Jesse Eisenberg

Jesse Adam Eisenberg is an American actor, playwright, and filmmaker who was born on October 5, 1983. Recognized for portraying smart but socially awkward characters across comedic and dramatic roles, his work has earned him a BAFTA Award along with nominations for two Academy Awards and three Golden Globes.

Eisenberg was born in Astoria, Queens, and raised in East Brunswick, New Jersey, within a secular Jewish household. His mother worked as a clown and a high school director and choreographer before teaching cross-cultural sensitivity, while his father worked as a taxi driver, hospital employee, and sociology professor. Eisenberg attended local public schools before transferring to the Professional Performing Arts School in New York. Rather than enrolling at New York University, he pursued liberal arts at The New School, focusing on anthropology and contemporary architecture.

Having struggled with an anxiety disorder during his youth, Eisenberg began acting in theater at an early age. He starred in a children's production of Oliver! at age seven and made his professional off-Broadway debut in The Gathering at sixteen, around the same time he began writing screenplays. He made his television debut on the series Get Real (1999–2000) and achieved his breakthrough film role in the independent comedy-drama Roger Dodger (2002). He subsequently appeared in productions such as The Squid and the Whale (2005), The Hunting Party (2007), Adventureland (2009), and Zombieland (2009).

Eisenberg achieved wider recognition for starring as Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in David Fincher's biographical drama The Social Network (2010). His performance earned him the Best Actor Award from the National Board of Review and nominations for an Academy Award, a Golden Globe, and a BAFTA Award. Following this success, he voiced Blu in the animated films Rio (2011) and Rio 2 (2014), and held leading roles in 30 Minutes or Less (2011), Woody Allen's To Rome with Love (2012), and the heist thriller Now You See Me (2013).

His later acting projects include The Double (2013), American Ultra (2015), and The End of the Tour (2015). Eisenberg portrayed the supervillain Lex Luthor in the DC Extended Universe films Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) and Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021). He also starred in Café Society (2016), reprised his role in Now You See Me 2 (2016), and appeared in the miniseries Fleishman Is in Trouble (2022).

In addition to acting, Eisenberg is a published author and playwright. He wrote and starred in three Off-Broadway plays—Asuncion, The Revisionist, and The Spoils—and published the short humor collection Bream Gives Me Hiccups: and Other Stories in 2015. He made his film directorial debut with When You Finish Saving the World (2022) and later wrote, directed, and starred in A Real Pain (2024), which earned him the BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay and an Academy Award nomination.