Jon Favreau Biography

Jon Favreau (born on October 19, 1966 in Queens, New York) is an American actor and director of Italian and Jewish descent.

Biography

Jon Favreau graduated from the Bronx High School of Science and attended Queens College and worked on Wall Street before moving to Chicago to pursue a career in stand-up comedy.

While in Chicago, Jon Favreau landed his first film role, as the pudgy tutor D-Bob in the classic sleeper hit Rudy (1993). Favreau met Vince Vaughn—who also played a small role in this film—during shooting. The next year, he appeared in the college film PCU (1994) alongside Jeremy Piven, and also stepped into the world of television to play a guest role in several episodes of the sitcom Friends as Monica Geller's boyfriend Pete Becker. He then moved to Los Angeles, where he made his breakthrough in 1996 as an actor-screenwriter with the film Swingers (1996), which was Vaughn's breakthrough role as the glib and over-confident Trent Walker, a perfect foil to Favreau's heartbroken Mike Peters.

Jon Favreau rejoined Piven in 1998 as part of Very Bad Things (1998), and later appeared in Love & S-- (2000), co-starring Famke Janssen. Favreau got some screen time as a lawyer in the 2003 blockbuster Daredevil (2003). Earlier, Favreau appeared in 2000's The Replacements as maniacal linebacker Daniel Bateman. He was a guest-director for an episode of the college dramedy Undeclared in 2001.

Also in 2001, Jon Favreau made his (film) directorial debut with another self-penned screenplay, Made. Made once again teamed him up with his Swingers co-star Vince Vaughn but it somehow lacked the spark that made Swingers so interesting and enjoyable. In the fall of 2003, he scored his first financial success as a director of the hit comedy Elf starring Will Ferrell. Among his latest projects, he has directed the film adaptation of Zathura (2005). Never to turn his back on acting, Favreau still makes regular appearances in film and television. He is set to reunite with friend Vince Vaughn in the much-hyped romantic comedy The Break Up and recently appeared in My Name Is Earl as a reprehensible fast food manager.

Favreau now has a TV series called Dinner for Five which airs on the cable TV channel IFC.

Jon Favreau also plays on the World Poker Tour in the Hollywood Home games for the Cancer Care charity.

He has a son, Max, born July 25, 2001, and a daughter, Madelaine, born April 2003.