Jeremy Renner

Jeremy Lee Renner (born January 7, 1971) is an American actor.

Renner was born in Modesto, California, to mother Valerie Cearley ( Tague) and father Lee Renner, who managed McHenry Bowl, a Modesto bowling alley, in the 1980s.

His parents married as teenagers and divorced when he was ten.

Renner graduated from Fred C. Beyer High School in Modesto in 1989.

He attended Modesto Junior College, where he studied computer science and criminology, before he took a drama class as an elective and decided to pursue acting.

Renner made his film debut as an underachieving student in the 1995 comedy National Lampoon's Senior Trip.

Although the film was critically panned, he went on to guest star on two television shows, Deadly Games and Strange Luck, and had a minor role in the television film A Friend's Betrayal as the friend of Paul Hewitt (Brian Austin Green).

Over the next few years, Renner had guest roles in Zoe, Duncan, Jack and Jane (1999), The Net (1999), The Time of Your Life (1999), and Angel (2000).

In 2001 Renner had a small role in an episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

Renner worked as a makeup artist during this period to help make ends meet.

He began his career by appearing in independent films such as Dahmer (2002) and Neo Ned (2005), then supporting roles in bigger films, such as S.W.A.T. (2003) and 28 Weeks Later (2007).

In 2002, Renner starred in Dahmer as the eponymous serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer.

He found the non-fiction role a challenge to cope with after he had finished shooting the film, knowing that Dahmer had murdered seventeen victims.

His performance was well received, and he gained a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Lead Male.

He also appeared in Pink's 2003 music video for her song "Trouble" as a Bad Boy Sheriff.

Renner went on to appear in S.W.A.T. as the former police partner of Colin Farrell's character in 2003 and The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things in 2004.

In 2005, Renner starred with Julia Stiles and Forest Whitaker in A Little Trip to Heaven, with roles in North Country and 12 and Holding.

He next starred as a neo-Nazi skinhead who is admitted into a psychiatric hospital in Neo Ned with Gabrielle Union.

The film won awards at multiple film festivals, including the Palm Beach International Film Festival Award for Best Actor.

Renner also had a small (though uncredited) role in skateboard film Lords of Dogtown as the manager of Emile Hirsch's character.

In 2006, he starred with Ginnifer Goodwin in Love Comes to the Executioner.

In 2007 Renner had supporting roles in the critically acclaimed The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford as Wood Hite, the cousin of outlaw Jesse James (portrayed by Brad Pitt), and as Sergeant Doyle in 28 Weeks Later.

He starred with Minnie Driver in Take and guest-starred as a patient (a reckless rock musician) in an episode of House.

Renner had a role in the pilot of The Oaks, but the series was not picked up.

Renner gained Academy Award nominations for Best Actor for his performance as a soldier in The Hurt Locker (2009) and for Best Supporting Actor for playing a hot-headed robber in The Town (2010).

After starring with Dallas Roberts in the comedy-drama Ingenious and starring in the short-lived television series The Unusuals, Renner portrayed U.S. Army bomb disposal expert Sergeant First Class William James in the 2009 Iraq war thriller The Hurt Locker (directed by Kathryn Bigelow).

The role earned him several awards in the Best Actor category and his first Academy Award nomination for Best Actor as well a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination.

In 2010, Renner's performance in Ben Affleck's The Town alongside Jon Hamm, Blake Lively, Slaine and Michael Yebba received extremely positive reviews and earned Renner's second Academy Award nomination, for Best Supporting Actor.

He also gained his first Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actor and his second Screen Actors Guild nomination.

The Hollywood Reporter named Renner as one of the young male actors who are "pushing – or being pushed" into taking over Hollywood as the new "A-List".

He also appeared in the action films Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011), The Bourne Legacy (2012), Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013) and Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015); and the dramas American Hustle (2013), Arrival (2016), and Wind River (2017).

Since 2021, he has starred in the Paramount+ crime thriller series Mayor of Kingstown.

He is the oldest of seven siblings, the youngest of whom was born in 2011.

He is of Irish and German descent.

In 2011, Renner had an uncredited cameo appearance as Hawkeye in Thor for familiarity with his character for The Avengers, which was released in May 2012.

The same year, he also starred in the fourth film in the Bourne franchise, The Bourne Legacy, which was written and directed by Tony Gilroy.

Renner played a new lead character, Aaron Cross, in place of Jason Bourne, who was played by Matt Damon in the first three films.

Renner has expressed interest in doing a Bourne film with Damon in the future, stating that "[it] would be kick-ass. I love Matt".

Renner has played Clint Barton / Hawkeye in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, including in The Avengers (2012) and in the Disney+ miniseries Hawkeye (2021).

Renner starred in the action horror film Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters (released in January 2013), in which he and Gemma Arterton played Hansel and Gretel, respectively.