Jeremy Samuel Piven is a three-time Emmy Award- and Golden Globe Award-winning American actor.
Piven was born in New York City and grew up in Evanston, Illinois, a suburb north of Chicago. He graduated from Evanston Township High School, and attended Harand Theater Camp in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, as a teenager. He played the part of "Bernardo" in West Side Story, there. In Illinois, he trained at Piven Theatre Workshop, founded by his parents Byrne Piven and Joyce, both of whom were actors and drama teachers. He has a sister, Shira, and attended Camp Chi, a Jewish Community Center summer camp in Lake Delton, Wisconsin, in the 1970s. He also attended Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, and is a member of the Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity. He spent a semester at the National Theater Institute 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. Piven and Cusack once shared an apartment and have been friends since high school.
Piven's first significant role was as a regular castmember for several seasons on HBO's The Larry Sanders Show, where he played the headwriter Jerry. Piven has appeared in several successful films, including Lucas, Grosse Pointe Blank, Very Bad Things, The Family Man, Black Hawk Down, Heat, PCU, Old School, Guy Ritchie's latest outing Rock N Rolla and Runaway Jury. He also had brief cameo appearances in Rush Hour 2 and in the US release of Cars. Since 2004, Piven has played rambunctious Hollywood agent Ari Gold in the HBO series Entourage. He received Emmy nominations for best supporting actor four straight years from 2005 to 2008, and won the award in 2006, 2007, and 2008. He hosted Saturday Night Live on January 20, 2007 with musical guest AFI. Most recently, Piven appeared as Deputy Chief of Mission Damon Schmidt in The Kingdom. He also lent his voice to Earth Hour in a video for a campaign urging people to turn off their lights for one hour on March 29, 2008.
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. Mamet joked that Piven was leaving the play "to pursue a career as a thermometer." The producers announced that William H. Macy will replace Piven in the Broadway show.
Piven considers himself "Jewish-Buddhist." He starred in the Travel Channel special Jeremy Piven's Journey of a Lifetime detailing his journey across India. Former Saturday Night Live writer and comedy director Adam McKay is his brother-in-law. Piven is uncle to Pearl from The Landlord.