Jon Favreau's birthday
Born in Queens, New York, on October 19th, 1966, American actor and director Jonathan Kolia Favreau is best known as Jon Fravreau, and has been seen on screen since the 1990s. Although his original plan had been a career in comedy, even moving to Chicago in 1988 and performing in several improv theaters, Jon nonetheless ended up in the film industry. One of his first film roles was in 1993’s sports biopic Rudy, which was well received and mildly successful.
After appearing in a 1994 episode of popular sitcom Seinfeld, marking this as his TV debut, Jon subsequently moved to Los Angeles to pursue more acting opportunities. In 1996, he wrote and starred in the comedy-drama Swingers, to positive critics and success. Favreau was next seen in a guest star role on the TV sitcom Friends, appearing in several episodes in 1997. On the big screen, Jon was part of films Very Bad Things (1998) and Deep Impact (1998.) Other notable film appearances were in Love & Sex (2000,) The Replacements (2000) and a considerable role in superhero film Daredevil (2003.) From 2001 to 2005, he starred in Dinner for Five, a television series about celebrities.
Jon made his directorial debut in 2000 with the film Made, for which he also wrote the screenplay. He achieved commercial success when he directed the film Elf in 2003, and later was part of the cast in Something’s Gotta Give. In 2005, Jon directed Zathura, a film adaptation of the children’s book by the same name. The movie was well received but didn’t do well at the box office. During this decade, he continued to appear in television and also took on voice acting roles, such as Family Guy (2002,) Rugrats (2002,) Monk (2006) and My Name Is Earl (2006.) Jon also participated in movies The Break-Up (2006), Four Christmases (2008) and Open Season (2009.)
In 2008, Jon directed the film that kicked off the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Iron Man, which was a critical and commercial hit. He also played a small role in the movie and has since reprised his role in subsequent films throughout the MCU to this date, including both Iron Man sequels, the Avengers franchise (2012 to 2019) as well as the Spider-Man trilogy (2018 to 2021.) Aside from the superhero franchise, Jon lent his voice to the Star Wars universe in the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars. In 2009, he directed western science-fiction film Cowboys & Aliens, which didn’t fare so well with the critics, and had a supporting role in romantic comedy Couples Retreat.
In 2013, Jon appeared in the commercially successful The Wolf of Wall Street. The following year, he wrote, produced, directed and starred in comedy-drama Chef. In 2016, Favreau directed and produced the live-action adaptation of Disney’s The Jungle Book, which became his highest grossing film to date. He also returned to the Star Wars universe to voice act in 2018’s Solo: A Star Wars Story, 2019’s The Mandalorian, and later in 2022’s The Book of Boba Fett. Since 2019, he has been hosting a television cooking show, which resulted from his 2014 movie, called The Chef Show.
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