Topher Grace Biography

Christopher John Grace (born July 12, 1978) is an American actor. He is known for playing Eric Forman on the Fox sitcom That '70s Show, Venom in Sam Raimi's film Spider-Man 3, Carter Duryea in the film In Good Company, and Edwin in the 2010 film Predators.

Early life

Grace was born in New York City, New York, the son of Pat, an assistant to the schoolmaster of the New Canaan Country School, and John Grace, a Madison Avenue executive. He has a sister, Jenny.

Grace grew up in Darien, Connecticut, where actress Kate Bosworth was a middle-school friend; and actress Chlo Sevigny—who later appeared with him in high school stage plays—was sometimes his babysitter.

Career

Grace was cast as Eric Forman on Fox's That '70s Show, which debuted in 1998. He played the role until season 7. His character was written out and replaced with a new character named Randy Pearson (Josh Meyers). Grace made a brief guest appearance in the final episode.

Grace plays a prep school student who uses marijuana and introduces his girlfriend to freebasing in director Steven Soderbergh's 2000 film Traffic, as well as having uncredited cameos as himself in Soderbergh's Ocean's Eleven and its 2004 sequel, Ocean's Twelve. "The joke is that you're supposed to play the worst version of yourself and I don't think too many people are comfortable with that. I never thought for a second that people were really going to think that's what I was like. I think that people will know that I was faking it in those movies," he told Flaunt magazine in 2007. He planned to cameo in Ocean's Thirteen; but, because of his role in Spider-Man 3, he had to abandon these plans. As Grace said, "I was doing reshoots on Spider-Man 3. I was bummed. I actually talked to Steven Soderbergh about that and we had a thing and then I couldn"?t do it." He also appeared in director Mike Newell's 2003 film Mona Lisa Smile.

In 2004, Grace played the leading roles in the Robert Luketic-directed Win a Date with Tad Hamilton! and the Paul Weitz dramedy, In Good Company, in which he played an ambitious but troubled corporate executive. That same year, Grace also starred in the film P.S., which received only a limited theatrical release. Grace won the National Board of Review's 2004 award for Breakthrough Performance Actor for his work in In Good Company and P.S.

On January 15, 2005, Grace hosted Saturday Night Live. In 2007, Grace portrayed Eddie Brock/Venom in Spider-Man 3, directed by Sam Raimi. Grace himself was a fan of the comics and read the Venom stories as a kid. In 2009, Grace became the subject of a recurring column on the entertainment/pop culture site Videogum, entitled "What's Up With Topher Grace?". In 2010, Grace appeared in the ensemble comedy Valentine's Day, alongside That '70s Show co-star Ashton Kutcher, and played the character of Edwin in Predators, the newest installment of the science fiction franchise.

In 2011, Grace appeared in the 1980s retro comedy Take Me Home Tonight. He co-wrote the script and co-produced the film. Grace also starred opposite Richard Gere in the spy thriller The Double.

In 2012, Grace starred alongside Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Matthew Gray Gubler in the social film The Beauty Inside, which won a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding New Approach to an Original Daytime Program or Series in 2013. The film was directed by Drake Doremus and written by Richard Greenberg.

In 2014, Grace starred in the indie thriller The Calling, alongside Susan Sarandon, and appeared in Christopher Nolan's sci-fi adventure Interstellar, in a supporting role. In October 2013, Grace joined HBO comedy pilot People In New Jersey with Sarah Silverman, but in January 2014, the pilot was passed on.

Grace co-starred in the comedy film American Ultra (2015), alongside Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart, playing a CIA agent. Also that year, Grace co-starred in Truth, with Robert Redford and Cate Blanchett, and based on the story of CBS's 60 Minutes report that George W. Bush had gotten preferential treatment to keep him out of the Vietnam War. Grace played Mike Smith, a researcher on the story.

In January 2014, Grace joined the upcoming supernatural-thriller Delirium, which centers on a man, who is recently released from a mental institute, he inherits a mansion after his parents die. After a series of disturbing events, he comes to believe it is haunted.

Personal life

Grace started dating actress Ashley Hinshaw in January 2014, and the two were engaged in January 2015. On May 29, 2016, Grace and Hinshaw married near Santa Barbara, California.

