Adrien Brody
Template:Short description Template:Distinguish Template:Use American English Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox person Adrien Nicholas Brody (born April 14, 1973) is an American actor. His accolades include two Academy Awards, a British Academy Film Award and a Golden Globe Award, in addition to nominations for three Primetime Emmy Awards and a Laurence Olivier Award. In 2025, Time magazine listed him as one of the world's 100 most influential people.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
Brody started his career in the early 1990s, appearing in a number of roles in his early career, including King of the Hill (1993), The Thin Red Line (1998), and Summer of Sam (1999). Brody won two Academy Awards for Best Actor for portraying Polish pianist Władysław Szpilman in Roman Polanski's war drama The Pianist (2002) and Hungarian brutalist architect László Tóth in Brady Corbet's period epic The Brutalist (2024); his first win, at age 29, made him the youngest winner in the category. His other notable films include The Village (2004), King Kong (2005), Hollywoodland (2006), Cadillac Records (2008), Splice (2009), Predators (2010), Midnight in Paris (2011), Detachment (2011), and Blonde (2022). Also a frequent collaborator of filmmaker Wes Anderson, he acted in his films The Darjeeling Limited (2007), Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009), The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), The French Dispatch (2021), and Asteroid City (2023).
On television, Brody has played Luca Changretta in the fourth season of the BBC series Peaky Blinders (2017), and Pat Riley in the HBO sports drama series Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty (2022–2023). He earned nominations for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie and Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series at the Primetime Emmy Awards for his respective roles as Harry Houdini in the History Channel miniseries Houdini (2014) and investor Josh Aaronson in the HBO series Succession (2021). On stage, Brody made his London theatre debut as death row inmate Nick Yarris in the Lindsey Ferrentino play The Fear of 13 (2024), garnering a nomination for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor.
Early life and education
Adrien Nicholas Brody<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> was born on April 14, 1973,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> in Woodhaven, Queens, New York City, the son of Sylvia Plachy, a photographer, and Elliot Brody, a retired history professor and painter.<ref name="filmref">Template:Cite web</ref> Brody's father is of Polish Jewish descent.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Brody's mother was born in Budapest, Hungary, and emigrated to the U.S. from Austria in 1958, to which she had fled with her parents following the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and having lost most of her relatives to the Holocaust; she was raised Catholic, and is the daughter of a Catholic Hungarian aristocrat father and a Czech Jewish mother.<ref name="forward">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Brody2">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Brody1">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Brody has said he was raised "without a strong connection" to either Judaism or Christianity.<ref name="post">Template:Cite news</ref> <ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
As a child, Brody performed magic shows at children's birthday parties as "The Amazing Adrien".<ref name="voice">Template:Cite news</ref> He attended I.S. 145 Joseph Pulitzer Middle School and Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts in New York. He attended summer camp at Long Lake Camp for the Arts in the Adirondacks in upstate New York.<ref name="camp">Template:Cite web</ref> Brody attended Stony Brook University before transferring to Queens College for a semester.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Career
1989Template:Ndash2002: Beginnings and breakthrough
Taking acting classes as a child, by age thirteen, Brody appeared in an Off-Broadway play and a PBS television film.<ref name=parade>Template:Cite news</ref> His breakthrough came with a supporting role in Steven Soderbergh's King of the Hill (1993), a critically acclaimed drama often recognized as a pivotal moment in his early career, with both critics and Brody himself citing it as his big break.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news * Template:Cite web * Template:Cite web</ref> In 1996, he starred alongside Tupac Shakur and Mickey Rourke in Bullet. Brody hovered on the brink of stardom, earning an Independent Spirit Award nomination for his performance in the 1998 film Restaurant and receiving praise for his roles in Terrence Malick's The Thin Red Line and Spike Lee's Summer of Sam (1999).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Director Roman Polanski, impressed by Brody's work in Harrison's Flowers (2000), cast him the lead role in The Pianist (2002).<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> To prepare for the role, Brody withdrew from public life for months, gave up his apartment and his car, and took piano lessons for four hours a day until he could master passages from some of Chopin's finest works.<ref name="parade" /> At Template:Cvt tall, he lost Template:Convert, dropping him to Template:Cvt. The role won him an Academy Award for Best Actor, making him, at age twenty-nine, the youngest actor ever to win the award, and, to date, the only winner under the age of thirty. He also won a César Award for his performance.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> The role also earned him Best Actor nominations at the BAFTA, Golden Globes, and SAG Awards; Brody did not win any of these prizes, making him one of few actors to win an Oscar and no major precursor awards for a performance.
