Jeremy Piven Biography

Jeremy Samuel Piven (born July 26, 1965) is an American film producer and actor best known for his role as Ari Gold in the television series Entourage for which he has won one Golden Globe Award and three consecutive Emmy Awards as well as several other nominations for Best Supporting Actor.

Early years

Piven was born in Manhattan, New York City, and grew up in Evanston, Illinois, a suburb north of Chicago. He was raised in a Reconstructionist Jewish household. He graduated from Evanston Township High School, 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, founded by his parents, Byrne Piven and Joyce Hiller Piven (née Goldstein), both of whom were actors and drama teachers. He also attended Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa where he earned a degree in theatre, and is a member of the Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity. 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 important role came in 1992 when he became a regular cast member on HBO's The Larry Sanders Show, in which 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, The Kingdom, Heat, PCU, Old School, Rock N Rolla, Serendipity, Smokin' Aces, and Runaway Jury. He has also made cameo appearances in Rush Hour 2 and the US release of Cars and God Made Velcro's 1998 music video "Shock the Mind".

Beginning in 2004, Piven scored a significant success 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 did not 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.

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. 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. An alternative explanation is that the herbal remedies Piven was taking were responsible for his high levels of mercury.

Mamet joked that Piven was leaving the play "to pursue a career as a thermometer." 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 20 years. William H. Macy and Norbert Leo Butz replaced Piven in the Broadway show.

In August 2011, Piven stated he was interested in portraying the late drummer from The Who, Keith Moon. In 2013 he played the title role in the British television drama series Mr Selfridge, the story of the London department store Selfridges. The show airs on the ITV network in the United Kingdom and PBS in the United States.

Personal life

Piven was born to Jewish parents (of Russian origin) and considers himself a Jewish Buddhist. He starred in the Travel Channel special Jeremy Piven's Journey of a Lifetime detailing his journey across India. Piven resides in Malibu, California. He is also a knowledgeable fight fan and was recently ringside for Derreck Chisora's sixth round knockout over the previously unbeaten American Heavyweight Malik Scott.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1986	Lucas	Spike
	One Crazy Summer	Ty
1989	Say Anything...	Mark
1990	'	Sailor " Freshman
	White Palace	Kahn
1992	'	Steve Reeves
	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	Floundering	Guy
	Car 54, Where Are You?	Herbert Hortz
	Twogether	Arnie
	PCU	James "Droz" Andrews
1995	Miami Rhapsody	Mitchell
	Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde	Peter Walston
	Heat	Dr. Bob
1996	Larger Than Life	Walter
	E=mc2	Prof. Paul Higgins
	Layin Low	Jerry Muckler
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	'	Det. Steve Menteer
	'	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	Keeping Up with the Steins	Adam Fiedler
	Smokin' Aces	Buddy "Aces" Israel
	Cars	Harv	Voice
2007	'	Damon Schmidt
2008	RocknRolla	Roman
2009	'	Don Ready
2011	I Melt With You	Ron
	Spy Kids: All the Time in the World	Timekeeper/Danger De Amo
2012	'	Black Bellamy	Voice
	So Undercover	Armon
2014	Sin City: A Dame to Kill For	Bob	Post-production

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1990	Carol & Company	Comedy sketch characters	Unknown episodes
1992"1998	'	Jerry Capen	15 episodes
1993	Seinfeld	Michael Barth	3 episodes
	'	Howard Richter	Television Film
1995	Chicago Hope	Godfrey Nabbott	2 episodes
	Pride & Joy	Nathan Green	6 episodes
1995"1998	Ellen	Spence Kovak	72 episodes
1997	'	Spence Kovak	1 episode
	Grace Under Fire	Spence Kovak	1 episode
	Coach	Spence Kovak	1 episode
	Duckman	Victor DeMann	Voice; 1 episode
	Don King: Only in America	Hank Schwartz	Television Film
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
	'	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"2011	Entourage	Ari Gold	Main cast
2013	Mr Selfridge	Harry Gordon Selfridge	10 episodes

Awards and Nominations

|- ||2002 |Serendipity |Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor | |- |rowspan="2"|2005 |rowspan="17"|Entourage |Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor " Comedy Series | |- |Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor " Series, Miniseries or Television Film | |- |rowspan="3"|2006 |Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor " Comedy Series | |- |Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor " Series, Miniseries or Television Film | |- |Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor " Series, Miniseries or Television Film | |- |rowspan="4"|2007 |Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor " Comedy Series | |- |Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor " Series, Miniseries or Television Film | |- |Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series | |- |Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series | |- |rowspan="4"|2008 |Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor " Comedy Series | |- |Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor " Series, Miniseries or Television Film | |- |Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series | |- |Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series | |- |rowspan="3"|2009 |Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor " Series, Miniseries or Television Film | |- |Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series | |- |Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series | |- |2010 |Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor " Series, Miniseries or Television Film | |}