Meet Barry Keoghan’s little boy.
The Saltburn star and Golden Globe nominee is the father of son Brando, whom he welcomed in August 2022 with his former girlfriend, Alyson Sandro.
Keoghan’s love for acting inspired the meaning behind Brando’s name. However, the movie star — who earned an Oscar nod for his role as Dominic in The Banshees of Inisherin in 2023 — has said that he would never force Brando into acting.
Though Keoghan and Sandro are no longer together, the actor has praised her as a mom. “She’s done a great job and she’s an incredible mother,” he told GQ in a January 2024 interview.
Read on for everything to know about Barry Keoghan’s son, Brando.
He is Barry’s first and only child
In August 2022, Keoghan and his then-girlfriend Alyson Sandro welcomed Brando together. Their baby boy marks the actor’s first and only son.
Brando was born when Keoghan was filming Saltburn. Amid his busy schedule, the actor took one day off to be with his son. In an interview with GQ, he opened up about the limited time off he was granted before he had to return to filming.
“They gave me a day off,” Keoghan revealed. “Good on them! Day off, and straight on to night shoots and night feedings — boom!”
Though it was quite the busy time, the actor said it was all worth it.
“It was probably the best time of my life, to be fair. Havin’ a baby boy, and leadin’ a movie. It was the best time of my life, I must say.”
His name has a special meaning
When Keoghan earned an Oscar nomination for his performance as Dominic in Martin McDonagh’s The Banshees of Inisherin in the Best Supporting Actor category, he dedicated the honor to his baby boy.
After he learned of the nomination news, the proud dad shared a sweet tribute on his Instagram story. “That ones for you Brando,” he wrote alongside a photo of the five Best Supporting Actor nominees. “Daddy loves you ❤️.”
He motivates Barry
Since becoming a father, Keoghan’s been vocal about how his son motivates and inspires him. “I feel a responsibility, I feel an enormous amount of pressure, which is good,” he told GQ about becoming a parent.
“And 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 continued. “He smiles at you and you’re like, ‘Wow. You’re smiling at me like that? I don’t deserve that, but anyways, thanks.'”
He won’t be pushed into acting
When speaking with POPSUGAR in October 2022, Keoghan said “he will not” force his son into acting. “If he did want to become an actor, you know, I’m there for it,” he told the publication.
Although a brand-new dad at the time, Keoghan gave a lot of thought to how he’d like to raise his first child. “You don’t want to brainwash them into doing something that they don’t want to do,” he said. “I think it’s exciting to see where he ventures.”
Barry and his son don’t have a “normal father-son relationship”
In a September 2024 interview with Entertainment Weekly, Keoghan said not having a role model to base his relationship with Brando on has affected who he is as a dad.
“I’ll just say this — I didn’t have a father figure growing up, so even my relationship with my son isn’t quite of the normal father-son relationship,” he said. “Because I don’t have that figure to draw from and to base it on.”
But when it comes to loving his son, that part is easy.
“Love, you don’t need anything to draw from. Love is pure, and so I’m not on about that, but I’m on about stuff like teaching your son this or teaching your daughter that,” he added.
Barry seldomly posts about Brando on social media
After skyrocketing to fame in 2023, Barry decided it best to keep his life with Brando private. This led to fan-created narratives about the actor being an absent dad.
“I’m not an absent father,” he said on The Louis Theroux Podcast in November 2024. “People love to use my son as ammunition.”
Barry continued, “Because I reigned [posting about Brando] in, people draw a narrative and go, ‘Absent father, s—, deadbeat dad,’ and more disgusting things I wouldn’t even repeat. Just the audacity of some people, man, it sickens me. It makes me furious.”
Currently, there’s one post about Brando on Barry’s Instagram. The sweet selfie of the father-son duo is captioned: “He’s more of a charmer than i am. Our wee Brando.”
Source: People
