Ciarán Fitzgerald was born in Dublin, Ireland, on 27 July, 1983. He is best known as a child actor. He made his film debut as a nine year old in the Irish film Le cheval venu de la mer (1992), directed by Mike Newell, in which he played one of the two lead characters. In this, his first film, his co-stars included such greats of Irish acting as Gabriel Byrne, David Kelly, Colm Meaney and Brendan Gleeson. Together with co-star Rúaidhrí Conroy, he won the Young Actor Award of 1994 as Outstanding Youth Actor in a Family Foreign Film for this performance. During the 1990s, Ciarán Fitzgerald appeared in numerous, mostly Irish, films and TV productions including Le général (1998) and The Boxer (1997).