Paul Dano Biography

Paul Franklin Dano (born June 19, 1984) is an American actor and producer. He has had lead or ensemble roles in independently produced films such as L.I.E. (2001), Little Miss Sunshine (2006), Gigantic (2008), Meek's Cutoff (2010), Being Flynn (2012), and Ruby Sparks (2012); and supporting roles in studio-produced films like The Girl Next Door (2004), There Will Be Blood (2007), Cowboys & Aliens (2011), and Looper (2012).

Early life

Dano was born in New York City, the son of Gladys (née Pipp) and Paul Dano, a retired attorney. Dano has a younger sister, Sarah. He spent the first few years of his childhood in New York City and initially attended the Browning School, while his father worked as a businessman in New York.

While he was still a child, Dano's family moved to New Canaan, Connecticut, finally settling in Wilton, Connecticut. There, Dano continued his education, at Wilton High School, graduating in 2002 to further attend Eugene Lang College in New York, NY. He was involved in community theatre, and while performing in New Canaan his parents were encouraged to take him to New York City.

Career

At age 10, Dano was scouted for roles in plays on Broadway, making his debut at age 12 in a revival of Inherit the Wind along with George C. Scott and Charles Durning. He appeared in an episode of the sitcom Smart Guy and a minor role in the 2000 family drama The Newcomers.

Dano acted in his first major film role when he was 17, playing the character of Howie Blitzer, a teenage boy who becomes involved with a middle-aged pedophile, played by Brian Cox, in L.I.E. (2001). He then appeared in the TV movie Too Young to Be a Dad as a high school student whose life is disrupted when his girlfriend becomes pregnant. In 2004 he played a small role as young Martin Asher in Taking Lives with Angelina Jolie and Ethan Hawke. In 2005, he played supporting roles in The King with Gael Garcia Bernal, and The Ballad of Jack and Rose with Daniel Day-Lewis.

He came to greater attention in 2006, when he played a voluntarily mute teenager as part of an ensemble in the comedic drama Little Miss Sunshine, which received critical acclaim and collective awards for its cast. Dano's work with Daniel Day-Lewis led to a dual role opposite him in his next film, Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood, playing identical twin brothers Eli and Paul Sunday. This earned him a BAFTA nomination for Best Supporting Actor, and brought him positive reviews, with Texas Monthly saying that his performance was "so electric that the movie sags whenever he's not around." and Peter Travers remarking "All praise to the baby-faced Dano...for bringing sly cunning and unexpected ferocity to Plainview's most formidable opponent." Rolling Stone magazine included Dano in its Hot List for 2007, calling his performance style "Daniel Day-Lewis + Billy Crudup × Johnny Depp."

Dano appeared in several additional Broadway productions including A Month in the Country, A Thousand Clowns at the Roundabout Theatre, and in the Ethan Hawke directorial debut Things We Want during its 2007 Off-Broadway run.

In 2008 he starred in Gigantic, a poorly-reviewed film about a man seeking to adopt a Chinese baby, co-starring Zooey Deschanel. He reunited with Brian Cox in 2009's The Good Heart, a low-budget English-language Icelandic film. He provided the voice of one of the creatures in the film adaptation of Where the Wild Things Are. He played a genius inventor in 2010's Knight and Day, an action thriller starring Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz. The same year he appeared in Meek's Cutoff, a well-reviewed historical drama. In 2011, he had a supporting role in the big-budget science fiction film Cowboys and Aliens.

Dano appeared in three feature films in 2012: Ruby Sparks, as a writer whose fictional character (played by Zoe Kazan, the film's writer and Dano's girlfriend) inexplicably appears as a real person; time-travel thriller Looper, in a supporting role with Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis; and with Robert De Niro in Being Flynn as the film's writer Nick Flynn, about his relationship with his father. Dano will play a younger version of the Beach Boys founder, Brian Wilson with John Cusack set to play an older version of Wilson in the upcoming biopic Love and Mercy.

Personal life

Dano is in a relationship with actress Zoe Kazan, whom he has known since 2007. Dano is also a vocalist and lead guitar player in his band Mook.

Awards

• Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards (2007, as Best Young Actor for Little Miss Sunshine)
• Chlotrudis Awards (2008, as Best Supporting Actor for There Will Be Blood)

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1998	Smart Guy	Nicholas	Episode: "She Got Game"
2000	The Newcomers	Joel
2001	L.I.E.	Howie Blitzer	Directors' Week Award for Best Actor Independent Spirit Award for Best Debut Performance Grand Jury Award for Outstanding Actor in a Feature Film Stockholm International Film Festival Award for Best Actor
2002	Too Young to Be a Dad	Matt Freeman	TV movie
	The Emperor's Club	Martin Blythe
	The Sopranos	Patrick Whalen	Episode: "Everybody Hurts"
2004			Episode: "All Due Respect"
	Light and the Sufferer	Don (AKA: Light)
	The Girl Next Door	Klitz
	Taking Lives	Young Asher
2005	The Ballad of Jack and Rose	Thaddius
	The King	Paul
2006	Little Miss Sunshine	Dwayne Hoover	Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Young Performer Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Cast Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture Nominated "? Empire Award for Best Male Newcomer Nominated "? Gotham Award for Best Ensemble Cast Nominated "? Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male
	Fast Food Nation	Brian
2007	Weapons	Chris
	There Will Be Blood	Paul Sunday / Eli Sunday	Chlotrudis Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated "? BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated "? Detroit Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actor
2008	Explicit Ills	Rocco
	Gigantic	Brian Weathersby
2009	Taking Woodstock	VW Guy
	The Good Heart	Lucas
	Where the Wild Things Are	Alexander	Voice Only
2010	The Extra Man	Louis Ives
	Meek's Cutoff	Thomas Gately
	Knight and Day	Simon Feck
2011	Cowboys & Aliens	Percy Dolarhyde
2012	Being Flynn	Nick Flynn
	Ruby Sparks	Calvin
	Looper	Seth
	For Ellen	Joby
2013	12 Years a Slave	John Tibeats
	Prisoners	Alex Jones
2014	Love and Mercy	Brian Wilson	Post-production
	Warcraft		Post-production