Jeremy Piven facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Jeremy Piven
Piven in February 2009
Born	Jeremy Samuel Piven (1965-07-26) July 26, 1965 (age 60) New York City, U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1980–present
Parent(s)	Joyce Hiller Piven (mother) Byrne Piven (father)
Relatives	Shira Piven (sister) Adam McKay (brother-in-law)

Jeremy Samuel Piven (born July 26, 1965) is an American actor. He is well-known for playing Ari Gold in the TV comedy series Entourage. For this role, he won a Golden Globe Award and three Emmy Awards in a row. He also starred in the British historical drama Mr Selfridge and played Spence Kovak in the sitcom Ellen.

Early Life

Jeremy Piven was born in Manhattan, a part of New York City. He grew up in a Jewish family with roots in Ukraine.

His parents, Byrne Piven and Joyce Hiller Piven, were both actors and taught drama. His older sister, Shira Piven, is a director. Jeremy has said she was one of his first acting teachers.

Piven spent his childhood in Evanston, Illinois. He graduated from Evanston Township High School. As a teenager, he went to Harand Theater Camp in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. There, he acted in the musical West Side Story. He also trained at the Piven Theatre Workshop, which his parents started. He studied at Drake University and later at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. He left college early to start his acting career.

He has appeared in several movies with John Cusack. John Cusack is also from Evanston and trained at the Piven Theatre Workshop. They have been friends since high school.

Acting Career

One of Jeremy Piven's first roles was Spike in the 1986 film Lucas. In 1992, he became a regular on HBO's The Larry Sanders Show. He played Jerry, the head writer. He left the show because he felt his character didn't have enough story.

In 1993, he appeared in an episode of Seinfeld. He was also a supporting actor in the last three seasons of the sitcom Ellen, playing Ellen's cousin Spence. He also voiced Elongated Man in three episodes of Justice League Unlimited.

Starting in 2004, Piven became very famous for his role as Ari Gold in the HBO series Entourage. Ari Gold was a fast-talking Hollywood agent. Piven won Emmy awards for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series in 2006, 2007, and 2008. He also won a Golden Globe award for the role in 2008.

Piven has been in many films. These include Judgment Night, Grosse Pointe Blank, The Family Man, Black Hawk Down, The Kingdom, Heat, Old School, and Runaway Jury. He also had small roles in Rush Hour 2 and Cars.

In 2009, Piven was a guest host for the WWE Raw wrestling show. From 2013 to 2016, he played Harry Selfridge in the British TV series Mr Selfridge. This show was based on the real-life story of Harry Selfridge, who started the Selfridge's department store in London.

Personal Life

Jeremy Piven lives in Malibu, California. His brother-in-law is the director Adam McKay.

Piven is a fan of the Chicago Bears football team. He has also played drums with the band Umphrey's McGee.

Filmography

Movies

Key

Denotes works that have not yet been released

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1986	Lucas	Spike
	One Crazy Summer	Ty
1989	Say Anything...	Mark
1990	Grifters, TheThe Grifters	Sailor / Freshman
	White Palace	Kahn
1992	Player, TheThe Player	Steve Reeves
	Twogether	Arnie
	Bob Roberts	Candle Seller
	Singles	Doug Hughley
	There Goes the Neighborhood	Albert Lodge
1993	Twenty Bucks	Nervous Quick-Mart Clerk
	Judgment Night	Ray Cochran
1994	Car 54, Where Are You?	Herbert Hortz
	Floundering	Guy
	PCU	James 'Droz' Andrews
1995	Miami Rhapsody	Mitchell
	Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde	Peter Walston
	Heat	Dr. Bob
1996	Livers Ain't Cheap	John
	E=mc2	Professor Paul Higgins
	Larger Than Life	Walter
	Layin' Low	Jerry Muckler
1997	Just Write	Harold McMurphy
	Grosse Pointe Blank	Paul Spericki
	Kiss the Girls	LAPD Detective Henry Castillo
1998	Music from Another Room	Billy Swan
	Phoenix	Detective Fred Shuster
	Very Bad Things	Michael Berkow
2000	Crew, TheThe Crew	Detective Steve Menteer
	Family Man, TheThe Family Man	Arnie
2001	Rush Hour 2	Versace Salesman
	Serendipity	Dean Kansky
	Black Hawk Down	CW4 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; American version
	Keeping Up with the Steins	Adam Fiedler
	Smokin' Aces	Robert 'Buddy Aces' Israel
2007	Kingdom, TheThe Kingdom	Damon Schmidt
2008	RocknRolla	Roman
2009	Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard, TheThe Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard	Don Ready
2011	I Melt with You	Ron
	Spy Kids: All the Time in the World	Timekeeper / Danger D'Amo
2012	Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists!, TheThe Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists!	Black Bellamy	Voice
	So Undercover	Armon
2014	Edge of Tomorrow	Colonel Walter Marx	Uncredited
	Sin City: A Dame to Kill For	Detective Bob
	Welcome to Me	Additional voices	Voice
2015	Entourage	Ari Gold
2020	Close Encounters of the Fifth Kind	Narrator	Voice
	My Dad's Christmas Date	David
2021	Last Call	Seamus 'Mick' McDougal
	American Night	Vincent
	Ghost Killers	Greg
2022	The Walk	Johnny Bunkley
	The System	Warden Lucas
2023	Sweetwater	Joe Lapchick
	Vindicta	Patrick O'Connor
2025	All-Star Weekend	Danny	Completed
2025	Primitive War	TBA	Finished

Television Shows

Awards and Nominations

See also

In Spanish: Jeremy Piven para niños