Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Gordon-Levitt's maternal grandfather, Michael Gordon (1909–1993), was a Hollywood film director.

His mother, Jane Gordon, ran for the United States Congress in California during the 1970s for the Peace and Freedom Party; she met Dennis Levitt while she was working as the program guide editor for KPFK-FM.

Joseph Leonard Gordon-Levitt (born February 17, 1981) is an American actor.

Joseph Leonard Gordon-Levitt was born on February 17, 1981, in Los Angeles, California, and was raised in the Sherman Oaks neighborhood.

He has stated that he is of "100% Ashkenazi Jewish" descent, from a family that is "not strictly religious".

His parents were among the founders of the Progressive Jewish Alliance.

Gordon-Levitt's father, Dennis Levitt, was once the news director for the Pacifica Radio station, KPFK-FM.

During the 1990s, he was frequently featured in teenage magazines.

In 1991, he played both David Collins and Daniel Collins in the Dark Shadows television series and appeared in the film A River Runs Through It.

In the same year, he made an appearance as a boy who witnesses a murder in an episode of Quantum Leap.

Born in Los Angeles to a Jewish family, Gordon-Levitt began his acting career as a child, appearing in the films A River Runs Through It (1992), Holy Matrimony (1994), and Angels in the Outfield (1994), which earned him a Young Artist Award and a Saturn Award nomination.

During 1992–93, he played in The Powers That Be, a sitcom starring John Forsythe, as a clever young boy named Pierce Van Horne.

Also in 1992, he portrayed Gregory Kingsley in the made-for-TV film Switching Parents, based on Kingsley's real life case of "divorcing" his parents.

In 1994, he starred in the Disney film Angels in the Outfield as an orphan who sees angels.

He played the role of Tommy Solomon in the TV series 3rd Rock from the Sun (1996–2001).

In 1996, he got the role of Tommy Solomon on the sitcom 3rd Rock from the Sun.

The series ran for six seasons.

The San Francisco Chronicle noted that Gordon-Levitt was a "Jewish kid playing an extraterrestrial pretending to be a Jewish kid".

He also made an appearance on That '70s Show in 1998 as Buddy, a gay teenager who assumes his friend (main character Eric Forman) is gay as well, in the episode "Eric's Buddy".

Gordon-Levitt had a supporting role in 1998's Halloween H20: 20 Years Later, the 1999 film 10 Things I Hate About You, a modern-day adaptation of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew, and voiced Jim Hawkins in Treasure Planet (2002), a Disney adaptation of the novel Treasure Island.

He had a supporting role in 10 Things I Hate About You (1999) and voiced Jim Hawkins in the Disney animated Treasure Planet (2002) before taking a break from acting to study at Columbia University, but dropped out in 2004 to resume his acting career.

Gordon-Levitt attended Van Nuys High School and graduated in 1999.

Gordon-Levitt joined a musical theater group at the age of four and played the Scarecrow in a production of The Wizard of Oz.

Subsequently, he was approached by an agent and began appearing on television and in commercials for Sunny Jim peanut butter, Cocoa Puffs, Pop-Tarts, and Kinney Shoes.

At age six he starred in several made-for-television films.

In 2000, he began attending Columbia University.

He studied history, literature, and French poetry.

He became an avid Francophile and a French speaker.

He also dated actress Julia Stiles and the two lived in John Jay Hall.

He said that moving to New York City from his hometown forced him to grow as a person.

Since returning to acting, Gordon-Levitt has starred in Manic (2001), Mysterious Skin (2004), Brick (2005), G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009), Inception (2010), The Dark Knight Rises (2012), Looper (2012), and Lincoln (2012).

He dropped out in 2004 to concentrate on acting again.

He has received various accolades, including nominations for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for his leading performances in 500 Days of Summer (2009) and 50/50 (2011).

He previously directed and edited two short films, both of which were released in 2010: Morgan M. Morgansen's Date with Destiny and Morgan and Destiny's Eleventeenth Date: The Zeppelin Zoo.

In 2021, he wrote, directed and starred in a comedy drama series Mr. Corman on Apple TV+.

Gordon-Levitt had an older brother, Dan, a photographer and fire spinner who died in 2010 at the age of 36.

In 2013, he wrote and directed Don Jon, a comedy-drama film that was released to positive reviews and earned him an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best First Screenplay.

He is the founder of the online media platform HitRecord whose projects such as HitRecord on TV (2014–15) and Create Together (2020) won him two Primetime Emmy Awards in the category of Outstanding Interactive Program.

He portrayed Philippe Petit in the Robert Zemeckis-directed film The Walk (2015) and whistleblower Edward Snowden in the Oliver Stone film Snowden (2016).

In 2020, he had a supporting role in the legal drama The Trial of the Chicago 7.