He is a supporter of FINCA International, a microfinance organization.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2000	Traffic	Seth Abrahams	Young Hollywood Award for Breakthrough Performance - Male Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
2001	Ocean's Eleven	Himself	Uncredited
2002	Pinocchio	Leonardo (voice)
2003	Mona Lisa Smile	Tommy Donegal
2004	Win a Date with Tad Hamilton!	Pete Monash	Nominated - Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Actor - Comedy Nominated - Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Hissy Fit Nominated - Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Liplock (shared w/ Kate Bosworth)
2004	P.S.	F. Scott Feinstadt	National Board of Review of Motion Pictures for Best Breakthrough Performance by an Actor New York Film Critics Online Award for Best Breakthrough Nominated - International Online Cinema Award for Best Breakthrough
2004	Ocean's Twelve	Himself	Uncredited
2004	In Good Company	Carter Duryea	National Board of Review of Motion Pictures for Best Breakthrough Performance by an Actor New York Film Critics Online Award for Best Breakthrough Nominated - International Online Cinema Award for Best Breakthrough
2007	Spider-Man 3	Eddie Brock/Venom	Nominated - MTV Movie Award for Best Villain Nominated - Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Rumble (shared w/ Tobey Maguire, James Franco and Thomas Haden Church) Nominated - Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Villain
2008	Personal Effects	Clay (voice)	Uncredited
2010	Valentine's Day	Jason Morris
2010	Death Bed Subtext	Ben	Short film
2010	Predators	Edwin
2011	Take Me Home Tonight	Matt Franklin	Also writer and executive producer
2011	The Double	Ben Geary
2012	The Giant Mechanical Man	Doug
2013	The Big Wedding	Jared Griffin
2014	Don Peyote	Glavin Culpepper
2014	The Calling	Ben Wingate
2014	Playing It Cool	Scott
2014	Interstellar	Getty
2015	American Ultra	Agent Adrian Yates
2015	Truth	Mike Smith
2017	War Machine	Matt Little
2017	Opening Night	Nick
2017	Delirium		Completed
2017	Under the Silver Lake		Post-production
2017	Mississippi Requiem		Post-production

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1998-2006	That '70s Show	Eric Forman	179 episodes; Nominated - Teen Choice Award for TV Breakout Performance (1999) Nominated - Teen Choice Award for Choice TV Actor (2000-2001) Nominated - Teen Choice Award for Choice TV Actor Comedy (2002-2004) Nominated - Young Artist Award for Best Performance in a TV Series - Leading Young Actor (1999) Nominated - Young Artist Award for Best Performance in a TV Series Young Ensemble (1999)
2002	What's New, Scooby-Doo?	Guard 1 (voice)	Episode: "Space Ape at the Cape"
2003	King of the Hill	Chris (voice)	Episode: "Megalo Dale"
2005	Saturday Night Live	Host	Episode: "Topher Grace/The Killers"
2005	Stella	Older Kevin	Episode: "Paper Route"
2005	Robot Chicken	Eric Forman (voice)	Episode: "Gold Dust Gasoline"
2008	The Simpsons	Donny (voice)	Episode: "The Debarted"
2011	Too Big to Fail	Jim Wilkinson	Television film
2012	Comedy Bang! Bang!	Cameraman	Episode: "Seth Rogen Wears a Plaid Shirt & Brown Pants"
2012	The Beauty Inside	Alex	6 episodes; Daytime Emmy New Approaches Original Daytime Program or Series
2013	People in New Jersey	Carl Levin	Unsold pilot
2015	The Muppets	Himself	Episode: "Pilot"
2015	Drunk History	Milton Bradley	Episode: "Games"
2016	TripTank	Leonard (voice)	Episode: "Sick Day"
2017	Workaholics	Noel	Episode: "Weed the People"

Video games

Year	Title	Role
2007	Spider-Man 3	Eddie Brock/Venom (voice)

Music Videos

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1999	Cheap Trick – In The Street	Eric Forman	With cast of That '70s Show
2011	Atomic Tom – "Don't You Want Me Baby"	As himself	With cast of Take Me Home Tonight

Theatre

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2012	Lonely, I'm Not	Porter	Second Stage Theatre