Jeremy Piven
| Jeremy Piven | |
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 Piven in September 2007 |
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| Born | Jeremy Samuel Piven July 26, 1965 , U.S. |
| Occupation | Actor Producer |
| Years active | 1983–present |
Jeremy Samuel Piven (born July 26, 1965)[1] is an American film and TV actor.
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Early years
Piven was born in Manhattan and grew up in Evanston, Illinois, a suburb north of Chicago.[1] He graduated from Evanston Township High School,[2] and attended Harand Theater Camp in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, as a teenager. He played the part of "Bernardo" in West Side Story there. In Illinois, he trained at Piven Theatre Workshop,[3] founded by his parents, Byrne Piven and Joyce Piven, both of whom were actors and drama teachers.[1][4] He also attended Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa,[5] and is a member of the Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity.[6] He spent a semester at the National Theater Institute in Waterford, Connecticut. He has appeared in a number of films with John Cusack, who is also from Evanston and is a fellow alumnus of the Piven Theatre Workshop (as are Cusack's sisters Joan and Ann). Piven and Cusack once shared an apartment and have been friends since high school.
Career
Piven's first significant role came in 1992 when he became as a regular cast member on HBO's The Larry Sanders Show, where he played the head writer Jerry. In 1993, he portrayed George Costanza on the show-within-a-show scene in the Seinfeld episode, "The Pilot". Piven has appeared in several successful films, including Lucas, Grosse Pointe Blank, Singles, Very Bad Things, The Family Man, Black Hawk Down, Heat, PCU, Old School, Rock N Rolla, Smokin' Aces, and Runaway Jury. He has also had brief cameo appearances in Rush Hour 2 and in the US release of Cars.
Since 2004, Piven has reinvigorated his career by playing a fast-talking, acerbic Hollywood agent Ari Gold in the HBO series Entourage. He received Emmy nominations for best supporting actor four straight years from 2005 to 2008, and won the award in 2006, 2007, and 2008. 2009 was the first year in which he didn't receive an Emmy Award nomination for his work on Entourage. Piven was also the star and producer of the short-lived ABC dramedy series Cupid, and was a supporting cast member on the last three seasons of the sitcom Ellen. He played the part of Ellen's cousin, Spence. He also voiced Elongated Man in three episodes of Justice League Unlimited.
In 2007, Piven appeared in the video for "Drivin' Me Wild", the third single taken from rapper Common's seventh album Finding Forever. The two were co-stars in Smokin' Aces, and appeared together when Piven hosted SNL in January 2007.[7]
Piven appeared in the first Broadway revival of David Mamet's Speed-the-Plow, co-starring Mad Men star Elisabeth Moss and three-time Tony nominee Raul Esparza. The production began preview performances on October 3, 2008, and opened on October 23, 2008; the play was due to run through February 22, 2009. After Piven missed several performances, on December 17, 2008, Piven's rep announced that due to an undisclosed illness, Piven would be ending his run in the play effective immediately.[8] The illness was revealed to be hydrargaria, a disease caused by exposure to mercury or its compounds, though the source is unknown. Rumours have indicated that the high level of mercury could potentially have been caused by Piven's habit of consuming fish twice a day for the past 20 years.[9] An alternative explanation is that the herbal remedies Piven was taking were responsible for his high levels of mercury.[10] Mamet joked that Piven was leaving the play "to pursue a career as a thermometer".[11] On September 1, 2009, Piven, in a guest appearance on Late Show with David Letterman, explained that he had given up red meat and poultry, and had been getting all of his protein from fish for the past twenty years. William H. Macy and Norbert Leo Butz replaced Piven in the Broadway show.[12]
Personal life
Piven considers himself a Jewish Buddhist.[13] He starred in the Travel Channel special Jeremy Piven's Journey of a Lifetime detailing his journey across India.
Jeremy Piven opened up on Speed-the-Plow and the mercury poisoning controversy on July 2, 2010, with ABC News, setting the record straight on the severe mercury poisoning that kept him from being able to continue his performance. In the interview, he described his desire to embody the spirit of the "show must go on" mentality, however, doctors had expressed to him that he could literally "die on stage".
