Alan Cumming first appeared in the Granada TV series ‘Travelling Man’ in 1984. He was next seen in television films and series like ‘Taggart’ (1986), ‘Take the High Road’ (1986), ‘Shadow of the Stone’ (1987), ‘Bernard and the Genie’ (1991), and ‘Screen Two’ (1992). He went on to make his silver screen debut in the 1992 British drama film ‘Prague’ directed by Ian Sellar. Following his debut, he went on to star in films like ‘The Airzone Solution’ (1993), ‘Second Best’ (1994), ‘Black Beauty’ (1994), and ‘Circle of Friends’ (1995). In 1995, he starred as ‘Boris Grishenko’ in the spy film and the seventeenth installment in the James Bond series ‘GoldenEye’ directed by Martin Campbell. The film received positive reviews from critics and was a major box office success, grossing over $356.4 million on a $60 million budget. The following year, he played the role of ‘Philip Elton’ in the Douglas McGrath-directed period comedy film ‘Emma.’ The film opened to a positive reception and grossed over $22.2 million on a budget of $7 million. He next starred in films like ‘Romy and Michele's High School Reunion’ (1997), ‘Buddy’ (1997), ‘Titus’ (1999), ‘Eyes Wide Shut’ (1999), ‘The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas’ (2000), ‘The Anniversary Party’ (2001), ‘Investigating Sex’ (2001), ‘Company Man’ (2001), and ‘Nicholas Nickleby’ (2002).
In 2003, he played the role of Kurt Wagner / Nightcrawler’ in the American superhero film ‘X2’ directed by Bryan Singer. The film was well-received by critics and performed well at the box office, grossing over $407.7 million on a budget of $110–125 million. He continued to star in films such as ‘Garfield: The Movie’ (2004), ‘Son of the Mask’ (2005), ‘Reefer Madness’ (2005), ‘Sweet Land’ (2005), ‘Full Grown Men’ (2006), ‘Gray Matters’ (2007), ‘Suffering Man's Charity (aka Ghost Writer)’ (2007), ‘Boogie Woogie’ (2009), ‘Dare’ (2009), ‘The Tempest’ (2010), and ‘Jackboots on Whitehall’ (2010). In 2010, he joined the cast of the American legal and political drama television series ‘The Good Wife’ created by Robert King and Michelle King. He played the role of ‘Eli Gold’ and remained a part of the show until it went off-air in 2016. He was next seen in films like ‘The Smurfs’ (2011), ‘The Outback’ (2012), ‘Any Day Now’ (2012), ‘The Smurfs 2’ (2013), ‘Chu and Blossom’ (2014), ‘Strange Magic’ (2015), ‘Hurricane Bianca’ (2016), ‘Battle of the Sexes’ (2017), ‘Show Dogs’ (2018), ‘They'll Love Me When I'm Dead’ (2018), ‘My Old School’ (2022), and ‘My Father's Dragon’ (2022). Cumming last appeared in the 2022 neo-noir thriller film ‘Marlowe’ directed by Neil Jordan. The film premiered at the 70th San Sebastián International Film Festival.
