Diarmaid Murtagh is an Irish actor best known for playing Leif in Vikings and Buck MacKenzie in Outlander. He built his name on historical roles in Vikings and Outlander, and he is now stepping into a major superhero franchise with Supergirl.
Born in a small town in County Cavan, he trained at the Gaiety School of Acting before building a career that now spans Hollywood war films, DC’s Supergirl, and the fluent Irish-language theatre work he started with.
Here is everything to know about his life, career, family, and net worth.
| Quick Facts | |
|---|---|
| Full Name | Diarmaid Murtagh |
| Date of Birth | July 28, 1982 |
| Age | 43 years old |
| Place of Birth | Kingscourt, County Cavan, Ireland |
| Nationality | Irish |
| Ethnicity | Irish |
| Profession | Actor |
| Height | 6 feet 4 inches (1.93 m) |
| Education | Dublin City University, Gaiety School of Acting |
| Spouse | Meghan Gardler Murtagh |
| Children | Two, Blake Julia (born March 2024) and Emmet Nolan (born December 2025) |
| Known For | Vikings, Outlander, Dracula Untold |
| Net Worth | Estimated between $1 million and $2 million |
Biography
Diarmaid Murtagh was born on July 28, 1982, in Kingscourt, a small town in County Cavan, Ireland. Irish by ethnicity and nationality, he grew up as one of six children of Noel and Julia Murtagh, alongside brothers Cian and Dara and sisters Aisling, Michelle, and Tríona.
Murtagh initially pursued a business degree at Dublin City University, but a summer trip to Chicago in 2003 changed his direction. He came home determined to act instead, and he spent the next four years training at the Gaiety School of Acting in Dublin. Alongside his screen work, he built a solid stage résumé with the Abbey Theatre, appearing in productions including An Ideal Husband, Macbeth, and The Picture of Dorian Gray. He is also a fluent Irish speaker, a skill that opened doors in Irish-language television and theatre well before his English-language film career took off.
Murtagh has also taken on a mentoring role within the Irish acting community. He recorded a self-tape masterclass for Irish Film London, sharing advice for actors navigating the shift toward self-taped auditions that became standard industry practice during the pandemic. In the accompanying sample reel, he performed Frank’s monologue from Brian Friel’s play Faith Healer, a piece he said he had long admired but never tackled during drama school. His guidance centered on not over-rehearsing to the point of losing spontaneity, arguing that actors only truly need to be off book once filming begins, and that casting directors can tell when a performance feels like a memorized exercise rather than a lived-in character.
Career
Murtagh’s professional acting career began in 2007 with a role in the long-running Irish soap opera Ros na Rún. He spent the next several years building a foundation in Irish-language and domestic Irish television, including Seacht, The Clinic, and Rásaí na Gaillimhe, while continuing stage work with the Abbey Theatre and Livin’ Dred Theatre Company.
His breakout came in 2013, when he was cast as Leif in the History Channel series Vikings, a role that ran for six episodes and introduced him to an international audience. The following year brought his film debut, playing Captain Harpen alongside George Clooney and Cate Blanchett in the George Clooney-directed war film The Monuments Men. That same year, he took on the role of Dumitru in the Universal horror film Dracula Untold, a loyal companion to Luke Evans’ Vlad III. Speaking with HeyUGuys at the film’s premiere, Murtagh said he was drawn to Dumitru’s backstory as a soldier shaped by lifelong combat training, and described himself as fully game for the role’s stunt work rather than shying away from it.
Murtagh kept working steadily across television and film through the rest of the decade, with credits including Sons of Liberty and a lead role as convict Frank Mitchell in The Krays’ Mad Axeman. In that same HeyUGuys interview, he previewed his next project at the time, The Dovekeepers, a two-part CBS miniseries produced by Mark Burnett and Roman Downey that dramatized the Roman army’s siege of the Judean stronghold of Masada. He also played Hermes, messenger of Olympus, in the BBC and Netflix series Troy: Fall of a City, and he later joined the Netflix science fiction drama The One.