Selected filmography
Albert Lodge
| Film | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Film | Role | Notes | ||
| 1986 | Lucas | Spike | |||
| One Crazy Summer | Ty | ||||
| 1989 | Say Anything... | Mark | |||
| 1990 | The Grifters | Sailor - Freshman | |||
| White Palace | Kahn | ||||
| 1992 | The Player | Steve Reeves | |||
| Bob Roberts | Candle Seller | ||||
| Singles | Doug Hughley | ||||
| 1993 | Twenty Bucks | Nervous Quick-Mart Clerk | |||
| Judgment Night | Ray Cochran | ||||
| 1994 | Floundering | Guy | |||
| Car 54, Where Are You? | Herbert Hortz | ||||
| PCU | James "Droz" Andrews | ||||
| 1995 | Miami Rhapsody | Mitchell | |||
| Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde | Peter Walston | ||||
| Heat | Dr. Bob | ||||
| 1996 | Larger Than Life | Walter | |||
| 1997 | Just Write | Harold McMurphy | |||
| Grosse Pointe Blank | Paul Spericki | ||||
| Kiss the Girls | Henry Castillo, LAPD | ||||
| 1998 | Music from Another Room | Billy Swan | |||
| Phoenix | Fred Shuster | ||||
| Very Bad Things | Michael Berkow | ||||
| 2000 | The Crew | Det. Steve Menteer | |||
| The Family Man | Arnie | ||||
| 2001 | Serendipity | Dean Kansky | |||
| Rush Hour 2 | Versace Salesman | ||||
| Black Hawk Down | Clifton "Elvis" Wolcott | ||||
| 2002 | Highway | Scawldy | |||
| 2003 | Old School | Dean Gordon "Cheese" Pritchard | |||
| Runaway Jury | Lawrence Green | ||||
| Scary Movie 3 | Ross Giggins | ||||
| 2004 | Chasing Liberty | Alan Weiss | |||
| 2005 | Two for the Money | Jerry | |||
| Scooby Doo in Where's My Mummy? | Rock Rivers (Voice) | Direct-to-video | |||
| 2006 | Cars | Harv | Voice | ||
| Keeping Up with the Steins | Adam Fiedler | ||||
| 2007 | Smokin' Aces | Buddy "Aces" Israel | The Kingdom | Damon Schmidt | |
| 2008 | RocknRolla | Roman | |||
| 2009 | The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard | Don Ready | |||
| Television | |||||
| Year | Title | Role | Notes | ||
| 1990 | Carol & Company | Comedy sketch characters | Unknown episodes | ||
| 1992–1998 | The Larry Sanders Show | Jerry Capen | 15 episodes | ||
| 1993 | Seinfeld | Michael Barth | 3 episodes | ||
| 12:01 | Howard Richter | Television movie | |||
| 1995 | Chicago Hope | Godfrey Nabbott | 2 episodes | ||
| Pride & Joy | Nathan Green | Unknown episodes | |||
| 1995–1998 | Ellen | Spence Kovak | 72 episodes | ||
| 1997 | The Drew Carey Show | Spence Kovak | 1 episode | ||
| Grace Under Fire | Spence Kovak | 1 episode | |||
| Coach | Spence Kovak | 1 episode | |||
| Duckman: Private Dick/Family Man | Victor DeMann (Voice) | 1 episode | |||
| Don King: Only in America | Hank Schwartz | Television movie | |||
| 1998–1999 | Cupid | Trevor Hale/Cupid | 15 episodes Producer |
||
| 2000 | Will & Grace | Nicholas | 1 episode | ||
| Buzz Lightyear of Star Command | Brain Pod #57 (Voice) | 1 episode | |||
| 2002 | Rugrats | Additional Voices | 1 episode | ||
| The Twilight Zone | Tyler Ward | 2 episodes | |||
| 2003 | Spider-Man: The New Animated Series | Roland Gaines (Voice) | 2 episodes | ||
| 2004–2005 | Justice League Unlimited | Elongated Man (Voice) | 3 episodes | ||
| 2004–present | Entourage | Ari Gold | Main cast | ||
Awards
| Year | Award | Category | Series |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Emmy Award | Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series | Entourage |
| 2007 | Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series | Entourage | |
| 2008 | Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series | Entourage | |
| 2008 | Golden Globe Award | Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television | Entourage |
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Jeremy Piven Biography". filmreference. 2008. http://www.filmreference.com/film/25/Jeremy-Piven.html. Retrieved 2008-10-29.
- ↑ Dandelife.com : Story : "poo is in *newsweek*", by caroline m
- ↑ Piven Theatre Workshop - Home
- ↑ HBO: Jeremy Piven as Ari - Entourage
- ↑ Jeremy Piven, Employing His Acting Skills (washingtonpost.com)
- ↑ List of famous PIKES
- ↑ SNL Archives | Episode. Retrieved October 10, 2007.
- ↑ Docs Tell Piven: Broadway is Bad for Your Health TMZ, December 17, 2008
- ↑ NFI Response to Jeremy's Piven's Claims About Fish and Mercury
- ↑ Discussion of the possible cause of poisoning
- ↑ Jeremy Piven Abruptly Departs Broadway's Speed-the-Plow Playbill, December 17, 2008
- ↑ Silverman, Stephen M. (2008-12-18). "Jeremy Piven Abruptly Abandons Broadway Play". people.com. http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20247585,00.html.
- ↑ The Star Online eCentral: Jeremy’s journey
14. omg!.yahoo.com, Piven on "Speed-The-Plow" and Mercury Poisoning, http://omg.yahoo.com/videos/piven-on-speed-the-plow-and-mercury-poisoning/11222?nc
External links
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