Jeremy Piven is an American actor and producer. He is best known for his role as Hollywood agent Ari Gold on the HBO series Handsome. For this work, he received three Emmy and Golden Globe awards. He also appeared in the title role in the series "Mr. Selfridge" and the crime comedy "Very Wild Things." Participated in almost a hundred projects during his career.
Childhood and youth
Jeremy Piven was born on July 26, 1965 in New York to a Jewish family of Ukrainian origin. Both parents are actors and acting instructors. Jeremy grew up in Evanston, Illinois.
From childhood he was fond of theater, studied at the acting studio under the guidance of his parents and spent summers at the theater camp. After graduating from high school, he studied at several colleges, eventually enrolling at the prestigious Tisch School of the Arts in New York City, from which he left shortly before graduation in order to concentrate on his acting career.
Begin acting
Jeremy Piven began acting in varioustelevision projects and feature films in the late eighties. He appeared in small roles in the youth melodramas Lucas and Say Something. In 1992, he joined the main cast of The Larry Sanders Show, where he played screenwriter Jerry. He left the series after the second season, as he was not satisfied with the development of the character.
Also appeared in an episode of the cult sitcom Seinfeld. He played small roles in the popular films "Fight" and "Murder at Grosse Point." In the last three seasons of the comedy series, Ellen played a minor character - the cousin of the main character. In 1998, he received a minor role in Peter Berg's crime comedy "Very Wild Things".
Serial Handsome
The breakthrough project in the creative biography of Jeremy Piven was the series "Handsome", based on the biography of Mark Wahlberg. The actor played Hollywood agent Ari Gold, the project's most charismatic and fan-favorite character.
Piven has received many prestigious awards for his work, including three consecutive Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe statuette. The series lasted eight seasons and was one of the most popular projects of the HBO channel. In 2015, a few years later, a full-length film was released, which is a continuation of the storyline of the series.
Other projects
After the success of "Handsome" came out several successful feature films with Jeremy Piven. He appeared in the crime comedies "Trump Aces" and "Rock 'n'role player." In 2009, he played the central character in the film "Salesman".
In 2013, Jeremy Piven began starring in the historical series Mr. Selfridge, portraying the founder of the first department store in history. The project stayed on the air for four seasons and received positive reviews from critics.
In 2015, Piven appeared in the sequel to Robert Rodriguez's cult film Sin City.
In 2017, the series "The Wisdom of the Crowd" was released. After thirteen episodes aired, the project was canceled by the channel due to too low ratings.
Private life
Jeremy studied with actor Billy Zane. He has been friends with John Cusack since childhood. They studied together in the acting studio of Piven's parents. Celebrity comedy director Adam McKay is married to his sister Jeremy.
The actor is a fan of the Chicago Bears football team. He is a supporter of the US Democratic Party, supported presidential candidate Bernie Sanders in the 2016 elections.
For a long time, Jeremy Piven's personal life was not discussed in the media. However, in 2017, in the wake of allegations against Harvey Weinstein, the actor's allegations of sexual harassment appeared in the press. Many of the women who worked on Piven's projects stated that he behaved inappropriately, used force and touched them without their consent.
These accusations seriously hit Jeremy's career. It is believed that the low ratings of his latest television project are associated with them. Hetried to prove his innocence by taking a lie detector test, which was certified by a polygraph specialist. However, even after the test did not reveal anything in the actor's behavior that would indicate that he was lying, new accusations from women in the film industry continued to appear in the press. The actor continues to deny all charges and maintain his own innocence, but his career is still almost irreparably damaged.
