Driver is the co-founder of Arts in the Armed Forces, a non-profit that brings high-quality arts programming to active-duty service members, veterans, military support staff and their families around the world free of charge. He founded the organization with his wife Joanne Tucker in 2006.
Driver was born in San Diego, California,[3] the son of Nancy Wright (née Sneedham), 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. Driver was raised Baptist.[7][8] He has English, Irish, Scottish, German, and Dutch ancestry.[9] When Driver was seven years old, he moved with his older sister and mother to her hometown of Mishawaka, Indiana, and attended Mishawaka High School, where he graduated in 2001.[10][11] Driver had a religious upbringing and sang in the choir at church.[12]
As a teenager, Driver described himself as a "misfit," telling M Magazine that he climbed radio towers, set objects on fire, and co-founded a fight club with his friends after being inspired by the film Fight Club.[13] 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.[14] After high school, Driver applied to the Juilliard School for drama, but was rejected.
After graduating from Juilliard, Driver began his acting career in New York City, appearing in both Broadway and off-Broadway productions. Like many aspiring actors, he occasionally worked as a busboy and waiter.[19] Driver also appeared in several television shows and short films. He made his feature film debut in Clint Eastwood's biographical drama J. Edgar in 2011.
Mainstream and critical success (2015–present)[edit]
In February 2014, Variety reported that Driver would play the villain, Kylo Ren, in J. J. Abrams' Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015).[24] On April 29, 2014, he was confirmed as a cast member.[25]The Force Awakens was released on December 18, 2015 to commercial and critical success.[26]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."[27]
In 2016, Driver played a supporting role in Jeff Nichols' sci-fi thriller Midnight Special, which was released on March 18, 2016.[28][29] He also co-starred in Martin Scorsese's historical drama Silence (2016) as Father Francisco Garupe, a 17th-century Portuguese Jesuit priest, alongside Andrew Garfield.[30][31] In preparation for the role, Driver lost almost 50 pounds.[32]Jim Jarmusch's drama Paterson was Driver's final film of 2016, in which he played Paterson, a bus driver who writes poetry.[33] The film premiered at Cannes Film Festival and was released on December 28, 2016.[34][35] Driver's performance was acclaimed[36][37] and he received multiple nominations for Best Actor from critics associations, winning several, including the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor.[38]Peter Travers of Rolling Stone wrote "Driver's indelibly moving portrayal is so lived-in and lyrical you hardly recognize it as acting."[39] Paterson was included in many critics' top ten lists of best films of 2016.[40]
In 2017, Driver played a cameo in Noah Baumbach's The Meyerowitz Stories as Randy, marking his third appearance in one of Baumbach's films. The film premiered at Cannes Film Festival and was released on October 13, 2017 on Netflix.[41] He also portrayed Clyde, a one-armed redneck veteran, in Steven Soderbergh's Logan Lucky, which was released on August 18, 2017.[42] He reprised his role as Kylo Ren in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, which was released on December 15, 2017.[43] His performance was positively received, with his character lauded as the best in the series: David Edelstein of Vulture wrote, "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."[44]
Driver married Joanne Tucker in June 2013.[52] They live together in Brooklyn Heights with their young son[53] and dog Moose, a Rottweiler-Pitbull mix.[54]
He is the co-founder of Arts in the Armed Forces (AITAF), a non-profit that performs theatre for all branches of the military, both in the United States and abroad.[55]
James Robert Jarmusch is an American film director, screenwriter, actor, producer, editor, and composer. He has been a major proponent of independent cinema since the 1980s, directing such films as Stranger Than Paradise (1984), Down by Law (1986), Mystery Train (1989), Dead Man (1995), Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999), Coffee and Cigarettes (2003), Broken Flowers (2005), Only Lovers Left Alive (2013), and Paterson (2016). Stranger Than Paradise was added to the National Film Registry in December 2002. As a musician, Jarmusch has composed music for his films and released two albums with Jozef van Wissem.
John Turturro
John Michael Turturro is an Italian-American character actor, writer and filmmaker known for his roles in the films Do the Right Thing (1989), Miller's Crossing (1990), Barton Fink (1991), Quiz Show (1994), The Big Lebowski (1998), O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) and Transformers film series. He has appeared in over sixty films and has worked frequently with the Coen brothers, Adam Sandler and Spike Lee.
Jake Gyllenhaal
Jacob Benjamin Gyllenhaal is an American actor. A member of the Gyllenhaal family and the son of director Stephen Gyllenhaal and screenwriter Naomi Foner, Gyllenhaal began acting as a child with a screen debut in City Slickers (1991), followed by roles in A Dangerous Woman (1993) and Homegrown (1998). His breakthrough performance was as Homer Hickam in October Sky (1999) and he garnered an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Male Lead for playing the title character in the indie cult hit Donnie Darko (2001), in which he played a psychologically troubled teenager, alongside his older sister, Maggie Gyllenhaal. He subsequently appeared in another indie film, The Good Girl (2002) and the climate fiction-disaster film The Day After Tomorrow (2004), portraying a student caught in a cataclysmic climate event.
Noah Baumbach
Noah Baumbach is an American filmmaker. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for The Squid and the Whale (2005) and is known for making dramatic comedies. He has also written and directed the films Frances Ha (2012), While We're Young (2014), Mistress America (2015), and The Meyerowitz Stories (2017).
Chris Evans (actor)
Christopher Robert Evans is an American actor. Evans is known for his superhero roles as the Marvel Comics characters Captain America in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Human Torch in Fantastic Four (2005) and its 2007 sequel.
