Keanu Reeves Biography

Keanu Reeves played the messianic hero Neo in the sci-fi film The Matrix and its sequels, which became one of the highest-grossing film series in history.

Since 2014 he’s been in the hugely successful series of films that includes John Wick (2014), John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017) and John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum (2019).

Despite several TV appearances and the serious teen movie River’s Edge (1986), Reeves became better known for his success in the wacky 1988 comedy Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, a role that helped facilitate an image of a not-so-bright surfer dude.

A mix of roles kept him in the public eye, including Point Break, My Own Private Idaho and Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey, all in 1991.

He managed to fight his way into mainstream roles, breaking through as a leading man by playing a cop in the blockbuster Speed (1994, with Sandra Bullock).

Reeves then fortified his reputation as a hunky hero in movies like The Matrix series (1999-2003, with Laurence Fishburne), the football comedy The Replacements (2000) and, later, the John Wick movies.

Critics love to harsh on Reeves’s acting ability, pointing to such films as Francis Ford Coppola‘s Dracula (1992) and Chain Reaction (1996, with Morgan Freeman), but he remains a big draw at the box office.

His many films include Johnny Mnemonic (1995, from a story by William Gibson), Devil’s Advocate (1997, opposite Al Pacino), The Gift (2000, starring Cate Blanchett), the time-travel romance The Lake House (2006, reuniting him with co-star Bullock), the sci-fi tale A Scanner Darkly (2006, based on the novel by Philip K. Dick), the martial arts movie 47 Ronin (2013); Toy Story 4 (2019, with Tom Hanks and Tim Allen) and Bill & Ted Face the Music (2020).