Patrick Wilson's Real Name: Patrick Joseph Wilson

Quick answer: Patrick Wilson's documented full name is Patrick Joseph Wilson. Encyclopedia.com records that form and gives his birth date as July 3, 1973, in Norfolk, Virginia (Encyclopedia.com; Carnegie Mellon University).

Real name and early life

Encyclopedia.com names his parents as John Wilson, a television anchorman, and Mary K. Wilson, a singer and voice teacher. He earned a B.F.A. in drama from Carnegie Mellon University in 1995, a point Encyclopedia.com records and that Carnegie Mellon's School of Drama alumni profile and hall-of-honor biography both confirm (the latter identifies him as Patrick J. Wilson, CFA 1995). The university later named him a trustee, beginning in 2009, its hall-of-honor page says, and has served on an education and enrollment committee.

Career highlights

He began on Broadway in the mid-1990s. Encyclopedia.com and Carnegie Mellon both record Tony Award nominations as best actor in a musical for The Full Monty (2001 nomination, for the 2000 production in the School of Drama account) and for the 2002 revival of Oklahoma! He received Golden Globe and Primetime Emmy nominations for HBO's Angels in America (2003), both the university profiles and Encyclopedia.com say, and appeared as Raoul in the 2004 film The Phantom of the Opera. Later film work listed by Carnegie Mellon and Encyclopedia.com includes Little Children (2006), Watchmen (2009), and the horror series Insidious, which a university biography called the highest-grossing horror film of 2011. He also became widely recognized as Ed Warren in The Conjuring films, the School of Drama profile says, and received another Golden Globe nomination for FX's Fargo (2015). He played Ocean Master in Aquaman (2018) and made his directorial debut with Insidious: The Red Door (2023), credits recorded in the School of Drama account. Encyclopedia.com also lists earlier stage work including Carousel and a Drama Desk nomination for Bright Lights, Big City, and notes that he married actress Dagmara Dominczyk, herself a Carnegie Mellon drama graduate, a point the university hall-of-honor biography also records.

Name notes for searchers

Patrick Joseph Wilson is the documented full name; Carnegie Mellon's hall-of-honor page also uses Patrick J. Wilson. He is known professionally as Patrick Wilson. Searchers looking for Ed Warren in The Conjuring, Josh Lambert in Insidious, or Raoul in The Phantom of the Opera are usually aiming at the same person. He should not be confused with other public figures who share the name Patrick Wilson.