He is known for his roles in the films Michael Collins (1996), Velvet Goldmine (1998), Titus (1999), Bend It Like Beckham (2002), Alexander (2004), Match Point (2005), Mission: Impossible III (2006) and his television roles as Elvis Presley in the biographical miniseries Elvis (2005), for which he won a Golden Globe Award and earned a Primetime Emmy Award nomination, as King Henry VIII in the historical drama The Tudors (2007–10), which earned him two Golden Globe Award nominations, and in the NBC drama series Dracula (2013–14) as the title character.

He also starred as Bishop Heahmund, a character inspired by the Catholic Saint of the same name, in the History Channel television series Vikings.

In 2013, Meyers appeared as the villain Valentine Morgenstern in The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, based on Cassandra Clare's novel, City of Bones; he appeared in the 2015 film Stonewall, directed by Roland Emmerich; in 2017, he starred in The 12th Man; and in 2018 he won the Best Actor award at the Manchester Film Festival for his starring role in Damascus Cover.

Meyers was born on 27 July 1977 in Dublin, Ireland, the first of four boys for Geraldine (née Myers; 1957–2007) and folk musician John O'Keeffe, and brought up in County Cork.

Casting agents looking for Irish boys to appear in War of the Buttons spotted him at a Cork pool hall, the Victoria Sporting Club, and invited him to audition.

He appeared in B. Monkey (a British-American 1998 neo-noir crime film directed by Michael Radford) as Bruno, a small-time petty thief/criminal.

In 1999, he appeared in Ride with the Devil as psychopathic Bushwhacker Pitt Mackeson, and in Titus as the sadistic Goth prince Chiron.

On 23 October 2014, he received The Irish Post Legend Award at the London Hilton on Park Lane in recognition of his remarkable achievements in Film & Television over the previous 20 years.

[25] In 2020, Meyers played in Edge of the World, a biographical picture of the British explorer Sir James Brooke, as well as the lead role in the movie American Nights, a neo-noir thriller co-starring Emile Hirsch, Paz Vega, and Jeremy Piven.

His first such role was as "Brian Slade" in Velvet Goldmine; two of the songs he sang ("Baby's on Fire" and "Tumbling Down") are on the film's soundtrack.

He sang briefly in the television mini-series version of The Magnificent Ambersons, performed in studio scenes of the miniseries Elvis and played the flute in Gormenghast.

[citation needed] In the 2007 music drama August Rush, he performed on-screen as singer-songwriter Louis Connelly and is credited for four songs on the soundtrack – "Break", "Moondance", "Something Inside" and "This Time".

[29][30] On 20 November 2007, his mother, Mary Geraldine O'Keeffe, died at Mercy University Hospital, Cork, aged 51, following a short, undisclosed illness.

[39] In 2010, at John F. Kennedy International Airport, he verbally abused and used racist language against airline staff and officials, who had refused him access to the boarding area after he had become intoxicated in the first-class lounge.

[42] In November 2011, he was ordered by a French court to pay restitution of €1,000 and was given a judgment of a suspended sentence for public intoxication 24 months earlier.

[48] In February 2008, Meyers was named the ambassador for the Hope Foundation, a charity formed in his native Cork to support the street children of Calcutta.

In 2019, he and fellow actor Aidan Gillen helped launch Barretstown's new Press Play campaign which aimed to raise additional funds to serve more children and their families.