Adam Douglas Driver (born November 19, 1983) is an American actor, recognized for his collaborations with auteur filmmakers. Driver made his film debut in J. Edgar (2011) and played supporting roles in Lincoln (2012), Frances Ha (2012), Inside Llewyn Davis (2013) and While We're Young (2014) before gaining wider recognition for his portrayal of Kylo Ren in the Star Warssequel trilogy (2015–2019).
Driver is a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps.[3][4] He also was the founder of Arts in the Armed Forces, a non-profit that provided free arts programming to American active-duty service members, veterans, military support staff, and their families worldwide.[5]
Early life
Driver was born in Fontana, California, on November 19, 1983.[6][7] He is the son of Nancy Wright (née Needham), a paralegal, and Joe Douglas Driver.[8][9] Director Terry Gilliam has claimed that Driver has Native American ancestry,[10] though he has no known Native American ancestors. His father's family is from Arkansas, and his mother's family is from Indiana. His family moved to San Diego, where Driver spent time with them until he was seven years old.[11][12] After his parents were divorced, Driver and his mother moved to Mishawaka, Indiana, where he was primarily raised by his stepfather, Rodney G. Wright, a Baptist minister.[13][14] Driver graduated from Mishawaka High School in 2001, while spending time with his older sister and mother at their hometown.[15][16] Driver was raised Baptist, and sang in the choir at church.[17]
Driver has described his teenage self as a "misfit"; he told M Magazine that he climbed radio towers, set objects on fire, and co-founded a fight club with friends, inspired by the 1999 film Fight Club.[18] Throughout high school, he was active in choir and theater, participating in school productions of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Into the Woods, and Guys and Dolls.[19] He applied to The Juilliard School for drama knowing that they would not look at his grades from high school, but was not accepted.[20] After high school, he worked as a door-to-door salesman selling Kirby vacuum cleaners and as a telemarketer for a basement waterproofing company and Ben Franklin Construction.[21]
When Driver was eighteen, he attempted to start his acting career in Los Angeles, leaving Indiana by car and breaking down in Amarillo, Texas. He spent his money repairing his car only to make it to Santa Monica, where he lived in a hostel for two days and was scammed by a real estate agent he paid to find him an apartment. He realized he did not have enough money to live, returning to Indiana after only a week away from home.[22]
Subsequently, Driver attended the University of Indianapolis for a year before auditioning again for Juilliard, this time succeeding. He got the news he was accepted while at work at the Target Distribution Center in Indianapolis. Driver has said that his classmates saw him as an intimidating and volatile figure, and he struggled to fit into a lifestyle so different from the Marines.[18] He was a member of the Drama Division's Group 38 from 2005 to 2009, where he met his future wife, Joanne Tucker. He graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2009.[25]
After graduating from Juilliard, Driver moved to New York City, appearing in both Broadway and off-Broadway productions. Like many aspiring actors, he occasionally worked as a busboy and waiter.[26] Driver appeared in several television series and short films. He played a repentant witness and reluctant accomplice to an unsolved assault in the final episode of the television series The Unusuals. He made his film debut in Clint Eastwood's biographical film J. Edgar.
In early 2014, Driver was cast as villain Kylo Ren in Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015).[32][33] It was released on December 18, 2015, to commercial and critical success.[34] He reprised the role in The Last Jedi (2017)[35] and The Rise of Skywalker (2019).[36] His performance was positively received; David Edelstein of Vulture wrote, "the core of The Last Jedi — of this whole trilogy, it seems — is Driver's Kylo Ren, who ranks with cinema's most fascinating human monsters."[37]Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian highlighted Driver's performance in his review of The Force Awakens, calling him "gorgeously cruel, spiteful and capricious... very suited to Kylo Ren's fastidious and amused contempt for his enemies' weakness and compassion."[38]
Driver had a supporting role in Jeff Nichols' science fiction film Midnight Special, which was released on March 18, 2016.[39][40] He played a 17th-century Portuguese Jesuit priest in Martin Scorsese's historical film Silence (2016).[41] While filming, Driver lost almost 50 pounds.[42] In Jim Jarmusch's drama film Paterson, Driver played the eponymous bus driver and poetry writer.[43] It premiered at the 69th Cannes Film Festival and was released on December 28, 2016.[44][45] Driver's performance was acclaimed[46][47] and he received multiple nominations for Best Actor from critics' associations, winning several, including the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor.[48]Peter Travers of Rolling Stone wrote "Driver's indelibly moving portrayal is so lived-in and lyrical you hardly recognize it as acting."[49]Paterson was included in many critics' top ten lists of best films of 2016.[50]
On January 25, 2020, Driver returned to host Saturday Night Live for the third time with musical guest Halsey. In 2020, Driver became the subject of a running gag on Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, in which Oliver expressed several strange masochistic fantasies about Driver, referencing his muscular build and masculine appearance. Driver eventually appeared on the final episode of the season and "demanded an apology".[60] In 2021, he went viral for his shirtless appearance in the advertising campaign for Burberry's masculine fragrance Hero.[61] Driver again returned for the advertising campaign for the eau de parfum concentration of Hero in 2022.[62][63]
In 2021, Driver starred in Leos Carax's musical film Annette, which premiered at the 74th Cannes Film Festival.[64][65][66] He had a leading role in Ridley Scott's historical drama The Last Duel, along with the biopic crime film House of Gucci, which covers the assassination of Maurizio Gucci, and was also directed by Scott.[67] Equally praised by critics and directors,[68] Driver's acting has a unique signature style that displays skittish, unpredictable physicality with full-bodied enthusiasm like Denis Lavant and Buster Keaton.[69][70]
In 2022, Driver starred in the apocalyptic black comedy film White Noise, which marks his fifth collaboration with Baumbach.[71] Driver starred in the science fiction film 65 and is scheduled to star in Jeff Nichols' historical film Yankee Commandante.[72] Driver played Enzo Ferrari in Michael Mann's biopic film Ferrari.[73] In May 2023, it was announced that Driver would be an honorary starter for the 107th running of the Indianapolis 500 auto race.[74] On December 9, 2023, Driver hosted Saturday Night Live for the fourth time with musical guest Olivia Rodrigo.[75]
Driver married his long-time girlfriend Joanne Tucker in June 2013, whom he met while attending Juilliard.[80] Tucker is the granddaughter of Bermudian politician Henry Tucker.[81] The couple have a son, whose birth they kept private from the press for two years. Tucker gave birth to a second child, a girl, in early 2023.[82] They live in Brooklyn Heights with their children and dog.[83] Driver is the founder of Arts in the Armed Forces (AITAF), a nonprofit that performs theater for all branches of the military in the United States and abroad.[84][85]
Driver has said on multiple occasions that he dislikes watching or listening to his own performances, and chose not to continue with a radio interview with NPR's Fresh Air after the host played a clip from Marriage Story.[86] He has said that his usual technique is to leave the theater and "then I go back and, when the lights come up, I stand up. I pretend that I was there the whole time."[87]
_(cropped).jpg)
