Owen Wilson

Owen Cunningham Wilson is an American actor and screenwriter known for his work in comedy, action, and drama films. Over the course of his career, he has earned nominations for an Academy Award, two Actor Awards, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award, and an Independent Spirit Award. He is widely recognized for his frequent artistic collaborations with filmmaker Wes Anderson, as well as his association with a group of comedic actors colloquially known as the Frat Pack.

Wilson was born in Dallas, Texas, the middle of three sons born to photographer Laura Cunningham Wilson and advertising executive Robert Andrew Wilson. His brothers, Andrew and Luke, are also actors. After being expelled from high school for cheating in geometry, Wilson attended the New Mexico Military Institute. He later attended the University of Texas at Austin to pursue a Bachelor of Arts degree in English, where he met and became college roommates with Wes Anderson.

Wilson made his feature film debut in 1996 in the crime comedy Bottle Rocket, which he co-wrote with Anderson after first appearing in a 1994 short film version. Throughout the late 1990s, he co-wrote Anderson's feature films Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums, receiving an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay for the latter. During this period, Wilson also appeared in films such as The Cable Guy, Anaconda, Armageddon, and The Haunting.

In the 2000s, Wilson achieved widespread commercial success, co-starring with Jackie Chan in Shanghai Noon and Shanghai Knights, as well as appearing in Zoolander, Starsky & Hutch, Wedding Crashers, and You, Me and Dupree. In 2006, he debuted as the voice of Lightning McQueen in Pixar's Cars franchise, a role he continued in subsequent sequels. He also starred in the Night at the Museum films and performed in projects such as Behind Enemy Lines and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.

Wilson earned critical praise and a Golden Globe nomination for his leading role in Woody Allen's 2011 romantic comedy Midnight in Paris. His film work through the late 2000s and 2010s included Marley & Me, Drillbit Taylor, The Big Year, and No Escape, alongside additional Wes Anderson projects including The Darjeeling Limited, Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Grand Budapest Hotel, and The French Dispatch.

In television, Wilson made his Marvel Cinematic Universe debut playing Mobius M. Mobius in the Disney+ series Loki from 2021 to 2023, later reprising the character in the 2023 film Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. He subsequently starred in the Apple TV sports comedy-drama series Stick.