Tye Kayle Sheridan (born November 11, 1996) is an American actor.^[3][4][5] He is known for playing the young Scott Summers / Cyclops in the X-Men film series (2016–2019) and for his starring role in the science fiction film Ready Player One (2018).

Sheridan made his feature film debut in Terrence Malick's experimental drama film The Tree of Life (2011) and had his first leading role in Jeff Nichols's film Mud (2012). His other film roles were in the crime drama Joe (2013), the thriller The Stanford Prison Experiment (2015), and the dramas The Card Counter and The Tender Bar (both 2021).

Sheridan was born in Palestine, Texas.^[2] His mother, Stephanie Sheridan owns a beauty salon, and his father, Bryan Sheridan, is a driver for UPS.^[6][7] He has a younger sister, Madison. He was enrolled in the Elkhart Independent School District until his film career became a priority focus when he was 16 years old, and he received tutoring on film sets.^{[citation needed]}

Sheridan made his feature film debut in the Terrence Malick art film The Tree of Life (2011), with Brad Pitt, Jessica Chastain, and Sean Penn, after an almost year-long casting search involving more than 10,000 children from Texas and Oklahoma.^[3] The film premiered at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, and went on to be awarded the Palme d'Or^[8] and nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.^[9][10]

In 2012, he played the leading role of Ellis in Jeff Nichols' Mud opposite Jacob Lofland and Matthew McConaughey. The coming-of-age drama-thriller film premiered at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival^[11] and Sheridan received a Critics' Choice Award nomination.^[12]

Sheridan played Gary Jones in the film Joe, which stars Nicolas Cage playing an ex-con who meets a 15-year-old boy, the eldest child in a homeless family headed by an alcoholic father, and is faced with the choice of redemption or ruin.^[13] For his role he received the Marcello Mastroianni Award for best upcoming young actor at the 70th Venice International Film Festival.^[14]

In 2015, Sheridan starred in the three films that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. He co-starred opposite Gregg Turkington and Michael Cera in the drama Entertainment, played a prisoner in the film adaptation of The Stanford Prison Experiment, and appeared in Rodrigo Garcia's drama Last Days in the Desert opposite Ewan McGregor, released May 2016.^[15] That year, he also had a supporting role in the film adaptation of Gillian Flynn's Dark Places and the leading role in the horror comedy Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse.^{[citation needed]} Sheridan played the mutant Scott Summers/Cyclops in the film X-Men: Apocalypse (2016), released on May 27, 2016.^[16]

In 2017, Sheridan starred in the war drama The Yellow Birds (2017), opposite Alden Ehrenreich, Jack Huston, and Jennifer Aniston.^[17] Also that year, Sheridan co-starred with Kaitlyn Dever in Grass Stains, a film written and directed by Kyle Wilamowski.^[18][19] In 2018, Sheridan played Wade Watts, a.k.a. Parzival, the lead character, in Steven Spielberg's science fiction blockbuster film Ready Player One.^[20] He then reprised the role of Scott Summers/Cyclops in the 2019 film Dark Phoenix.^[21]

In 2020, Sheridan starred alongside Ana de Armas, John Leguizamo and Helen Hunt in Michael Cristofer's crime drama film The Night Clerk, which was released on February 21, 2020, by Saban Films.^[22] On the same year, Sheridan took a voice role in the "Face of the Franchise" mode of Madden NFL 21.^{[citation needed]} Also the same year, he co-founded AI production tools company Wonder Dynamics with visual effects artist Nikola Todorovic.^[23]

In 2021, Sheridan co-starred in the Neil Burger sci-fi thriller Voyagers (2021) with Colin Farrell, Lily-Rose Depp, Isaac Hempstead Wright, and Fionn Whitehead.^[24][25] On the same year, Sheridan starred in the crime drama film The Card Counter^[26] opposite Oscar Isaac, Tiffany Haddish and Willem Dafoe, which premiere at the 78th Venice International Film Festival on September 2, 2021 and was released on September 10, 2021, by Focus Features.^[27][28] Also the same year, Sheridan co-starred Ben Affleck, Lily Rabe and Christopher Lloyd in the coming-of-age movie The Tender Bar directed by George Clooney, in which he played the lead character named JR Maguire.^[29]

In 2023, Sheridan starred alongside Sean Penn in the thriller drama film Asphalt City, based on the 2008 novel of the same name by Shannon Burke, which was released on May 18, 2023.^[30][31]