Ethan Hawke

Ethan Green Hawke is an American actor, author, and filmmaker whose career on both stage and screen spans four decades. Known for his versatility across a range of roles and his frequent collaborations with director Richard Linklater, he has worked in both independent films and blockbusters. His accolades include a Daytime Emmy Award, alongside nominations for five Academy Awards, two British Academy Film Awards, three Golden Globes, and a Tony Award.

Hawke was born in Austin, Texas, on November 6, 1970. Raised primarily by his mother following his parents' separation, he spent his youth moving between locations including Brooklyn, New York, and West Windsor Township, New Jersey. He graduated from the Hun School of Princeton in 1988, having studied acting at the McCarter Theatre and participated in high school plays. He briefly attended Carnegie Mellon University and later New York University before leaving higher education to pursue acting full-time.

He made his film debut at age fourteen in Explorers (1985) before achieving a breakthrough role in the critically and commercially successful drama Dead Poets Society (1989). In 1991, Hawke co-founded the Manhattan-based theater company Malaparte and starred in his first leading film role in White Fang. He made his Broadway debut in 1992 in Anton Chekhov's The Seagull and subsequently appeared in the survival drama Alive (1993). Hawke established himself as a prominent leading man with the comedy-drama Reality Bites (1994).

In 1995, Hawke starred alongside Julie Delpy in Linklater's romantic drama Before Sunrise, contributing to the film's dialogue and character development. During the remainder of the 1990s, he published his debut novel, The Hottest State (1996), and directed an award-winning music video for Lisa Loeb. His screen roles during this era included the science fiction film Gattaca (1997), Great Expectations (1998), The Newton Boys (1998), Snow Falling on Cedars (1999), and Michael Almereyda's modern adaptation of Hamlet (2000).

Hawke earned his first Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his role as a rookie narcotics officer in the crime thriller Training Day (2001). He expanded his career behind the camera by making his feature directorial debut with Chelsea Walls (2002) and publishing his second novel, Ash Wednesday (2002). He received two Oscar nominations for screenwriting for installments of the Before trilogy (1995–2013), and garnered another Best Supporting Actor Academy Award nomination for Linklater's drama Boyhood (2014).

Hawke's subsequent work spans commercial hits such as Sinister (2012), The Purge (2013), and the Black Phone films (2021–2025), alongside praised performances in Maudie (2016) and First Reformed (2017). His directing projects include films such as Blaze (2018) and Wildcat (2023), as well as the documentary series The Last Movie Stars (2022). On television, he received a Golden Globe nomination for the miniseries The Good Lord Bird (2020) and appeared in Moon Knight (2022). For playing Lorenz Hart in Blue Moon (2025), he earned Best Actor nominations at the Oscars, BAFTAs, and Golden Globes.