Who Is Sabrina Carpenter’s Boyfriend? The ‘Saltburn’ Star Is Pretty Famous Himself

When Saltburn premiered October 2023, basically everyone lost their minds over Barry Keoghan and Jacob Elordi, the co-stars at the center of the psychological black comedy which includes that infamous scene involving a bathtub drain (*shivers*). And then dating rumors surrounding Keoghan and Sabrina Carpenter—who has, undoubtedly, two of the songs of summer 2024, “Please, Please, Please” and “Espresso”—jumped the Irish actor into hyperdrive fame. The couple made things official at the Vanity Fair Oscars after party, but I was still curious to learn more about Sabrina Carpenter’s boyfriend. Read on to see what I’ve discovered.

Before he starred in Carpenter’s music video, Keoghan already had an impressive list of acting credits. The Irishman, who grew up in Dublin, began his career in 2011, when he appeared in the crime movie, Between the Canals. However, it wasn’t until 2017 when Keoghan really started gaining recognition, working on two projects with a couple of directors you may know of: Christopher Nolan and Yorgos Lanthimos. In the former’s Dunkirk, Keoghan plays George Mills, a teenage shiphand with great ambitions to contribute to England’s World War II efforts. For Lanthimos’s film, The Killing of the Sacred Deer, he stars as Martin, a 16-year-old who exacts brutal revenge on the cardiothoracic surgeon he holds responsible for his father’s death. For that role, Keoghan won Best Supporting Actor at the 15th Irish Film & Television Awards, as well as a nomination for Best Supporting Male at the 33rd Independent Spirit Awards.

In 2021, Carpenter’s boyfriend dipped his hand into the Marvel universe as Druig in Eternals. In Martin McDonagh’s celebrated The Banshees of Inisherin, the 31-year-old actor portrayed troubled teenager Dominic Kearney, whom one of the protagonists, Pádraic Súilleabháin (Colin Farrell), takes under his wing. For his work, Keoghan won the BAFTA for Best Actor in a Supporting Role and scored an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

And, of course, I can’t forget the waves he made with Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn, in which he starred opposite Jacob Elordi as Oliver Quick. The film was a critical success, and Keoghan earned a Golden Globe nomination in addition to another BAFTA Award, this time for Best Actor. Since the beginning of 2024, he’s also been an ambassador for Burberry.

Per People, Carpenter and Keoghan purportedly met during Paris Fashion Week at the September Givenchy show. Between then and February 2024, rumors swirled as the pair were followed by paparazzi around Los Angeles. W Magazine made it somewhat official when the publication shared a photo on X (formerly Twitter) of the couple spotted hanging out at a Grammys after party. From there, Carpenter and Keoghan were also to seen around L.A., and Keoghan even went to support his pop-star girlfriend when she opened for Taylor Swift’s tour in Singapore.

Inarguably, the “hard launch” of their relationship came with the 2024 Vanity Fair Oscars after party, which marked their first official red carpet appearance together. Both came dressed to the nines, with Carpenter in crocodile-skin Tory Burch, and Keoghan in a tailored Amiri jacket (plus a friendship bracelet). This was followed by the Met Gala, where they were photographed together on the renowned steps—Carpenter in Oscar de la Renta and her boyfriend in Mad Hatter-esque Burberry.

One of the songs of the summer (besides Charli XCX’s brat, of course) has been “Please, Please, Please.” And when the music video dropped, co-starring none other than Keoghan himself, the internet lost its collective mind. The four-minute film casts the duo in a Bonnie and Clyde toxic romance, which Keoghan later shared on Instagram. “I heard that you’re an actor!” Carpenter wrote in the comments. “Hardest launch I’ve ever seen,” wrote a fan. But if you ask them about the relationship, don’t expect either to be forthcoming. “How do I skirt around this question?” Carpenter asked when Rolling Stone asked if she calls Keoghan her boyfriend.

I mean, if your girlfriend calls you one of the brightest talents of your time, do you really need an Academy Award?

“I don’t want to sound biased, but I think he’s one of the best actors of this generation,” Carpenter raved to Variety in an interview after the “Please, Please, Please” music video dropped. “So getting to see him on the screen with my song as the soundtrack made the video better and all the more special.”

The man probably does want an Oscar, but until then, I’d personally be more than fine with Carpenter’s approval.

OK, I didn’t see this one coming, but admittedly, I’m not a Barry superfan. However, the actor does share an almost-2-year-old with ex-girlfriend, Alyson Kiernans, an orthodontist based in Scotland. Their son, Brando Keoghan, was born in August 2022 while Keoghan was filming Saltburn.

“She’s done a great job, and she’s an incredible mother,” he says of Kiernans in an interview with GQ. “I can’t get the little boy off my mind. It’s beautiful. Y’know, it’s crazy, but when he looks at you, you feel like the most important person in the world. That’s the effect he has on me. He smiles at you and you’re like, ‘Wow. You’re smiling at me like that? I don’t deserve that, but anyways, thanks.’”

And if you were speculating about the inspiration for Brando’s name, you’d be correct to think of legendary Hollywood leading man, Marlon Brando, whom Keoghan grew up watching alongside Paul Newman and James Dean. Though, that doesn’t necessarily mean his son is destined for the entertainment business.

“If he did want to become an actor, you know, I’m there for it,” Keoghan told PopSugar in 2022 while promoting The Banshees of Inisherin. “You don’t want to brainwash them into doing something that they don’t want to do. I think it’s exciting to see where he ventures.”

But no matter what path baby Brando ultimately chooses, his dad is behind him 100 percent.

“It’s a new territory for me, and I want to be the best person for him,” he tells Vanity Fair. “It’s a very important thing for me—for him to be able to grow up and be proud of his daddy, and to lean on his daddy. And if he has questions or anything, I’m always there for him in that sense of learning and growing with him and failing. He’s young, but he’s full of cheekiness already. His smile breaks my heart. When he makes eye contact with you, you just melt.”

As mentioned in his GQ profile, boxing was Keoghan’s passion before he started acting, and he continues to practice to this day, noting it’s one of the things (besides PlayStation and going for walks) that grounds him in the present. In fact, he leaned on his training for Saltburn’s final scene. 

“In the final moment of the dance, I twirl twice, and if you look at my footwork, it’s linked to boxing,” he recalls to Vanity Fair. “It’s all about footwork and moving the hips and stuff like that. That definitely came into factor, subconsciously.”