Adam Driver

Adam Driver (born November 19, 1983) is an American actor. He rose to prominence in the supporting role of Adam Sackler in the HBO comedy-drama series Girls (2012–2017), for which he received three consecutive nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series. He made his Broadway debut in Mrs. Warren's Profession (2010). In 2011, he returned to Broadway in Man and Boy and made his feature film debut in J. Edgar.

Driver has appeared in supporting roles in a wide range of films, including Lincoln (2012), Frances Ha (2012), Inside Llewyn Davis (2013), and Silence (2016). He starred in While We're Young (2014) and won the Volpi Cup for his role in Hungry Hearts (2014), as well as several best actor awards for his performance in Jim Jarmusch's Paterson (2016).

Driver gained worldwide attention and acclaim for playing the main antagonist Kylo Ren in the Star Wars sequel trilogy, first in The Force Awakens (2015) then The Last Jedi (2017). He is set to reprise the role in Episode IX (2019). He is also the founder of Arts in the Armed Forces (AITAF), a nonprofit that performs theater for all branches of the military, both in the United States and abroad.[2]

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Early life

Driver was born in Fontana, California,[3] the son of Nancy Wright (née Needham), a paralegal, and Joe Douglas Driver.[4][5][6] His father's family is from Arkansas and his mother's family is from Indiana. His stepfather, Rodney G. Wright, is a minister at a Baptist church.[7] When Driver was seven years old, he moved with his older sister and mother to her hometown of Mishawaka, Indiana, where he grew up and attended high school at Mishawaka High School.[8][9] Driver had a religious upbringing, and sang in choir at church.[10] As a teenager, Driver described himself as a "misfit", telling M Magazine that he climbed radio towers, set objects on fire, and also co-founded a fight club with his friends after being inspired by the movie of the same name.[11] After high school and before his military service, Driver worked as a door-to-door salesman selling Kirby vacuum cleaners and as a telemarketer for a basement waterproofing company and Ben Franklin Construction.[12]

Military service and education

Shortly after the September 11 attacks, Driver joined the United States Marine Corps[13] and was assigned to Weapons Company, 1st Battalion, 1st Marines as an 81mm mortar man.[14] He served for two years and eight months with no deployments before breaking his sternum while mountain biking.[15] He was medically discharged. After leaving the Marine Corps, Driver attended the University of Indianapolis for a year; he transferred to the Juilliard School to study drama. Driver said that he was seen as an intimidating and volatile figure by his classmates, and struggled to fit into a lifestyle so different from the Marines.[11] He was a member of the Drama Division's Group 38 (2005–2009), along with his future wife Joanne Tucker. He graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 2009.[16]

Career

Early career (2009–2011)

Following his graduation from Juilliard, Driver began acting in New York City, appearing in both Broadway and off-Broadway productions. Like many other aspiring actors, he occasionally worked as a busboy and waiter.[17] Driver appeared in several television shows and short films. He made his feature film debut in Clint Eastwood's J. Edgar (2011).

Breakthrough (2012–2014)

In 2012, Driver was cast in the HBO hit comedy-drama series Girls, as the emotionally unstable Adam Sackler, lead character Hannah Horvath's boyfriend. He has received three nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for his role. Apart from appearing in the short film Not Waving But Drowning and the film Gayby, Driver had key roles in two critically acclaimed films of 2012. He played telegraph and cipher officer Samuel Beckwith in Steven Spielberg's Lincoln and Lev Shapiro in Noah Baumbach's Frances Ha.

Driver appeared in four films in 2013: Bluebird, The F Word, as musician Al Cody in the Coen Brothers' Inside Llewyn Davis, and as photographer Rick Smolan in Tracks. In 2014, he played despairing father Jude in the Italian film Hungry Hearts, Philip Altman in This Is Where I Leave You, and aspiring filmmaker Jaime in While We're Young, starring Naomi Watts and Ben Stiller. For his role in Hungry Hearts, Driver won the Volpi Cup for Best Actor at the 71st Venice International Film Festival.[18]

Mainstream and critical success (2015–present)

In late February 2014, Variety reported that Driver would play his most emotionally unstable character yet, villain Kylo Ren in the 2015 film Star Wars: The Force Awakens.[19] On April 29, 2014, he was confirmed as a cast member.[20] The Force Awakens was released on December 18, 2015.[21] Both the film and Driver's performance were well received by critics and audiences alike. Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian highlighted Driver's performance in his review of the film calling him "gorgeously cruel, spiteful and capricious...very suited to Kylo Ren's fastidious and amused contempt for his enemies' weakness and compassion."[22] Driver hosted the January 16, 2016 episode of Saturday Night Live. In 2016, Driver was featured in the short play The Strangest Kind of Romance by Tennessee Williams, for Playing On Air, a non-profit organization that "records short plays [for public radio and podcast] written by top playwrights and performed by outstanding actors."[23][24]

Driver co-starred in the Jeff Nichols-directed film Midnight Special,[25] which was released on March 18, 2016.[26] He also appeared in Martin Scorsese's 2016 film Silence.[27][28] Jim Jarmusch's Paterson was Driver's final film release in 2016.[29] The film had its world premiere at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival,[30] and was released later on December 28, 2016 in the United States.[31] His performance received positive reviews with Time's Stephanie Zacharek writing "Driver is turning out to be one of the finest actors of the moment, an understated star with a great, non-movie-star face."[32] Paterson was included in many critics Top 10 list at the end of the year.

In 2017, he starred as Clyde, alongside Channing Tatum and Daniel Craig, in Steven Soderbergh's Logan Lucky, which premiered in August. He received critical acclaim for his performance as a one-armed redneck veteran.

He also reprised his role as Kylo Ren in the heavily anticipated Star Wars: The Last Jedi, which was released in December 2017.[33] As with The Force Awakens, his performance was greatly received, with his character becoming more lauded as the best of the series, with David Edelstein of Vulture writing, "the core of The Last Jedi — of this whole trilogy, it seems — is Driver’s Kylo Ren, who ranks with cinema’s most fascinating human monsters." [34]

Upcoming projects

At the Cannes Film Festival in 2016, it was announced that he was set to star in Terry Gilliam's The Man Who Killed Don Quixote.[35] He is set to reprise the lead role of Toby or Sancho Paza who travels back and forth in time from 21st Century to 17th Century with. He is also attached to star in Sylvester Stallone's Tough As They Come,[36] as well as Leos Carax's upcoming music drama titled Annette,[37] Spike Lee's true crime thriller BlacKkKlansman,[38] and Noah Baumbach's upcoming film opposite to Scarlett Johansson, which currently has no title.[39][40][41] Driver is expected to reprise his role as Kylo Ren in Star Wars: Episode IX.[42]

Personal life

Driver married Joanne Tucker in June 2013.[43] They live together in Brooklyn with their rottweiler-pit bull mix, Moose.[44]

Filmography

Film

Television

Video games

Year Title Role Notes 2015

Disney Infinity 3.0 Kylo Ren / Ben Solo Voice 2016

Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens Kylo Ren / Ben Solo Voice

Stage

Awards and nominations

References

‏Source en.wikipedia.org