Sean Penn

Sean Penn is an American actor, filmmaker, producer, and screenwriter known for intense dramatic performances and for a directing career centered on character-driven stories. Born Sean Justin Penn on August 17, 1960, in Santa Monica, California, he grew up in a family connected to film and television: his father Leo Penn was an actor and director, his mother Eileen Ryan was an actress, and his brothers Michael Penn and Chris Penn also worked in entertainment. Penn was raised in Southern California and began making films with friends before becoming a professional actor.

Penn began appearing on screen as a young performer and made his feature-film debut in Taps in 1981. He became widely recognizable the following year as Jeff Spicoli in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, a comic role that contrasted with much of his later dramatic work. In the 1980s he moved quickly into serious leading and supporting parts, including Bad Boys, The Falcon and the Snowman, At Close Range, and Casualties of War. By the 1990s he was established as one of the most closely watched actors of his generation, with roles in State of Grace, Carlito's Way, Dead Man Walking, The Game, The Thin Red Line, Hurlyburly, and Sweet and Lowdown.

His most decorated period as an actor came in the 2000s. Penn received major acclaim for I Am Sam and 21 Grams and won the Academy Award for Best Actor for Mystic River, in which he played a grieving father drawn into a murder investigation. He won the same award again for Milk, portraying Harvey Milk, the San Francisco politician and gay-rights activist. His filmography also includes Fair Game, The Tree of Life, This Must Be the Place, The Gunman, Licorice Pizza, Daddio, and other independent and studio projects. Public film listings also include later performances in Flag Day, Asphalt City, and One Battle After Another.