Jonah Hill

Jonah Hill, born Jonah Hill Feldstein on December 20, 1983, in Los Angeles, built his early screen reputation through broad comedy before moving into writing, directing, and more dramatic work. After studying at The New School in New York, he began performing his comic material and entered film through connections with Dustin Hoffman’s children, Rebecca and Jake. Small parts in I Heart Huckabees (2004), The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005), and Knocked Up (2007) preceded the role that made him recognizable: Seth, Michael Cera’s foul-mouthed, insecure friend in Superbad (2007). The film, written by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg and directed by Greg Mottola, paired Hill with Cera and Christopher Mintz-Plasse. Hill continued in studio comedies including Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Get Him to the Greek, 21 Jump Street, and its sequel 22 Jump Street. In the Jump Street films, he played officer Morton Schmidt opposite Channing Tatum’s Jenko; the film turned the premise of the 1987 television series into a self-aware action comedy. He also supplied the voice of Snotlout Jorgenson in DreamWorks Animation’s How to Train Your Dragon films. His career took a major critical turn with Bennett Miller’s Moneyball (2011). Hill portrayed Peter Brand, the young Yale-educated economist who helps Oakland Athletics general manager Billy Beane, played by Brad Pitt, apply statistical analysis to baseball roster building. The performance earned Hill an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He received a second supporting-actor nomination for Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), playing Donnie Azoff, the Stratton Oakmont associate based on Danny Porush. In 2016, he appeared in Todd Phillips’s War Dogs as Efraim Diveroli, an arms dealer whose company wins a Pentagon contract during the Iraq War. Hill made his feature-directing debut with Mid90s (2018), which he also wrote. Set in 1990s Los Angeles, the film follows Stevie, a thirteen-year-old navigating a troubled home and a group of older skateboarders. Its dialogue and soundtrack drew on Hill’s memories of the period, while its 4:3 framing gave the film the look of skate videos and home footage. His second directing feature, the documentary Stutz (2022), centers on his therapist, Phil Stutz, and discusses Stutz’s visual therapeutic tools, grief, and mental health. As a writer-producer, Hill co-wrote You People (2023) with Kenya Barris and starred as Ezra Cohen alongside Lauren London. He has also worked repeatedly with filmmaker Adam McKay, appearing in The Other Guys and Don’t Look Up.