Love Life Lowdown: Watch romantic life of Joseph Gordon-Levitt
“The whole concept of celebrity pisses me off. While I'm not a celebrity, it's such a weird concept that society has cooked up for us. Astronauts and teachers are much more amazing than actors.” Said Levitt.
Date of Birth: 17 February 1981, Los Angeles, California, USA
Birth Name: Joseph Leonard Gordon-Levitt
Nicknames: Joe, Joey, JGL, Regular Joe
Height: 5' 9¼" (1.76 m)
Joseph Leonard Gordon-Levitt was born February 17, 1981 in Los Angeles, California, to Jane Gordon and Dennis Levitt. Joseph was raised in a Jewish family with his late older brother, Dan Gordon-Levitt, who passed away in October 2010. His parents worked for the Pacifica Radio station KPFK-FM and his maternal grandfather, Michael Gordon, had been a well-known movie director. After working for several years as a child actor, Joseph became better known for starring on the hit television series 3rd Rock from the Sun (1996), for which he earned two Hollywood Reporter Young Star Awards.
In addition, the show earned three Screen Actors Guild Award nominations for Outstanding Peformance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series. Prior to his success on television, Joseph had already worked steadily in feature films, debuting in the Robert Redfordfilm A River Runs Through It (1992). He won a Young Artist Award for the latter film. During the 1990s, he also co-starred in the films Angels in the Outfield (1994), The Juror (1996), Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998), and 10 Things I Hate About You(1999).
Following his work on 3rd Rock from the Sun (1996), Joseph took time off from acting to attend Columbia University. In the early 2000s, he broke from the mold of his television and film comedy supporting roles by appearing in a string of intense dramatic roles, mostly in smaller, independent films such as Manic (2001), with Don Cheadle;Mysterious Skin (2004), for writer/director Gregg Araki; Rian Johnson's award-winning debut film, Brick (2005); Lee Daniels' Shadowboxer (2005); the crime drama The Lookout (2007), which marked Scott Frank's directorial debut; John Madden's Killshot(2008), with Diane Lane and Mickey Rourke; and the controversial drama Stop-Loss(2008), in which he starred with Ryan Phillippe, under the direction of Kimberly Peirce. By 2009, Joseph was officially established as one of the leading men of indie cinema with his Golden Globe-nominated role in the comedy-drama (500) Days of Summer(2009), for which he also received an Independent Spirit Award nod. He also adapted the Elmore Leonard short story Sparks into a 24-minute short film that he directed (Sundance Film Festival 2009).
Gordon-Levitt founded and directs hitRECord, an open collaborative production. hitRECord creates and develops art and media collectively using their website where anyone with an internet connection can upload their records, download and remix others' records, and work on projects together. When the results of these RECords are produced and make money, hitRECord splits the profits 50/50 with everybody who contributed to the final production. hitRECord has published books, put out records, gone on tour and has screened their work at major festivals including Sundance and TIFF. "RegularJOE" (as he's known on the site) is leading the community of over 300, 000 artists in its biggest collaboration yet, a new take on a variety show called "HitRecord on TV!" The half hour series, which Gordon-Levitt hosts, premiere