Joining Outlander
In 2023, Murtagh landed one of his biggest ongoing roles yet, joining the Starz series Outlander as William “Buck” MacKenzie, taking over a character previously introduced by Graham McTavish. The part has carried him through multiple seasons and made him a recognizable face for the show’s global fan base. Author Diana Gabaldon has spoken warmly about the character’s return, noting that Buck fills the trusted, family-protecting role once held by Jamie’s godfather Murtagh in the books. Around the same period, he also appeared as Donal McDonnell in the BBC and HBO Max drama The Tourist and lent his voice and motion-capture work to Saul Bright, a character in the video game Cyberpunk 2077.
Outlander’s eighth and final season premiered on Starz on March 6, 2026, and Murtagh returned as Buck, reuniting with Jamie Fraser and the MacKenzie children at Fraser’s Ridge as the series heads toward its conclusion.
Supergirl and Recent Projects
His career reached a new milestone in 2026, when he was cast as Drom Baxton, a villain and second-in-command of the Brigands, in DC’s Supergirl. The film marks his first major entry into the superhero genre. Directed by Craig Gillespie and starring Milly Alcock as Kara Zor-El, Supergirl was released in theaters on June 26, 2026, as the second film in the rebooted DC Universe. He also has the crime thriller The Butler in post-production, in which he plays a character named Spoons.
Movies and TV Shows
| Year | Title | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 2007 | Ros na Rún | Cast Member |
| 2009 | The Clinic | Cast Member |
| 2011 | Camelot | Brastias |
| 2013 | Vikings | Leif |
| 2014 | The Monuments Men | Captain Harpen |
| 2014 | Dracula Untold | Dumitru |
| 2015 | Sons of Liberty | Tim Kelly |
| 2015 | The Dovekeepers | Cast Member |
| 2018 | Troy: Fall of a City | Hermes |
| 2018 | Age of Summer | Cast Member |
| 2019 | The Krays’ Mad Axeman | Frank Mitchell |
| 2019 | Robert the Bruce | Cast Member |
| 2020 | Cyberpunk 2077 (video game) | Saul Bright (voice) |
| 2021 | The One | Connor |
| 2022 | The Tourist | Donal McDonnell |
| 2023-2026 | Outlander | William “Buck” MacKenzie |
| 2024 | William Tell | Master Builder |
| 2026 | Supergirl | Drom Baxton |
| TBA | The Butler | Spoons |
Social Media
Beyond acting, Murtagh runs a YouTube channel called The Vagabond Bard, where he shares travel content centered on the many locations his acting work has taken him. The channel name plays on two ideas: a vagabond as someone who wanders from place to place, and a bard as a traditional performer and storyteller, a fitting combination for an actor documenting his travels. Alongside behind-the-scenes looks at his screen projects, he posts footage of landscapes, local activities, and culture spots from his trips, along with what he has described as a standing tradition of visiting the local Irish pub wherever he goes.
He is also active on Instagram and X (formerly Twitter) under the handle @diarmaidmurtagh, where he shares updates on his career, travels, and family life. Murtagh’s public output is entirely acting and travel content; he has not released any music or songs.
Personal Life
Murtagh has always kept his romantic life almost entirely out of public view. Before his relationship with Meghan Gardler became known, he had no publicly reported girlfriend or partner, and he rarely discussed dating in interviews even as his profile grew through Vikings and Dracula Untold.
Meghan Gardler had a public career of her own before she and Murtagh became a couple. Born in Springfield, Pennsylvania, she played college basketball for the UConn Huskies from 2006 to 2010, winning two national championships, before turning professional in Europe with clubs in Sweden and Luxembourg. She later moved into work outside of sport following her playing career. She and Murtagh appear to have become a couple around 2023, when fans following the Outlander cast first noticed the two posting from the same locations, including a shared trip to Capri, before the relationship was more widely confirmed.
Marriage to Meghan Gardler
Diarmaid Murtagh is married to Meghan Gardler, who took his surname after their wedding. The couple held a courthouse ceremony on July 11, 2025, before a larger celebration planned to follow. Murtagh has kept most of his relationship out of the public eye over the years, and the wedding announcement marked one of his rare public moments with his personal life.
Children
The couple has two children together, Blake Julia and Emmet Nolan. Blake, their first child, was born on March 17, 2024, and Murtagh has affectionately called her their “St. Patrick’s Day girl” in birthday tributes on Instagram. Meghan shared the meaning behind Blake’s name in a Mother’s Day Instagram post. Blake is a blend honoring both of Meghan’s parents, combining her late father’s nickname, Bud, with her mother’s maiden name, Lake, while her middle name, Julia, honors Diarmaid’s mother. Meghan’s father passed away in 2018, and she has described Blake as deeply loved by all the relatives her name honors.
