Justin Theroux Biography

Justin Theroux is an American actor whose steady, below-the-radar career was boosted in 2012 after he became Jennifer Aniston‘s romantic interest.

A native of Washington, D.C., Theroux began an art career in New York after graduating from Vermont’s Bennington College in 1993.

He began his acting career on the New York stage, and made his film debut in the independently produced film I Shot Andy Warhol (1996).

Since then he’s had a New York-based career that’s included small but memorable roles in comedies, as well as a couple of solid parts in David Lynch movies.

Early on, Theroux made his remark in 1997’s Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion — as Janeane Garofalo‘s cowboy friend — and in Ben Stiller‘s Zoolander (2001) — as a breakdancing DJ.

He also popped up in two episodes of Sex and the City in 1998 and 1999, playing two different characters, in a recurring role in 2004 in the cable series Six Feet Under and, as the tattooed villain, in Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle (2003).

Known by his black semi-pompadour and showy widow’s peak, Theroux has movie star good looks with an offbeat appeal, used to good effect in the Lynch films Mulholland Dr. (2001) and, in a dual role, Inland Empire (2006).

He also has something of a literary pedigree — his mother is an author and journalist, and his uncle is travel writer and novelist Paul Theroux (The Mosquito Coast).

Justin Theroux shared co-writing duties with Ben Stiller for the comedy Tropic Thunder (2008), and that led to a screenwriting gig for Iron Man 2 (2010, starring Robert Downey, Jr.).

His other acting credits include American Psycho (2000, starring Christian Bale), Miami Vice (2006), John Adams (2008, as John Hancock) and, with Jennifer Aniston and Paul Rudd, Wanderlust (2012).