Mark Ruffalo

Mark Alan Ruffalo (born November 22, 1967) is an American actor and producer. He first gained widespread recognition for his work in the off-Broadway play This Is Our Youth (1996) and the drama film You Can Count on Me (2000). Over his career, he has appeared in independent films, romantic comedies, dramatic thrillers, and major studio franchises. He is internationally recognized for portraying Bruce Banner / Hulk in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, beginning with the 2012 film The Avengers.

Ruffalo was born in Kenosha, Wisconsin, to Marie Rose, a hairdresser and stylist, and Frank Lawrence Ruffalo Jr., a construction painter. He grew up in a household with a mixture of Christian, Catholic, and Baháʼí religious viewpoints. As a child and young adult, he experienced undiagnosed dyslexia and ADHD. He spent his teenage years in Virginia Beach, Virginia, where he competed in wrestling and acted with the Patriot Playhouse. After graduating from First Colonial High School in 1986, he moved with his family to San Diego and later to Los Angeles. There, he took acting classes at the Stella Adler Academy, co-founded the Orpheus Theatre Company, and spent nearly ten years working as a bartender.

Ruffalo made his screen debut in an episode of CBS Summer Playhouse in 1989 and appeared in early films such as Mirror, Mirror II: Raven Dance (1994). His breakthrough came in Kenneth Lonergan's You Can Count on Me (2000), which earned him accolades from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and the Montreal World Film Festival. Throughout the 2000s, he starred in notable films across several genres, including The Last Castle (2001), 13 Going on 30 (2004), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), Collateral (2004), Just Like Heaven (2005), and Zodiac (2007). He made his feature film directorial debut with Sympathy for Delicious (2010), which won the Special Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival.

In 2006, Ruffalo made his Broadway debut in Clifford Odets's Awake and Sing!, earning a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actor in a Play. He later returned to Broadway in a 2017 revival of Arthur Miller's The Price. In feature films, Ruffalo earned a record-tying four Academy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actor for his performances in The Kids Are All Right (2010), Foxcatcher (2014), Spotlight (2015), and Poor Things (2023).

In addition to his film work, Ruffalo has earned prominent awards for his roles on television. He won a Screen Actors Guild Award for portraying an activist in the television film The Normal Heart (2014) and a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor for playing identical twins in the HBO limited series I Know This Much Is True (2020). Alongside his dramatic performances, he has continued his recurring role as Bruce Banner across various Marvel projects, including Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Thor: Ragnarok (2017), Avengers: Endgame (2019), and the series She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (2022).