Jeremy Piven Biography

Jeremy Piven won his third Emmy in 2008 for his supporting role as Hollywood agent Ari Gold in the HBO series Entourage. Piven grew up in Evanston, Illinois in a theater family: his parents, Byrne and Joyce Piven, began Chicago’s Piven Theatre Workshop in the 1970s. Piven studied acting in Illinois and New York and began getting work in Hollywood in the 1980s. Steadily employed on stage and screen ever since, until his gig on Entourage made him a TV star in 2004 Piven was known to most as “that guy who’s in all those John Cusack movies.” Piven and Cusack are childhood friends who have appeared in several movies together — coincidentally, according to Piven. They include Say Anything (1989), The Grifters (1990), Grosse Pointe Blank (1997) and Runaway Jury (2003). Despite the demands of series television with Entourage, Piven stays busy on the big screen and on stage, specializing in loud, gabby types. His films include Twenty Bucks (1993, with Brendan Fraser), Old School (2003, starring Will Ferrell) and Smokin’ Aces (2006, starring Ryan Reynolds).