Jeremy Piven

Jeremy Piven considers himself a Jewish Buddhist.

He suffered from mercury poisoning, which was a result of eating too much sushi for 20 years of his life. He was given herbal remedies to cure the high mercury levels.

Jeremy Samuel Piven was born to Byrne Piven and Joyce Hiller Piven, in Manhattan, New York City. He was raised in Chicago, where he attended and graduated from Evanston Township High School.

As a teenager, he was a part of the Harand Theater Camp in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. He was soon put into the family theatre group, ‘Piven Theatre Workshop’, which was founded by his parents.

He studied at Drake University in Iowa, where he was a member of the Pi Kappa Alpha guild. During this time, he also spent one university semester at the National Theater Camp in Wisconsin.

After being trained in acting, he was cast as ‘Spike’ in his first movie, ‘Lucas’, in 1986. The same year, he also appeared in a small role for the film, ‘One Crazy Summer’.

In 1990, he appeared in ‘The Grifters’ and was also cast as ‘Kahn’ in the film, ‘White Palace’, which released the same year.

He got his first big break in 1992, when he was selected as a regular cast member for ‘The Larry Sanders Show’. The next year, he played the character of George Constanza for an episode of ‘Seinfeld’.

In 1993, he appeared in ‘Twenty Bucks’ and the action thriller film, ‘Judgment Night’. He appeared in the latter with Cuba Gooding Jr., and Stephen Dorff. The subsequent year proved to be an extremely productive one for the actor. He starred in ‘Floundering’, ‘Car 54, Where Are You?’, ‘Twogether’ and ‘PCU’.

In 1995, he was seen in a few episodes of ‘Chicago Hope’ and ‘Pride & Joy’. He also appeared in the movies, ‘Miami Rhapsody’, ‘Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde’ and ‘Heat’.

1996 to 1998 was the apex of Piven’s career with a number of film projects and television series in his kitty. He was a regular on ‘Ellen’, the television show and was also seen in other television shows including ‘The Drew Carey Show’, ‘Grace Under Fire’, ‘Coach’, ‘Don King: Only in America’ and ‘Cupid’.

One of his best roles till date is that of ‘Ari Gold’ in ‘Entourage’ which ran from 2004 to 2011. The series became a huge hit in the United States and his role as ‘Gold’, led to several nominations and Emmy Awards for the actor. The character of ‘Ari’ is based on the real life agent, ‘Ari Emanuel’. He was nominated for four consecutive times for ‘Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series’ for the Emmys and went on to win a number of prestigious accolades for himself.