Paul Dano Biography

Paul Dano is the actor who played the sullen teen brother in Little Miss Sunshine and the crazy boy-preacher in There Will Be Blood.

Before he was in the movies, Dano was on the Broadway stage, appearing when he was not yet 12 years old in the 1996 revival of Inherit the Wind (starring George C. Scott).

Out of high school he began working in TV and films, including two episodes of The Sopranos (2002-04) and the independent film L.I.E. (2001).

He made an impression in a small role in 2004 comedy The Girl Next Door (starring Elisha Cuthbert and Emile Hirsch), but it was the success of Little Miss Sunshine (2006, starring Abigail Breslin) that made Dano famous.

Dano was on the New York stage again in 2007, in Things We Want (directed by Ethan Hawke), and then he appeared in 2008 with Daniel Day-Lewis in the movie There Will Be Blood.

Dano’s other films include The Ballad of Jack and Rose (2005, also with Day-Lewis), Fast Food Nation (2006), Gigantic (2008, with Zooey Deschanel), Knight and Day (2010, starring Tom Cruise), 12 Years a Slave (2013) and Swiss Army Man (2015).