Trivia

In a 2014 interview on the NPR interview program "Fresh Air with Terry Gross," O'Dowd told Gross that before he was an actor he worked at a call center, and one of his jobs was making solicitation calls for a well known wildlife charity. He said that the endangered animals that he was supposed to tell potential donors about--like New Guinean bats or newts from New Zealand--were unappealing to people, so he started making up fake endangered animals that he thought would be more attractive to them. One was a "tiger swan," which he described as "essentially a swan with the markings of a Bengal"; one was "some kind of flying dolphin".

Has a collection of over a thousand chocolate bar wrappers.

When he and Dawn Porter married, instead of taking his second name she simply attached an "O" to her name (O'Porter).

As an Irishman, he says he felt an unexpected kinship with Aboriginals while making The Sapphires (2012).

Met his wife Dawn at her 30th birthday party in Los Angeles in 2009.

Lives in Los Angeles with Dawn O'Porter and her dog (potato) and cat (lilu). (2010)

Engaged to Dawn O'Porter [December 30, 2011].

Guests at Chris and Dawn's London wedding included Brian O'Driscoll, wife Amy Huberman, The IT Crowd (2006) writer Graham Linehan and TV presenter Caroline Flack.