Jacob Benjamin Gyllenhaal (born December 19, 1980) is an American actor. Known for his performances on screen and stage, he has received numerous accolades, including a BAFTA Award as well as nominations for an Academy Award, three Golden Globe Awards, three Tony Awards, and a Primetime Emmy Award. Born into the Gyllenhaal family, he is the son of film director Stephen Gyllenhaal and screenwriter Naomi Foner, and the younger brother of actress Maggie Gyllenhaal.
Gyllenhaal began acting as a child, making his debut in City Slickers (1991), followed by roles in his father's films A Dangerous Woman (1993) and Homegrown (1998). His breakthrough came as Homer Hickam in the biopic October Sky (1999), before starring in the thriller Donnie Darko (2001), the romantic comedy The Good Girl (2002), and the disaster film The Day After Tomorrow (2004). He earned praise for his performance as Jack Twist in Ang Lee's romantic drama Brokeback Mountain (2005), including the BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor and an Academy Award nomination.
Gyllenhaal emerged as a leading man with roles in acclaimed films such as Zodiac (2007), End of Watch (2012), Prisoners (2013), Nightcrawler (2014), Southpaw (2015), Nocturnal Animals (2016), Stronger (2017), and Wildlife (2018). His other major successes include Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010), Source Code (2011), Everest (2015), and Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019); the latter became his highest grossing release. He has since starred in various action and thriller projects, including the films The Guilty (2021), Ambulance (2022) and Road House (2024), as well as the Apple TV series Presumed Innocent (2024).
Gyllenhaal has performed on stage, starring in a West End production of the play This Is Our Youth (2002) and Broadway productions of the musical Sunday in the Park with George (2017) as well as the plays Constellations (2014) and Sea Wall/A Life (2019), the last of which earned him a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play. Aside from acting, he is vocal about political and social issues.
1980–2000: Early life and career beginnings
Jacob Benjamin Gyllenhaal was born on December 19, 1980, in Los Angeles, California, United States, to screenwriter Naomi Foner (née Achs) and film director Stephen Gyllenhaal. He has an older sister, actress Maggie Gyllenhaal. Gyllenhaal's father, who was raised as a Swedenborgian, is a Christian of Swedish and English descent and is a descendant of the Swedish noble Gyllenhaal family. His last ancestor to be born in Sweden was his great-great-grandfather, Anders Leonard Gyllenhaal. Gyllenhaal's mother was born in New York City to an Ashkenazi Jewish family from Russia and Poland, and Gyllenhaal considers himself Jewish. Gyllenhaal was born with a lazy eye and has been wearing corrective lenses since he was six years old. On his 13th birthday, he volunteered at a homeless shelter as a "Bar Mitzvah-like act", because his parents wanted to give him a sense of gratitude for his privileged lifestyle.
As a child, Gyllenhaal was regularly exposed to filmmaking due to his family's ties to the industry. He made his acting debut as the son of Billy Crystal's character in the comedy City Slickers (1991). His parents did not allow him to appear in The Mighty Ducks (1992) because it would have required him to leave home for two months. In subsequent years, his parents allowed him to audition for roles but regularly forbade him to take them if he were chosen. He was allowed to appear in his father's productions several times, including A Dangerous Woman (1993), which also featured his sister Maggie; "Bop Gun", a 1994 episode of the series Homicide: Life on the Street; and the comedy film Homegrown (1998). Gyllenhaal appeared alongside Maggie and their mother in two episodes of Molto Mario, an Italian cooking show on the Food Network. Prior to his senior year in high school, the only other film not directed by his father that Gyllenhaal appeared in was the little-known children's film Josh and S.A.M. (1993).
