Adrien Brody

Adrien Nicholas Brody is an American actor known for portraying intense and emotionally charged characters in leading and supporting roles across film, television, and theater. He is the youngest recipient of the Academy Award for Best Actor, earning his first Oscar for his portrayal of Polish pianist Władysław Szpilman in Roman Polanski's war drama The Pianist (2002). Brody earned a second Academy Award for Best Actor for starring in Brady Corbet's period epic The Brutalist (2024). In 2025, Time magazine listed him as one of the world's 100 most influential people.

Brody was born on April 14, 1973, in Woodhaven, Queens, New York City. He is the son of photographer Sylvia Plachy and retired history professor and painter Elliot Brody. As a child, he performed magic shows under the stage name "The Amazing Adrien." Brody took acting classes at a young age and attended I.S. 145 Joseph Pulitzer Middle School, Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, and Long Lake Camp for the Arts. He briefly attended Stony Brook University before transferring to Queens College for a semester.

By age thirteen, Brody had appeared in an Off-Broadway play and a PBS television film. His breakthrough role came as a supporting character in Steven Soderbergh's drama King of the Hill (1993), which marked a pivotal moment in his early career. He followed this with roles in Bullet (1996), Restaurant (1998)—earning an Independent Spirit Award nomination—Terrence Malick's The Thin Red Line (1998), Spike Lee's Summer of Sam (1999), and Harrison's Flowers (2000).

Brody achieved international acclaim for The Pianist (2002). To prepare for the role, he withdrew from public life, lost thirty pounds, and learned to play piano pieces by Chopin. At age twenty-nine, he became the youngest winner of the Academy Award for Best Actor and also won a César Award. He subsequently starred in films including Dummy (2003), The Village (2004), The Jacket, King Kong (2005), Hollywoodland (2006), Splice (2009), Predators (2010), Midnight in Paris (2011), and Blonde (2022). Brody also established a recurring collaboration with filmmaker Wes Anderson, appearing in The Darjeeling Limited (2007), Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009), The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), The French Dispatch (2021), and Asteroid City (2023).

Brody expanded into television with roles such as Luca Changretta in Peaky Blinders (2017) and Pat Riley in Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty (2022–2023). He earned Primetime Emmy Award nominations for his performances as Harry Houdini in the miniseries Houdini (2014) and investor Josh Aaronson in Succession (2021). On stage, Brody made his London debut in 2024 playing exonerated death-row inmate Nick Yarris in Lindsey Ferrentino's play The Fear of 13, earning a nomination for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor. He reprised the role on Broadway in 2026.

In 2024, Brody received critical acclaim for playing Hungarian-Jewish Holocaust survivor László Tóth in The Brutalist. In addition to his second Oscar, the role earned him a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Critics Choice Award.