- Born
- Birth nameAdam Douglas Driver
- Height1.89 m
- Adam Douglas Driver was born in San Diego, California. His mother, Nancy (Needham) Wright, is a paralegal from Mishawaka, Indiana, and his father, Joe Douglas Driver, who has deep roots in the American South, is from Little Rock, Arkansas. His stepfather is a Baptist minister. His ancestry includes Dutch, English, German, Irish and Scottish. Driver was raised in Mishawaka after his parents' divorce, attending Mishawaka High School, where he appeared in plays. After 9/11, he enlisted in the Marines, serving for more than two years before being medically discharged after he suffered an injury, which prevented him from being deployed.
Driver attended the University of Indianapolis (for a year) and then transferred to study drama at Juilliard School in New York City, graduating in 2009. He began acting in plays, appearing on Broadway, before being cast in Lena Dunham's series Girls (2012), as her character's love interest, Adam Sackler. The role gained him attention, and he subsequently began a robust film career, appearing in small roles in J. Edgar (2011) and Lincoln (2012), supporting roles in Frances Ha (2012) and Inside Llewyn Davis (2013), and then to major mesmerizing roles like in the comedy-drama C'est ici que l'on se quitte (2014), Martin Scorsese's Silence (2016) and as Kylo Ren in the Star Wars movie saga beginning with Star Wars : Épisode VII - Le Réveil de la Force (2015).
Widely regarded as the one of greatest actors of his generation by now both in the United States and internationally as his superb qualities have been expressed further in a sublime range of excellent performances full of unique profoundness, subtlety, charisma and insights such as the ones included in brilliant films like Paterson (2016), Logan Lucky (2017), L'homme qui tua Don Quichotte (2018) and The Report (2019). His interpretations in BlacKkKlansman : J'ai infiltré le Ku Klux Klan (2018) and Marriage Story (2019) were also nominated in the Academy Awards for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role and Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role respectively.- IMDb mini biography by: Markos
- SpouseJoanne Tucker(June 22, 2013 - present) (2 children)
- ChildrenChild
- ParentsNancy Wright (Needham)Nancy WrightJoe Douglas DriverRobert G. Wright
- RelativesSibling(Sibling)
- Towering height and slender frame
- Long black hair
- Deep commanding voice
- Known for his aversion to watching or hearing his own performances
- Received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Juilliard School in New York City (2009).
- Does not watch his own performances onscreen, and even declines to listen to audio clips of himself while being interviewed on the radio.
- While serving in the United States Marine Corps, he missed active duty in Iraq on account of a mountain biking accident in which he broke his sternum.
- Attended and graduated from Mishawaka High School in Mishawaka, Indiana (2001).
- Growing up, he sang in the church choir; his stepfather was a minister.
- Just the service aspect of running a nonprofit is so gratifying because it takes the attention off yourself. I'm not an acting monk or anything. I'm not, like, the most well-adjusted actor. But it's really designed to focus on yourself, or it can be. So it's good to have something else to focus on that reminds you that it's not always about you. Something I learned in the Marine Corps that I've applied to acting is, one, taking direction, and then working with a group of people to accomplish a mission and knowing your role within that team.
- I'm like a sight gag, I have this really big face...I don't totally get it. I mean, when I read for Girls (2012) I was, like, the script says 'Handsome Carpenter,' so someone else is going to get the part. They will have someone handsome, not me. I mean, I'm not in any danger of getting leading-man parts.
- The deadly thing in my job is to attach too much meaning to everything. You have to have a sense of humor about yourself...I'm definitely trying to figure this all out as I go along, how to craft a career. As things get bigger, I have days of depression, sitting in the house and wondering 'What are you doing? Is it even relevant?'
- I auditioned in Chicago for Juilliard and didn't get in. I was basically living in a back room of my parents' house, paying rent and not doing anything with my life. I'd like to say it was patriotic to join the Marines, but it was also that I was doing nothing honorable with my life, and spending too much time at McDonald's.
- In the military, you learn the essence of people. You see so many examples of self-sacrifice and moral courage. In the rest of life, you don't get that many opportunities to be sure of your friends.
- RiffTrax: Star Wars - The Rise of Skywalker (2020) - $45,000,000
- Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2008) - $45,000,000
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