Emile Hirsch

Emile Davenport Hirsch is an American actor born on March 13, 1985. He is widely recognized for his portrayal of real-life adventurer Chris McCandless in the 2007 film Into the Wild. Over the course of his career, he has appeared in a wide array of feature films, television projects, voice acting roles, and musical releases.

Hirsch was born in the Palms area of Los Angeles to Margaret Esther Davenport, a visual artist, teacher, and pop-up book designer, and David Milton Hirsch, an entrepreneur, manager, and film producer. He is of German Jewish, English, and Scots-Irish descent. Raised in both Los Angeles and Santa Fe, New Mexico, he attended Alexander Hamilton High School in Los Angeles, where he participated in the music program.

Hirsch began his acting career in television roles during the late 1990s before starring in the 2001 Showtime original film Wild Iris. He made his feature film debut in The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys (2002), followed by a role in The Emperor's Club (2002). He achieved further visibility starring in the 2004 film The Girl Next Door, Imaginary Heroes (2004), Catherine Hardwicke's Lords of Dogtown (2005) as skater Jay Adams, and Alpha Dog (2006) as a character based on Jesse James Hollywood.

Hirsch gained widespread critical acclaim for his lead role in Into the Wild (2007), for which he lost 40 pounds and earned a Screen Actors Guild nomination for best actor. Following this breakthrough, he took on the title character in the Wachowskis' Speed Racer (2008) and played gay-rights activist Cleve Jones in Milk (2008). His filmography continued to expand with projects such as Taking Woodstock (2009), Killer Joe (2011), Savages (2012), Venuto al Mondo (2012), Prince Avalanche (2013), The Motel Life (2013), and the military drama Lone Survivor (2013). He also starred in the television miniseries Bonnie & Clyde in 2013.

In subsequent years, Hirsch featured in films such as The Autopsy of Jane Doe (2016), The Chinese Widow (2017), An Evening with Beverly Luff Linn (2018), Freaks (2018), and played Jay Sebring in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019), with later projects including Woozy (2025). Beginning in 2018, he took over as the voice of James Lake Jr. in Guillermo del Toro's animated Netflix franchise Trollhunters: Tales of Arcadia, continuing the role in 3 Below, Wizards, and Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans. Alongside acting, Hirsch launched a music career under the name Hirsch, releasing his debut album Mnemonic in 2019 and a second album, Denihilism, in 2021.

Hirsch lives in Los Angeles and has a son born in October 2013. In 2015, he was charged with aggravated assault following an incident with a Paramount Pictures executive at a Utah nightclub; he subsequently pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault, served 15 days in jail, completed probation and community service, paid a fine, and entered a rehabilitation facility.