Mads Mikkelsen
Mads Dittmann Mikkelsen, is a Danish actor. Originally a gymnast and dancer, he began acting in 1996. He rose to fame in Denmark as Tonny the drug dealer in the first two films of the Pusher film trilogy, and in his role as the brash yet sensitive policeman, Allan Fischer, in Peter Thorsboe's Danish television series Rejseholdet (2000–03).
Jon Bernthal
Jonathan Edward Bernthal is an American actor. Bernthal began his career in minor roles on Broadway and theatre before guest starring on various television shows. In 2010, he gained critical acclaim and prominence for his portrayal of Shane Walsh on the AMC series The Walking Dead. He later starred in supporting and leading roles in various critically acclaimed films including The Wolf of Wall Street,Fury, Sicario, The Accountant, Baby Driver, Wind River, and Widows.
Robert De Niro
Robert Anthony De Niro Jr. is an American actor, producer, and director. He is a recipient of numerous accolades, including two Academy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, the Cecil B DeMille Award, AFI Life Achievement Award, Presidential Medal of Freedom, and has been nominated for six BAFTA Awards, two Primetime Emmy Awards and four Screen Actors Guild Awards.
Steven Yeun
Steven Yeun is a Korean-American actor. He is known for playing Glenn Rhee in AMC's horror television series The Walking Dead from 2010 to 2016 and for his role in the South Korean mystery film Burning (2018). For the latter, he won the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actor, among other awards. Yeun has also played supporting roles in the films Okja (2016) and Sorry to Bother You (2018).
Ben Rosenfield
Benjamin "Ben" Rosenfield is an American actor and musician, perhaps best known for playing Willie Thompson on the fourth and fifth seasons of HBO's period crime drama series Boardwalk Empire (2013–2014). He has starred as Tommie Scheel in the documentary film Teenage (2013), Henry Ellis in the musical drama Song One (2014), Fisher Miller in the teen drama Affluenza (2014), Dan Mercer in the romantic drama 6 Years (2015), and Bertram Flusser in the period drama Indignation (2016). In 2017, he portrayed Sam Colby in the third season of Twin Peaks.
Kylo Ren
Kylo Ren is a fictional character in the Star Wars franchise. Introduced in the 2015 film Star Wars: The Force Awakens, he is portrayed by Adam Driver. "Kylo Ren" is the chosen name of Ben Solo, the son of original Star Wars trilogy characters Han Solo and Leia Organa. Though trained by his uncle Luke Skywalker as a Jedi, he has been seduced to the dark side of the Force by Supreme Leader Snoke and aspires to be as powerful as his grandfather, Darth Vader.
Supreme Leader Snoke
Supreme Leader Snoke is a fictional character in the Star Wars franchise. He is a CGI character voiced and performed by Andy Serkis. Snoke was introduced in the 2015 film Star Wars: The Force Awakens as the Supreme Leader of the First Order, a military dictatorship resurrected from the fallen Galactic Empire, which seeks to reclaim control of the galaxy. Powerful with the Force, he seduces Ben Solo to the dark side; Solo serves him as the commander Kylo Ren.
Rey (Star Wars)
Rey is a fictional character in the Star Wars franchise portrayed by English actress Daisy Ridley. First appearing as the main character in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Rey is a scavenger who was left behind on the planet Jakku when she was a child, and later becomes involved with the Resistance's conflict with the First Order when her solitary life is interrupted by BB-8, the droid of ace Resistance pilot Poe Dameron, and a runaway Stormtrooper named Finn.
The Meyerowitz Stories
The Meyerowitz Stories is a 2017 American comedy-drama film directed and written by Noah Baumbach. The film stars Adam Sandler, Ben Stiller, Dustin Hoffman, Elizabeth Marvel and Emma Thompson, and follows a group of dysfunctional adult siblings trying to live in the shadow of their father.
Paterson (film)
Paterson is a 2016 drama film written and directed by Jim Jarmusch. The film stars Adam Driver as a bus driver and poet named Paterson, and Golshifteh Farahani as his wife, who dreams of being a country music star and opening a cupcake business.
General Hux
General Armitage Hux is a fictional character in the Star Wars franchise. First introduced in the 2015 film Star Wars: The Force Awakens, he is portrayed by Irish actor Domhnall Gleeson. He is a ruthless commander in a power struggle with Kylo Ren for the First Order leadership, and being exceeded only by Supreme Leader Snoke. The character first featured in The Force Awakens media and merchandising, and returned in the film's sequel, Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
The Dead Don't Die (2019 film)
The Dead Don't Die is a 2019 American zombie comedy film written and directed by Jim Jarmusch. It features an ensemble cast including Adam Driver, Bill Murray, Selena Gomez, Chloë Sevigny, Steve Buscemi, Austin Butler, RZA, Tilda Swinton, Tom Waits, Danny Glover, Caleb Landry Jones, Rosie Perez and Carol Kane, and follows a small town's police force as they combat a sudden zombie invasion.
List of awards and nominations received by Adam Driver
Adam Driver is an American actor. His breakthrough came in 2012 when he was cast in HBO comedy-drama series Girls (2012–2017), receiving three consecutive nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series and a nomination for a Critics' Choice Television Award. The supporting role in Tracks earned him a Best Actor in a Supporting Role nomination in Film Critics Circle of Australia. The same year he was awarded by Venice Film Festival a Volpi Cup for Best Actor for his role in Hungry Hearts.
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