Paul Dano is one of today’s most acclaimed young actors, having made his mark on-screen and on stage.
His breakthrough performance was in the lead role of Michael Cuesta’s L.I.E., in which he starred opposite Brian Cox and for which he earned an Independent Spirit Award.
Mr. Dano was again an Independent Spirit Award nominee for the sleeper hit Little Miss Sunshine, directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, for which he also shared in the Screen Actors Guild Awards and the Broadcast Film Critics Association’s ensemble honors with his fellow actors Alan Arkin, Abigail Breslin, Steve Carell, Toni Collette, and Greg Kinnear.
The following year, he earned a BAFTA Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his dual role opposite Academy Award winner Daniel Day-Lewis in Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood.
Among Mr. Dano’s other films are Dagur Kári’s The Good Heart, reteaming him with Brian Cox; Rebecca Miller’s The Ballad of Jack and Rose, which was his first film with Daniel Day-Lewis; Matt Aselton’s Gigantic, opposite Zooey Deschanel; Ang Lee’s Taking Woodstock, also for Focus Features; Richard Linklater’s Fast Food Nation; D.J. Caruso’s Taking Lives; James Marsh’s The King, with Gael García Bernal and William Hurt; Michael Hoffman’s The Emperor’s Club and Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini’s The Extra Man, both with Kevin Kline; Spike Jonze’s Where the Wild Things Are, in voiceover; James Mangold’s Knight and Day; Jon Favreau’s Cowboys & Aliens; and Kelly Reichardt’s Meek’s Cutoff.
He will next be seen in Rian Johnson’s Looper, with Bruce Willis, Emily Blunt, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Jeff Daniels; So Yong Kim’s For Ellen, which he also executive-produced; and Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris’ He Love Me, written by Zoe Kazan.
Growing up in Manhattan and Connecticut, Mr. Dano began his career on the New York stage with supporting roles on Broadway in Inherit the Wind, opposite George C. Scott and Charles Durning; and A Christmas Carol, with Ben Vereen and Terrence Mann. He returned to the stage in 2007 in The New Group’s off-Broadway production of Jonathan Marc Sherman’s Things We Want, directed by Ethan Hawke and with Peter Dinklage, Josh Hamilton, and Zoe Kazan. In late 2010, he returned to Broadway, starring with Jeffrey Wright and Mos Def in Lincoln Center Theater’s world premiere production of John Guare’s A Free Man of Color, directed by George C. Wolfe.
Biography/Filmography courtesy of Focus Features. Being Flynn opens March 2nd, 2012
