McNairy has had one nomination and one win for In Search of a Midnight Kiss.
During the early 2000s, McNairy portrayed colorful and individualistic young men with a rebellious edge. He had small parts in films, including Wonderland (2003), Herbie: Fully Loaded (2005), and Art School Confidential (2006).
Interested in cinematography and photography, McNairy moved to Los Angeles to go to film school. He attended for a year, then dropped out and began working in film production, doing carpentry and building film sets. Then he worked as an extra, until he eventually found steady work in over 200 TV commercials. He eventually was offered roles in feature films, a career he has been pursuing since 2001.
In 2002, McNairy appeared in the music video for Death Cab for Cutie's "A Movie Script Ending".
In 2006, McNairy appeared in the music video for "Fidelity" by Regina Spektor, directed by McNairy's friend Marc Webb.
He worked as Producer for 2007's In Search of a Midnight Kiss, in which he also starred and which is referred to as his breakout film.
McNairy has been married to Actress Whitney Able since 2010. They initially started dating in Los Angeles about six months before co-starring in Monsters. The couple moved back to East Texas in 2011.
In 2011, McNairy played Frankie in Director Andrew Dominik's film Killing Them Softly (2012), playing opposite Brad Pitt. The film is based on the 1974 novel Cogan's Trade by George V. Higgins, re-envisioned to take place during the 2008 election.
He has worked on a number of other projects as an actor and Producer, including 2012's A Night in the Woods, and Angry White Man, Dragon Day, and The Off Hours, all released in 2011.
In 2013, he appeared in Steve McQueen's 12 Years a Slave, which again included Pitt. McNairy filmed his second movie with Michael Fassbender, Leonard Abrahamson's Frank, and co-starred in Jaume Collet-Serra's Non-Stop (2014), opposite Liam Neeson and Julianne Moore.
He appears in David Michod's The Rover (2014) opposite Robert Pattinson and Guy Pearce. McNairy starred in the AMC Network drama Halt and Catch Fire, about the personal computer Business in the 1980s. By coincidence, his character's wife in Halt and Catch Fire is portrayed by actor Kerry Bishé, who also played his spouse in Argo.
McNairy played Wallace Keefe in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016). In September 2016, McNairy was announced as a cast member in the third season of the FX drama Fargo.
