You Immediately Knew Who His Father Is

14 Sep 2026, 10:52 · Thought Catalog

Jonathan Brady – PA Images / PA Images via Getty Images

Updated 1 minute ago, September 14, 2026

Hmm, funny, how that works.

Photo by Jonathan Brady / PA Images via Getty Images.

Aran is the 19-year-old son of Oscar winner Cillian Murphy and Irish visual artist Yvonne McGuinness, who married in 2004 and kept their two sons, Malachy and Aran, almost entirely out of public view. In 2015 the family moved from London back to Dublin because Cillian wanted the boys to grow up Irish rather than with “posh English accents.”

A close-up captures Aran Murphy’s green eyes and bowl-cut fringe at the BAFTA screening of Youth in London, September 11, 2026. Photo by MEGA.

The show is HBO’s new comedy Youth, premiering September 20, and Aran plays Ruairí, the teenage son of Sharon Horgan’s lead character Alex, a 50-year-old divorcee heading her son off to university while juggling a search for sex and love and the care of her elderly parents.

Aran Murphy poses full-length on the step-and-repeat at the UK special screening of HBO’s Youth, held at BAFTA in London on September 11, 2026. Photo by Jonathan Brady / PA Images via Getty Images.

Two interview clips from the premiere, posted by TikTok creator Jodie McCallum, pulled millions of views and thousands of comments, and almost none of them were about the series. People couldn’t get past how much the younger Murphy looks and acts like his father, down to the tone, the pauses, the small gestures and the way he rocks on his heels.

At the Whitby Hotel in New York City, Cillian Murphy attends BAFTA’s screening of “Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man” on March 9, 2026. Photo by Theo Wargo / Getty Images.

“I have never recognized someone’s lineage this fast in my life,” one commenter wrote. Another: “That is Cillian Murphy, heavily moisturised. I will not be convinced otherwise.” A third pointed to the behavior: “That’s how you know Cillian is a present father, because what the f**k. His mimicry, gestures, enunciation…everything is identical.”

Aran Murphy gazes slightly off-camera on the red carpet at BAFTA Piccadilly during the Youth screening event on September 11, 2026. Photo by MEGA.

This isn’t the first time the resemblance has made headlines. When Aran turned up with his parents at the 2024 Golden Globes and again at the Oscars, outlets called him a dead ringer. The Youth interviews just made the resemblance move and talk.

Youth also isn’t Aran’s first role. He appeared in the film Lola, features in the HBO/Sky legal drama War opposite Dominic West and Sienna Miller, and stars in Taika Waititi’s Klara and the Sun with Jenna Ortega and Amy Adams, which releases in the US next month. Horgan has said there’s “nothing about him that isn’t real” and that he’s “not a showbiz kid.” Cillian has called his son “a great, great actor.”

Aran Murphy flanked by co-stars Sharon Horgan and Sharlene Whyte at the UK premiere of HBO’s Youth at BAFTA, London, on September 11, 2026. Photo by MEGA.

In his own interview, Aran said his friends helped with the show by sending him “AI slop memes” to pass along to Horgan.

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