2003Template:Ndash2013: Post-The Pianist work
After The Pianist, Brody appeared in four distinctively different films. In Dummy (released in 2003, but originally shot in 2000, just prior to his work in The Pianist), he portrayed Steven Schoichet, a socially awkward aspiring ventriloquist in pursuit of a love interest (his employment counsellor, played by Vera Farmiga). He learned ventriloquism and puppetry for the role (under the tutelage of actor and ventriloquist Alan Semok) convincingly enough to perform all of the voice stunts and puppet manipulation live on set in real time, with no subsequent post dubbing. He played Noah Percy, a mentally disabled young man, in the film The Village, by M. Night Shyamalan, shell-shocked war veteran Jack Starks in The Jacket, writer Jack Driscoll in the 2005 King Kong remake, and father-to-be Peter Whitman in The Darjeeling Limited by Wes Anderson. King Kong was both a critical and box office success—it grossed $550 million worldwide, and is Brody's most successful film to date, financially. He reprised his role voicing Driscoll in the video game adaptation of the film. Additionally, Brody played a detective in Hollywoodland. He has also appeared in Diet Coke and Schweppes commercials, as well as Tori Amos' music video for "A Sorta Fairytale".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
On January 5, 2006, Brody confirmed speculation that he was interested in playing the role of The Joker in 2008's The Dark Knight, and also met with director Christopher Nolan. However, Nolan and Warner Bros. decided instead to cast Heath Ledger in the role.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He was also in talks with Paramount to play Spock in J. J. Abrams' Star Trek, but it ultimately went to Zachary Quinto.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="gate">Template:Cite news</ref> In 2009, he starred in Splice, a science-fiction film written and directed by Vincenzo Natali. Originally a Sundance film, Splice was adopted by Dark Castle Entertainment and distributed by Warner Bros. In 2010, he played the star role of Royce in Predators (a sequel to the original Predator), directed by Nimród Antal and produced by Robert Rodriguez.<ref name="predators">Template:Cite news</ref>
In 2011, Brody starred in a Stella Artois beer commercial called "Crying Jean" that premiered right after half-time of Super Bowl XLV as part of Stella's "She Is a Thing of Beauty" campaign. He appeared in Woody Allen's 2011 Academy Award-winning comedy, Midnight in Paris as Salvador Dalí.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> On January 16, 2012, Brody made his debut as a runway model for Prada Men Fall/Winter 2012 show.<ref name="prada">Template:Cite news</ref>
2014Template:Ndashpresent: Resurgence and expansion
In 2014, Brody collaborated again with Wes Anderson in the Academy Award-winning The Grand Budapest Hotel, where he played the villain Dmitri. He received an Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or in a Movie for portraying the title character in Houdini, a History Channel miniseries. The same year, Brody was cast as the title role of Lee Tamahori's action epic Emperor, about a young woman seeking revenge for the execution of her father by Holy Roman Emperor Charles V,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> opposite Sophie Cookson.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The movie was finished and screened at Cannes in 2017<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> but its release has been Template:As of by legal challenges.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
In 2015, he starred as Tiberius in the Chinese film Dragon Blade, which grossed $54.8 million in its opening week in China.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He also received the Cinema Vanguard award at the San Diego Film Festival the same year.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2017, it was announced that he would join the cast of the fourth season of the BBC crime drama Peaky Blinders.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> On August 4, 2017, he received the Leopard Club Award at the Locarno Festival.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The Leopard Club Award pays homage to a major film personality whose work has made a lasting impact on the collective imagination. In 2019, Brody left Paradigm to sign with CAA Creative Artists Agency.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2021, he received the Vanguard Award at SCAD's Savannah Film Festival.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In 2024, Brody starred in Brady Corbet's The Brutalist, replacing Joel Edgerton in the lead role and joining an ensemble cast consisting of Felicity Jones, Guy Pearce, Joe Alwyn, Jonathan Hyde, Emma Laird, and Peter Polycarpou.<ref name="deadline110423">Template:Cite news</ref> Brody's performance in the film as the Hungarian-Jewish Holocaust survivor László Tóth was critically acclaimed, with many critics praising his subtlety and stating that it was his finest performance since The Pianist.Template:Citation needed For his performance he won the Oscar, BAFTA, Golden Globe, and Critics Choice Award.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Brody starred in a stage play, The Fear of 13, written by Lindsey Ferrentino, at the Donmar Warehouse in London in October–November 2024. The play is based on the true story of Nick Yarris, an exonerated death-row inmate from Pennsylvania.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> For his performance he was nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Personal life
In 1992, Brody was seriously injured in a motorcycle collision, in which he was thrown over a car and crashed headfirst into a crosswalk.<ref name="crash">Template:Cite news</ref> He spent months recuperating. He has broken his nose three times doing stunts, including during the filming of Summer of Sam.<ref name="tvsa">Template:Cite web</ref> Brody lived in Los Angeles during his early career and now is based in Manhattan.
