond
- -- | as Captain Gutt
- -- | X-Men: Days of Future Pastas Dr. Bolivar Trask
- -- | The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspianas Trumpkin
Producer
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Previous (2)
- 2024 |
The Thicket
West Texas. A boy who, after his sister is kidnapped by a violent killer known only as Cut Throat Bill, enlists a fierce bounty hunter named Reginald Jones who becomes the leader of the group of outcasts searching for the stolen girl.
- 2024 |
American Dreamer
Phil's a dreamer. Most dreams don't come true. Phil hates that. But that's not going to stop Phil from dreaming.
Facts About Peter Dinklage
A Good Man: Peter Dinklage sometimes presents a challenge to his fellow actors (according to his Game of Thrones castmates) since he’s famously a nice person and yet must be their object of hatred and worse depending on the dramatic needs of a scene.
Condition: Dinklage has a condition of dwarfism called achondroplasia, in which the body is perfectly formed but the bones modeled in cartilage (arms and legs) don’t grow to proportional length, depicted by Spanish master Diego Velasquez in several paintings, particularly Portrait of Sebastian de Morra, who bears a remarkable resemblance to Dinklage and who was a court jester in the court of Philip IV of Spain for whom Velasquez served as a court artist.