Emmet Nolan followed on New Year’s Eve, December 31, 2025. In his Instagram announcement of his son’s birth, Murtagh explained the reasoning behind both names. Emmet honors Robert Emmet, the Irish nationalist and leader of the 1803 rebellion against British rule, whose legacy went on to inspire the leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising. Murtagh’s post highlighted Robert Emmet’s famous line from his speech from the dock, in which he said his character would only be vindicated once his nation took its rightful place among the nations of the earth. Nolan, Murtagh wrote, was a quieter tribute to his late father, Noel, a nod he believed his father would have appreciated.
Meghan later publicly confirmed both children’s names on Instagram in a Father’s Day tribute to Murtagh, describing how much their children adore him and how proud she believes their late fathers would be of him as a parent.
Family and Father’s Passing
Murtagh remains close to his large extended family in Cavan and has continued to feature his parents and siblings on social media over the years. His father, Noel Murtagh, was born on December 3, 1940, and died on November 25, 2024, with Diarmaid among the family members who mourned him alongside his mother, Julia, and his siblings, Cian, Dara, Aisling, Michelle, and Tríona. In a tribute posted on his father’s birthday, just over a week after burying him, Murtagh wrote about baptizing his daughter and burying his father in the same church in the same week, and shared a piece of guidance his father had long given him about facing whatever came next without hesitation. He tied that guidance to the Latin phrase “Noli Timere,” meaning “do not be afraid,” the same words poet Seamus Heaney, his father’s favorite, was reported to have said before he died.
Interests Outside Acting
Outside of acting, Murtagh has spoken about his connection to Gaelic football and his Cavan roots, and he remains an active supporter of his home county’s GAA teams.
Net Worth
Diarmaid Murtagh’s net worth is estimated at between $1 million and $2 million, built over more than 15 years of consistent acting work rather than any single blockbuster payday.
How He Built His Wealth
His early income came from Irish television and stage work, which typically pays modestly compared to international productions. His finances changed once he began landing supporting roles in major studio films such as The Monuments Men and Dracula Untold, both of which would have paid well above standard Irish television rates. His multi-season, recurring role in Outlander, one of Starz’s flagship series, likely represents his most consistent and substantial income stream in recent years, supplemented by guest appearances in other British and American television productions, such as The Tourist. His voice and motion-capture work for Cyberpunk 2077 added a separate, additional revenue stream beyond traditional screen acting.
Future Earning Potential
His role in Supergirl, released in June 2026 as part of a major DC Studios franchise with a reported $170 million budget, is likely to push his earnings higher still, given the production’s scale compared to his earlier work. As his profile continues to grow through franchise films, his net worth is positioned to climb further in the coming years.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Diarmaid Murtagh in Outlander? Yes. He plays William “Buck” MacKenzie, a role he joined in Season 7 of the Starz series, and he returned for Season 8, the show’s final season, which premiered March 6, 2026.
Is Diarmaid Murtagh still in Outlander? Yes, as of the show’s eighth and final season. Buck returns to Fraser’s Ridge and remains part of the story through Outlander’s concluding episodes.
Which TV show is Diarmaid Murtagh best known for? He first gained international recognition for playing Leif in Vikings, though his ongoing role in Outlander has become an equally defining part of his career.
Was Murtagh in Vikings? Yes. He played the Norse warrior Leif across six episodes of the 2013 season.
When was Diarmaid Murtagh’s Supergirl movie released? Supergirl was released in theaters on June 26, 2026, with Murtagh playing the villain Drom Baxton.
What is Diarmaid Murtagh’s ethnicity? He is Irish, born and raised in Kingscourt, County Cavan, Ireland.
Is Diarmaid Murtagh married? Yes. He married Meghan Gardler in a courthouse ceremony on July 11, 2025.
How tall is Diarmaid Murtagh? He stands at 6 feet 4 inches (1.93 m).
What is Diarmaid Murtagh’s net worth? His net worth is estimated to fall between $1 million and $2 million, built from over fifteen years of acting work.
Who is Diarmaid Murtagh’s wife? His wife is Meghan Gardler Murtagh, a former UConn Huskies basketball player who later played professionally in Sweden and Luxembourg.
