Jesse Eisenberg

05 Oct, 1983 | New York City, New York

Actor/Producer

Biography

Jesse Adam Eisenberg is an American actor. Personal life Eisenberg was born in New York City, New York, the son of Amy, who worked as a clown, and Barry Eisenberg, who ran a hospital and later became a college professor. He was raised in a Jewish family in Queens and New Jersey. His sister, Hallie Kate Eisenberg, is also an actress. Eisenberg attended the East Brunswick Public Schools at Frost School, Hammarskjold Middle School, Churchill Junior High School, and his freshman year at East Brunswick High School. Eisenberg attends The New School in New York. He had originally applied to New York University but declined enrollment in order to complete a film role, later enrolling at the New School. Career Eisenberg made his Broadway debut as an understudy in a 1996 revival of Summer and Smoke. He made his screen debut on the 1999 television series Get Real, which was canceled in 2000. After appearing in the made-for-television film Lightning: Fire from the Sky, he starred in the independent film, Roger Dodger (for which he won an award at the San Diego film festival), and in the inspirational film The Emperor\'s Club, both of which were released in 2002 to generally positive reviews. In 2005, Eisenberg appeared in Cursed, a horror film directed by Wes Craven, and The Squid and the Whale, a well-reviewed independent drama also starring Laura Linney and Jeff Daniels. In 2007, he starred opposite Richard Gere and Terrence Howard in The Hunting Party, a comic thriller in which he plays a young journalist in Bosnia. Eisenberg will appear in Adventureland, a comedy directed by Greg Mottola and filmed in Kennywood Park near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Filming ended in October 2007 and the movie premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2009. Fellow cast members include Kristen Stewart and Bill Hader. In November 2007, Eisenberg was cast in an indie comic-drama, Holy Rollers. He plays a young Hasidic Jew who gets lured into becoming an ecstasy dealer. Filming was scheduled to begin in New York in 2008. His stage credits include Scarcity at the Atlantic Theater Company (2007) and a workshop production of Lyle Kessler\'s Orphans in Los Angeles (2006). He plans to write for stage and screen.