Gyllenhaal's parents encouraged artistic expression. They insisted that he support himself by working summer jobs, which included working as a lifeguard and busboy. In 1998, Gyllenhaal graduated from the Harvard-Westlake School, a private school in Los Angeles. His first lead role in a film was in October Sky, Joe Johnston's 1999 adaptation of the Homer Hickam autobiography Rocket Boys, in which he portrayed a high school student from West Virginia who aspires to become a rocket scientist. The film was positively received and earned $32 million, and was described in the Sacramento News and Review as Gyllenhaal's "breakout performance". Gyllenhaal then began studying Eastern religions and philosophy at Columbia University, where Maggie was a senior; their mother had attended Columbia as well. Gyllenhaal dropped out after two years to concentrate on acting.
2001–2004: Donnie Darko to the London stage
Gyllenhaal's second lead film role was in Richard Kelly's science fiction psychological thriller Donnie Darko (2001). The film was not a box office success upon release, but it eventually became a cult favorite. Gyllenhaal plays Donnie Darko, a troubled teenager who experiences visions of a humanoid rabbit named Frank who tells him that the world is coming to an end. Gyllenhaal's sister Maggie plays Donnie's sister in the film. Reviewing the film for Culture Vulture, Gary Mairs wrote that Gyllenhaal "manages the difficult trick of seeming both blandly normal and profoundly disturbed, often within the same scene."
Gyllenhaal's next role was as Pilot Kelston in 2002's Highway alongside Jared Leto. His performance was described by one critic as "silly, clichéd and straight to video". Gyllenhaal had more success starring opposite Jennifer Aniston in The Good Girl, which premiered at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival; he also starred in Lovely and Amazing with Catherine Keener. In both films he plays an unstable character who begins a reckless affair with an older woman. Gyllenhaal later described these as "teenager in transition" roles. Gyllenhaal later starred in the Touchstone Pictures romantic comedy Bubble Boy, which was loosely based on the story of David Vetter. The film portrays the title character's adventures as he pursues the love of his life before she marries the wrong man. The film was panned by critics, with one calling it "stupid and devoid of any redeeming features".
Following Bubble Boy, Gyllenhaal starred opposite Dustin Hoffman, Susan Sarandon and Ellen Pompeo in Moonlight Mile (2002), as a young man coping with the death of his fiancée and the grief of her parents. The story, which received mixed reviews, is loosely based on writer-director Brad Silberling's personal experiences following the murder of his girlfriend, Rebecca Schaeffer. In his theatrical debut, Gyllenhaal starred on the London stage in Kenneth Lonergan's 2002 West End revival of This Is Our Youth at the Garrick Theatre. Gyllenhaal said, "Every actor I look up to has done theatre work, so I knew I had to give it a try." The play ran for eight weeks, and Gyllenhaal received favorable reviews and the Standard Theatre Award for Outstanding Newcomer category.
Gyllenhaal was almost cast as Spider-Man for 2004's Spider-Man 2, due to director Sam Raimi's concerns about original Spider-Man star Tobey Maguire's health. Maguire recovered, however, and the sequel was shot without Gyllenhaal. The actors later starred together in Brothers (2009), and resemble each other enough that Gyllenhaal has jokingly complained about cab drivers often calling him "Spider-Man". In 2003, he also auditioned for the role of Batman in the superhero film Batman Begins and came close being offered the part, but it was given to Christian Bale. Gyllenhaal subsequently appeared in the science fiction blockbuster The Day After Tomorrow in 2004, co-starring Dennis Quaid as his father.
2005–2011: Brokeback Mountain and leading roles
In 2005, Gyllenhaal was cast in the drama Proof, with co-stars Gwyneth Paltrow and Anthony Hopkins, where he played a graduate student in mathematics who tries to convince Paltrow's character to publish a revolutionary proof to a problem puzzling the mathematicians' community. The film received a generally positive response. He also starred in Sam Mendes's Jarhead, where Gyllenhaal played a U.S. Marine during the first Gulf War. The film garnered a favorable response; Stephen Hunter of The Washington Post praises Gyllenhaal's performance, writing, "He makes us see his character's intelligence", adding "he doesn't seem jealous of the camera's attention when it goes to others".