In 2009, he signed the Free Roman Polanski petition.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
It was reported in 2024 that Brody suffers post-traumatic stress disorder from the extreme weight loss he endured for The Pianist in 2002.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
In 2010, Brody sued makers of the film Giallo, alleging they failed to pay his full salary.<ref name="suing">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In January 2011 it was reported that Brody had reached a settlement with the producers. He said, "I very much enjoyed the process of making Giallo and am happy that things have been resolved and that people can now enjoy seeing the film."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Romantic relationships
Brody began dating Spanish actress and model Elsa Pataky in 2006. For her 31st birthday, in July 2007, he purchased for her an early 20th-century farm in central New York State, which had been designed to look like a castle. Brody and Pataky were featured at their New York home in a 35-page spread for HELLO! magazine in October 2008.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The pair broke up in 2009.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
For six years, Brody was in a relationship with Russian model Lara Lieto, after meeting at the Cannes Film Festival in 2012.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In February 2020, it was reported that he was romantically involved with English fashion designer and actress Georgina Chapman, whom he began dating while she was still married to, but formally separated from, Harvey Weinstein.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Oscar kiss
Template:POV section At the 75th Academy Awards in 2003, Brody became the subject of significant attention while receiving his Best Actor Oscar for The Pianist when he passionately kissed the presenter, actress Halle Berry.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The kiss was widely viewed as the 2003 Oscars' signature moment.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>Template:Efn While Berry was surprised, she has since said she was proud to be a part of his big moment, called the kiss "great" in the week after the ceremony,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and had been waiting to recreate it throughout the years if they crossed paths at an awards show.<ref name=varietykiss>Template:Cite web</ref> The following year, as Brody presented Best Actress at the 76th Academy Awards, Brody joked about the kiss using breath spray before announcing Charlize Theron, who eventually kissed Brody on the way to the stage.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> When announcing the nominees for the 77th Academy Awards, Brody came on stage and jokingly leaned in to kiss Academy president Frank Pierson, which Pierson rejected.
In January 2025, Berry congratulated Brody on his Instagram for winning the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor for his performance in The Brutalist. "Congratulations my friend. You are truly one of one!"<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> On the 97th Academy Awards red carpet, Berry ran over and passionately kissed Brody in a reprise of the moment from twenty-two years before.<ref name=varietykiss/> His girlfriend, Georgina Chapman, had given Berry permission prior to it and celebrated the moment with them.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Acting credits
| Template:Dagger | May Denote works that have not yet been released |
Film
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1989 | New York Stories | Mel | Segment: "Life Without Zoe" |
| 1991 | The Boy Who Cried Bitch | Eddie | |
| 1993 | King of the Hill | Lester Silverstone | |
| 1994 | Angels in the Outfield | Danny Hemmerling | |
| 1995 | Ten Benny | Ray DiGiovanni | |
| 1996 | Bullet | Ruby Stein | |
| Solo | Dr. Bill Stewart | ||
| 1997 | The Last Time I Committed Suicide | Ben | |
| The Undertaker's Wedding | Mario Bellini | ||
| Six Ways to Sunday | Arnie Finklestein | ||
| 1998 | Restaurant | Chris Calloway | |
| The Thin Red Line | Cpl. Geoffrey Fife | ||
| 1999 | Summer of Sam | Richie Tringale | |
| Oxygen | Harry Houdini | ||
| Liberty Heights | Van Kurtzman | ||
| 2000 | Bread and Roses | Sam Shapiro | |
| Harrison's Flowers | Kyle Morris | ||
| 2001 | Love the Hard Way | Jack Grace | |
| The Affair of the Necklace | Count Nicolas De La Motte | ||
| 2002 | Dummy | Steven Schoichet | |
| The Pianist | Władysław Szpilman | Academy Award for Best Actor | |
| 2003 | The Singing Detective | First Hood | |
