Jeremy Samuel Piven (born July 26, 1965) is an American actor and producer. He is known for his roles as Ari Gold in the comedy series Entourage, for which he won a Golden Globe Award and three consecutive Emmy Awards, and as Spence Kovak on Ellen DeGeneres's sitcom Ellen. He also starred in the British period drama Mr Selfridge, which tells the story of the man who created the luxury English department store chain Selfridges.
Video Jeremy Piven
Early years
Piven was born in Manhattan, New York, to a Jewish family of Ukrainian-Jewish descent His parents are Byrne Piven (1929-2002) and Joyce Hiller Piven (née Goldstein), both of whom were actors and drama teachers. He grew up in Evanston, Illinois. Piven was raised in a Reconstructionist household. He graduated from Evanston Township High School, and attended Harand Theater Camp in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin as a teenager. He played Bernardo in West Side Story there. In Illinois, he trained at Piven Theatre Workshop, founded by his parents. He also attended Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, where he departed after his sophomore year to attend New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. He left Tisch during his senior year to pursue his acting career and is an alumnus of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity. He spent a semester at the National Theater Institute at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Waterford, Connecticut. He has appeared in a number of films with John Cusack, who is also from Evanston and is a fellow alumnus of the Piven Theatre Workshop (as are Cusack's sisters Joan and Ann). Piven and Cusack once shared an apartment and have been friends since high school.
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Career
Piven's first important role came in 1992 when he became a regular cast member on HBO's The Larry Sanders Show, in which he played the head writer Jerry. He left the show in the second season after growing tired of playing Jerry because his character was not given much of a background.
In 1993, he portrayed George Costanza on the show-within-a-show scene in the Seinfeld episode, "The Pilot". Piven was a supporting cast member on the last three seasons of the sitcom Ellen, where he played the part of Ellen's cousin, Spence. He was also the star and producer of the short-lived ABC dramedy series Cupid and voiced Elongated Man in three episodes of Justice League Unlimited.
Beginning in 2004, Piven achieved significant success playing fast-talking, acerbic Hollywood agent Ari Gold in the HBO series Entourage. He received Emmy nominations for Best Supporting Actor four straight years, from 2005 to 2008, winning the award in 2006, 2007, and 2008; 2009 was the first year in which he did not receive an Emmy Award nomination for his work on the show. He also received Golden Globe nominations from 2005 to 2010 for the role, winning in 2008.
Piven has appeared in numerous successful films, including Lucas, Grosse Pointe Blank, Singles, Very Bad Things, The Family Man, Black Hawk Down, The Kingdom, Heat, PCU, Old School, Rock N Rolla, Serendipity, Smokin' Aces, and Runaway Jury. He has also made cameo appearances in Rush Hour 2 and the US release of Cars.
In 2007, Piven appeared in the video for "Drivin' Me Wild", the third single taken from rapper Common's seventh album, Finding Forever. The two were co-stars in Smokin' Aces, and appeared together when Piven hosted SNL in January 2007.
Piven appeared in the first Broadway revival of David Mamet's Speed-the-Plow, co-starring Mad Men star Elisabeth Moss and three-time Tony nominee Raul Esparza. The production began preview performances on October 3, 2008, and opened on October 23, 2008; the play was due to run through February 22, 2009. After Piven missed several performances, on December 17, 2008, Piven's rep. announced that due to an undisclosed illness, Piven would be ending his run in the play effective immediately. The illness was revealed to be hydrargaria, a disease caused by exposure to mercury or its compounds, though the source is unknown. Rumours have indicated that the high level of mercury could potentially have been caused by Piven's habit of consuming fish twice a day for the past 20 years. An alternative explanation is that the herbal remedies Piven was taking were responsible for his high levels of mercury. Mamet joked that Piven was leaving the play "to pursue a career as a thermometer." On September 1, 2009, Piven, in a guest appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman, explained that he had given up red meat and poultry, and had been getting all of his protein from fish for the past 20 years. William H. Macy and Norbert Leo Butz replaced Piven in the Broadway show.
On August 3, 2009, Piven was the guest host of the WWE Raw wrestling program. During an in-ring appearance, he incorrectly referred to the wrestling promotion's SummerSlam event as "Summerfest".
In August 2011, Piven stated he was interested in portraying the drummer from the Who, Keith Moon. From 2013 to 2016, he played the title role in the British television drama series Mr Selfridge, the semi-fictional story based on the life of Harry Selfridge, the founder of the London department store Selfridge's. The show aired on the ITV network in the United Kingdom and PBS in the United States.
Personal life
He starred in the Travel Channel special Jeremy Piven's Journey of a Lifetime detailing his journey across India. Piven resides in Malibu, California. His sister is director Shira Piven, whom he has described as one of his first acting teachers; his brother-in-law is director Adam McKay.
Piven is a fan of the Chicago Bears, and in 1998 appeared in commercials for the Chicago Blackhawks.
Sexual misconduct allegations
On October 30, 2017, actress Ariane Bellamar accused Piven of several instances of sexual harassment and assault. The next day, Piven responded to these allegations writing, "I unequivocally deny the appalling allegations being peddled about me. It did not happen." Cassidy Freeman came to Bellamar's defense in an Instagram post, hinting at her own troubling past with Piven, who the actress claims did something to her when she was "far too young." On November 9, advertising executive Tiffany Bacon Scourby alleged that Piven had attacked her in 2003, stating that he had "jumped on" her, "exposed his genitals, held her hands down and began rubbing against her body until he ejaculated." Piven responded to the allegations, calling them "absolutely false and completely fabricated." A representative for Piven said that the actor was "looking at legal options." On November 13, Piven voluntarily took a polygraph test in which he was asked a series of questions about each allegation; allegations which he again denied. He passed the test with "no signs of deception." The polygraph test was administered by a member of the American Polygraph Association. Later that month, Anastasia Taneie, who worked as an extra on Entourage, alleged that Piven "confronted her in a dark hallway and groped her breast and genitals as he forcefully pushed her against a wall." On November 27, 2017, CBS decided not to order a full season of Wisdom of the Crowd following weak ratings and allegations of sexual harassment involving Jeremy Piven.
Filmography
Film
Television
Awards and nominations
References
External links
- Jeremy Piven on Twitter
- Jeremy Piven on IMDb
- Jeremy Piven on Charlie Rose
- Works by or about Jeremy Piven in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
- "Jeremy Piven collected news and commentary". The Guardian.
- "Jeremy Piven collected news and commentary". The New York Times.
- Interview on WHO.com with Jeremy Piven and Doug Ellin
- Piven on "Speed-The-Plow" and Mercury Poisoning at Yahoo!
- Jeremy Piven at Emmys.com
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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