Adam Driver is a well-known American actor who joined the Marine Corps shortly after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. He began acting on TV and in plays after graduating from the Juilliard School, and his big break came when he was cast in the TV series Girls. The popularity of that series catapulted Driver into larger-budget films like Lincoln, Inside Llewyn Davis, and Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
Early Life
Driver was born in San Diego, California on November 19, 1983. Driver’s father was a minister, and after his parents divorced, his mother remarried, this time to a Baptist minister. Driver had performed in a few plays in high school and chose to apply to acting school at New York’s prestigious Juilliard. He wasn’t accepted, but the rejection pushed him to take action. He planned to go to Hollywood, but when his automobile broke down, he returned to his hometown of Mishawaka, Indiana.
The terrorist acts of September 11, 2001, spurred Driver to enlist in the United States Marine Corps, where he served for more than two years.
Driver admired the Marines, but he was honorably discharged after injuring his sternum in a mountain bike accident. “I felt like I hadn’t completed my four years,” Driver told Military Times. “That always kind of bothers me.” Driver then spent a year at the University of Indianapolis before returning to Juilliard, where he was admitted this time.
Movies and TV Shows
Driver’s first appearance after graduating from Juilliard was on the TV series The Unusuals (2009). He then appeared on the TV show Law & Order as well as in TV movies such as You Don’t Know Jack (2010) and The Wonderful Maladys (2010). Around this time, Driver began appearing in plays, most notably in a revival of George Bernard Shaw’s Mrs. Warren’s Profession on Broadway in 2010.
‘Girls’
Driver earned the role that would catapult his career, that of Lena Dunham’s on-again, off-again love interest Adam Sackler on the TV show Girls, in 2011. Driver rode the wave of popularity to three consecutive Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series when the show debuted in 2012.
‘Lincoln,’ ‘Inside Llewyn Davis,’ ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’
Driver’s film career was also boosted by Girls, and he quickly participated in Steven Spielberg‘s Lincoln (2012) and the Coen brothers’ acclaimed Inside Llewyn Davis (2013). Following those high-profile films, Driver got roles in several notable films, including the comedy-drama This Is Where I Leave You (2014) and the highly anticipated Christmas 2015 release Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
‘Silence,’ ‘The Last Jedi’
In 2016, the actor starred in Jim Jarmusch’s Paterson and Martin Scorsese‘s Silence. After appearing in Steven Soderbergh’s Logan Lucky in late 2017, Driver reprised his role as aspiring Sith lord Kylo Ren in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, which grossed $220 million in its opening weekend in North America. It was also announced around this time that he will be directing a Broadway revival of Lanford Wilson’s Burn This.
‘BlacKkKlansman,’ ‘The Rise of Skywalker’
Driver was nominated for an Oscar for his performance as Detective Flip Zimmerman, who goes undercover by joining the Ku Klux Klan in Spike Lee‘s BlacKkKlansman. With Scarlett Johansson, he had roles in the political drama The Report, the zombie comedy The Dead Don’t Die, and the romantic tale Marriage Story in 2019, before returning to the dark side of the Force in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.
Personal Life
Driver is married and co-founded Arts in the Armed Forces, a nonprofit that performs plays for military communities, with his wife Joanne Tucker. The couple has a son.