| 2004 | The Village | Noah Percy | |
| 2005 | The Jacket | Jack Starks | |
| King Kong | Jack Driscoll | ||
| 2006 | Hollywoodland | Louis Simo | Also additional cinematographer |
| 2007 | The Darjeeling Limited | Peter Whitman | |
| 2008 | Manolete | Manolete | |
| The Brothers Bloom | Bloom | ||
| Cadillac Records | Leonard Chess | ||
| 2009 | Giallo | Inspector Enzo Lavia | Also producer |
| Splice | Clive Nicoli | ||
| Fantastic Mr. Fox | Rickity | Voice | |
| 2010 | High School | Edward "Psycho Ed" Highbaugh | |
| Predators | Royce | ||
| The Experiment | Travis Cacksmackberg | ||
| Wrecked | Man | Also executive producer | |
| 2011 | Detachment | Henry Barthes | |
| Midnight in Paris | Salvador Dalí | ||
| 2012 | Back to 1942 | Theodore White | |
| 2013 | Inappropriate Comedy | Flirty Harry | Also wrote additional dialogue |
| Third Person | Scott Lowry | ||
| 2014 | The Grand Budapest Hotel | Dmitri Desgoffe und Taxis | |
| American Heist | Frankie Kelly | Also executive producer | |
| 2015 | Dragon Blade | Tiberius | |
| Stone Barn Castle | Template:N/A | Documentary; Director, producer and composer | |
| Backtrack | Peter Bower | ||
| Septembers of Shiraz | Isaac Amin | Also executive producer | |
| 2016 | Manhattan Night | Porter Wren | Also producer |
| Come Together | Ralph | Short film | |
| 2017 | Emperor | Charles V | Unreleased<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> |
| Bullet Head | Stacy | ||
| 2018 | Air Strike | Steve | |
| 2021 | Clean | Clean | Also co-writer, producer and composer |
| The French Dispatch | Julien Cadazio | ||
| 2022 | See How They Run | Leo Köpernick | |
| Blonde | Arthur Miller | ||
| 2023 | Manodrome | Dad Dan | |
| Ghosted | Leveque | ||
| Fool's Paradise | Chad Luxt | ||
| Asteroid City | Schubert Green | <ref>Template:Cite news</ref> | |
| 2024 | The Brutalist | László Tóth | Academy Award for Best Actor |
Television
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1988 | Home at Last | Billy | Television film |
| Annie McGuire | Lenny McGuire | Episode: "Annie and the Brooklyn Bridge" | |
| 1994 | Rebel Highway | Skinny | Episode: "Jailbreakers" |
| 1996 | Bullet Hearts | Chuckie Bragg | Pilot |
| 2003 | Saturday Night Live | Himself (host) | Episode: "Adrien Brody/Sean Paul, Wayne Wonder" |
| 2014 | Houdini | Harry Houdini | Miniseries; 2 episodes |
| 2015 | Breakthrough | Narrator | Episode: "Decoding the Brain"<ref>Template:Cite press release</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> |
| 2016 | Dice | Himself | Episode: "Ego" |
| 2017 | Peaky Blinders | Luca Changretta | 6 episodes |
| 2021 | Chapelwaite | Captain Charles Boone | 10 episodes |
| Succession | Josh Aaronson | 2 episodes | |
| 2022–2023 | Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty | Pat Riley | 15 episodes |
| 2023 | Poker Face | Sterling Frost Jr. | 2 episodes |
Theater
| Year | Title | Role | Venue |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | The Fear of 13 | Nick Yarris | Donmar Warehouse, West End |
Video games
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Peter Jackson's King Kong | Jack Driscoll | Voice; Spike Video Game Award for Best Cast |
Music videos
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | "A Sorta Fairytale" | Tori Amos's lover | |
| 2023 | "Déjame Entrar" | Rauw's friend |
Awards and nominations
See also
- List of oldest and youngest Academy Awards winners and nominees — Youngest winners for Lead Actor
- List of Jewish Academy Award winners and nominees
- List of actors with Academy Award nominations
- List of actors with two or more Academy Awards in acting categories
- List of Golden Globe winners
References
Template:Reflist Template:Notelist
External links
- 1973 births
- Living people
- 20th-century American male actors
- 21st-century American male actors
- American expatriates in England
- American male film actors
- American male television actors
- American male video game actors
- American male voice actors
- American male child actors
- American people of Hungarian descent
- American people of Czech-Jewish descent
- American people of Polish-Jewish descent
- People with post-traumatic stress disorder
- Audiobook narrators
- Best Actor Academy Award winners
- Best Actor César Award winners
- Best Drama Actor Golden Globe (film) winners
- Male actors from Queens, New York
- People from Woodhaven, Queens
- American expatriate male actors
- American Academy of Dramatic Arts alumni
- Queens College, City University of New York alumni
- Stony Brook University alumni
- Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School alumni
- Method actors
- Best Actor BAFTA Award winners