Born to actors Donald Sutherland and Shirley Douglas, he got his first leading film role in the Canadian drama The Bay Boy (1984), which earned him a Genie Award nomination.

[5] He has since appeared in such films as Stand by Me (1986), The Lost Boys (1987), Young Guns (1988), Flatliners (1990), A Few Good Men (1992), The Three Musketeers (1993), Freeway (1996), A Time to Kill (1996), Dark City (1998), Phone Booth (2002), Melancholia (2011), Pompeii (2014), and The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial (2023).

[8] His maternal grandfather was Scottish-born Canadian politician and former Premier of Saskatchewan Tommy Douglas, who is widely credited for bringing universal health care to Canada.

He also spent a semester at Regina Mundi Catholic College in London, Ontario and attended weekend acting lessons at Sir Frederick Banting Secondary School.

Sutherland told The Sunday Times that he didn't really know his famous father outside of holidays and summer vacations until he moved out at age 15.

Sutherland was one of the contenders for the role of Glen Lantz in the original A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), which ultimately became Johnny Depp's feature film debut.

[16] In the film, directed by Rob Reiner, he played a neighbourhood bully in a coming-of-age story about a search for a dead body.

Before that, he played a silent, supporting character, as one of Sean Penn's friends who goes up against Christopher Walken in James Foley's crime-thriller At Close Range.

He was considered for the role of Robin in Batman (1989), alongside Michael Keaton, in the early production before the character was deleted from the shooting script.

In the sequel Young Guns II (1990), Sutherland continued to play 'Doc' alongside some of the original cast and with newcomer Christian Slater.

Sutherland starred as the lead in Flatliners, with an ensemble cast featuring Julia Roberts and Kevin Bacon, a film about a student who wants to "experience" death's afterlife and record what happens during it, with the help of a group of young students who are "a little" crazy like him; the film received positive reviews from critics.

He plays a young FBI agent coming to terms with his life in a commune in Flashback (1990) alongside Dennis Hopper.

During an interview in March 2012, he said he had declined director Gus Van Sant's offer to star in the lead role in the movie My Own Private Idaho, a decision that he regretted.

In 1998, he starred in Dark City, the science fiction film directed by Alex Proyas in which he portrayed the historical character Daniel P. Schreber.

In 2000, he co-starred with Woody Allen in the black comedy Picking Up the Pieces, but the film was received poorly by both commercial audiences and by critics.

In the opening skit of the 2006 Primetime Emmy Awards, Sutherland made an appearance as his 24 character, Jack Bauer.

[21] The dean of the United States Military Academy, Brigadier General Patrick Finnegan, visited the set of 24 in February 2007 to urge the show's makers to reduce the number of torture scenes[22] and Sutherland accepted an invitation from the U.S. military to tell West Point cadets that it is wrong to torture prisoners.

[25] In 2009, he joined the DreamWorks animated film Monsters vs. Aliens, reuniting him with actress Reese Witherspoon with whom he starred in Freeway.

The actor is also a frequent collaborator with director Joel Schumacher, and has appeared in The Lost Boys, Flatliners, Phone Booth,[26] the big screen adaptation of A Time to Kill (the film also starred his father Donald, although their characters did not interact), and Twelve as the narrator.

[34] On 14 February 2010, Fox TV announced they were temporarily suspending production of Season 8 of 24 due to a ruptured cyst near one of Sutherland's kidneys.

[37] In The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2013), the best-selling novel adaptation directed by Mira Nair, he played a supporting character for newcomer Riz Ahmed, as a boss named Jim Cross.

[40][41] Sutherland also provided narration for several promotional spots for the United States Men's National Soccer Team during the 2014 FIFA World Cup for ESPN.

Roebuck in Treyarch's video game Call of Duty: World at War and voices Big Boss in the video game Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes and its sequel Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, taking over the role originally performed by David Hayter.

[46][47] In 2016, Sutherland was cast in the lead role of the former ABC political drama series Designated Survivor as Tom Kirkman, the President of the United States.

The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, directed by William Friedkin, premiered in September 2023 at the 80th Venice International Film Festival where it screened out of competition.

[59] Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com praised Sutherland for bringing "unique energy" to the role, describing his performance as "one of the best acting turns of his career.

[74] Sutherland surrendered to the NYPD on 6 May 2009 for head-butting fashion designer Jack McCollough, founder and co-designer of Proenza Schouler, at The Mercer Hotel in SoHo following a fundraiser for the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

[81] In 2019, Sutherland called out Ontario premier Doug Ford and Ottawa MPP Lisa MacLeod for using his late grandfather's name to "push their agendas".

He also criticized Ford for claiming that the late Douglas would have approved of the Progressive Conservatives' push for fiscal discipline as he argued that his grandfather's achievements were "never at the expense of social and human services to those in need".

MacLeod responded by criticizing an "expensive" bus shelter ad for Designated Survivor outside of Queen's Park while suggesting that Sutherland does not understand the challenges of being a politician compared to "pretending to be one on TV".