Jesse Adam Eisenberg born October 5, 1983 is an American actor. He has played featured or starring roles in films including The Squid and the Whale, Adventureland, Zombieland and The Social Network; he has received critical acclaim, including a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Actor, for his performance as Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg in the latter film.
Personal life
Eisenberg was born in Queens, New York City, New York, the son of Amy, who worked as a clown, and Barry Eisenberg, who ran a hospital and later became a college professor. He has two siblings, Hallie Kate Eisenberg, a former child actress, and Kerri. His family is Jewish, and originated in Poland and Ukraine. Eisenberg was raised in Queens and New Jersey, attending the East Brunswick Public Schools at Frost School, Hammarskjold Middle School, Churchill Junior High School, and spending his sophomore year at East Brunswick High School.Eisenberg studied at The New School in New York City's Greenwich Village neighborhood. Originally, he had applied and was accepted to New York University, but declined enrollment in order to complete a film role.
Career
Eisenberg made his Broadway debut as an understudy in a 1996 revival of Summer and Smoke. He made his screen debut on the 1999 television series Get Real, which was canceled in 2000. After appearing in the made-for-television film Lightning: Fire from the Sky, he starred in the independent film Roger Dodger (for which he won an award at the San Diego film festival), and in The Emperor's Club, both of which were released in 2002 to generally positive reviews.
In 2005, Eisenberg appeared in Cursed, a horror film directed by Wes Craven, and The Squid and the Whale, a well-reviewed independent drama also starring Laura Linney and Jeff Daniels. His stage credits include Scarcity at the Atlantic Theater Company (2007) and a workshop production of Lyle Kessler's Orphans in Los Angeles (2006). In 2007, he starred opposite Richard Gere and Terrence Howard in The Hunting Party, a comic thriller in which he plays a young journalist in Bosnia.
In 2009, Eisenberg played the lead role in Adventureland, a comedy directed by Greg Mottola and filmed in Kennywood Park near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Filming ended in October 2007,and the movie premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2009. In November 2007, Eisenberg was cast in the indie comic-drama Holy Rollers. He played a young Hasidic Jew who gets lured into becoming an ecstasy dealer. Filming took place in New York in 2008.He also played the role of Cheston in Solitary Man. In 2010, He starred in the role of Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg in the film The Social Network, for which he earned the Best Actor Award from the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures, and a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama.
After Zombieland 2, Eisenberg will star in another horror film, Camp Hope, directed by George Van Buskirk.He plans to write for stage and screen.
On November 22, 2010, Eisenberg was honored, along with Whoopi Goldberg, Joycelyn Engle and Harvey Krueger, at the Children at Heart Celebrity Dinner Gala and Fantasy Auction, to benefit The Children of Chernobyl. Steven Spielberg is Chair of the event each year.
On January 29, 2011, Eisenberg hosted the late-night show Saturday Night Live on NBC, with musical guest Nicki Minaj. During his opening monologue, Eisenberg met Mark Zuckerberg for the first time.
Filmography
1999 Get Real
2001 Lightning: Fire from the Sky
2002 TheThe Emperor's Club
2002 Roger Dodger
2004 Village
2005 Squid and the Whale
2005 Cursed
2007 Education of Charlie Banks
2007 Hunting Party
2007 One Day Like Rain
2007 Living Wake
2009 Adventureland
2009 Zombieland
2010 Holy Rollers
2010 Camp Hell
2010 Solitary Man
2010 TheThe Social Network
2011 30 Minutes or Less
2011 Zombieland 2
2011 Rio