Paul Dano

Paul Franklin Dano ( ; born June 19, 1984) is an American actor and filmmaker. His work includes both independent film and blockbusters, and his accolades include nominations for a British Academy Film Award, a Golden Globe Award and two Primetime Emmy Awards.

Dano made his film acting debut in L.I.E. (2001) and gained wider recognition for playing Dwayne Hoover in Little Miss Sunshine (2006). He was nominated for the BAFTA for Best Supporting Actor for playing Paul and Eli Sunday in Paul Thomas Anderson's period drama There Will Be Blood (2007). After supporting roles in mainstream films such as Knight and Day (2010), Cowboys & Aliens (2011), and Looper (2012), Dano had critically acclaimed roles in 12 Years a Slave and Prisoners (both 2013). For his portrayal of Beach Boys founder Brian Wilson in Love & Mercy (2014), he earned a nomination for the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor. In 2018, he starred as a convicted murderer in the Showtime miniseries Escape at Dannemora, for which he received a nomination for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor. In 2022, he played The Riddler in The Batman and a fictionalized version of Arnold Spielberg in The Fabelmans, receiving a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for the latter.

Dano made his directorial debut with the drama film Wildlife (2018), which he also co-wrote with his partner, Zoe Kazan. He has also written the comic book The Riddler: Year One (2022). On Broadway theatre, Dano has starred in productions of A Free Man of Color (2010–2011) and True West (2019).

Early life and education Dano was born on June 19, 1984, in New York City, the son of a homemaker and a financial advisor. He has a younger sister named Sarah.

Dano spent the first few years of his childhood in New York City and initially attended the Browning School. While he was a child, Dano's family moved to the Connecticut suburb of New Canaan, finally settling in Wilton.

2000s

Dano made his Broadway debut at age twelve in John Tillinger's revival of Inherit the Wind, alongside George C. Scott and Charles Durning. He appeared in an episode of the sitcom Smart Guy and had a minor role in the 2000 family drama The Newcomers. He played the part of Patrick Whalen in several episodes of The Sopranos (season 4).

Dano acted in his first major film role when he was sixteen, playing Howie Blitzer, a teenage boy who becomes involved with a middle-aged ephebophile (Brian Cox) in L.I.E. (2001). He then appeared in the television film Too Young to Be a Dad as a high school student whose life is disrupted when his girlfriend becomes pregnant. He appeared in The Emperor's Club in 2002 as Martin Blythe. In 2004, he played a small role as the young Martin Asher in Taking Lives, with Angelina Jolie and Ethan Hawke. Additionally, Dano starred in The Girl Next Door, alongside Elisha Cuthbert, Emile Hirsch, and Chris Marquette. In 2005, he played supporting roles in The King and The Ballad of Jack and Rose.

He came to greater attention in 2006 when he played Dwayne, a voluntarily mute teenager, as part of an ensemble in the comedic drama Little Miss Sunshine, which received critical acclaim and collective awards for its cast. He also had a supporting role in the 2006 film Fast Food Nation, based on the nonfiction book by Eric Schlosser. Dano had a dual role in the 2007 period film There Will Be Blood, which earned him positive reviews and a BAFTA nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Texas Monthly said that his performance was "so electric that the movie sags whenever he's not around". Peter Travers remarked, "All praise to the baby-faced Dano...for bringing sly cunning and unexpected ferocity to Plainview's most formidable opponent." Rolling Stone magazine included Dano in its Hot List for 2007, calling his performance style "Daniel Day-Lewis + Billy Crudup × Johnny Depp."

Dano appeared in several additional Broadway productions, including A Thousand Clowns at the Roundabout Theatre, and in Ethan Hawke’s directorial debut, Things We Want, during its 2007 Off-Broadway run.

In 2008, he starred in Gigantic, a poorly reviewed film about a man seeking to adopt a Chinese baby, co-starring Zooey Deschanel. He reunited with Brian Cox in 2009's Good Heart, a low-budget English-language Icelandic film. He provided the voice of one of the creatures in the film adaptation of Where the Wild Things Are (2009).

2010s

He played a genius inventor in 2010's Knight and Day, an action thriller starring Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz. The same year, he appeared in Meek's Cutoff, a well-reviewed historical drama. In 2011, he had a supporting role in the big-budget science fiction film Cowboys and Aliens.

Dano appeared in three feature films in 2012: Ruby Sparks, as a writer whose fictional character (played by Zoe Kazan, the film's writer and Dano's partner) inexplicably appears as a real person; in a supporting role alongside Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis in the time-travel thriller Looper; and as the writer Nick Flynn, alongside Robert De Niro, in Being Flynn, a film based on Flynn's memoir about his relationship with his father. In 2013, Dano appeared in Steve McQueen's period-drama biopic 12 Years a Slave, based on the memoirs of Solomon Northup. Dano portrayed John Tibeats, an overseer at the plantation Northup is sold to. The film was a critical success and won the Academy Award for Best Picture and numerous other award. Dano also featured in the 2013 Denis Villeneuve film Prisoners. He portrayed Alex Jones, a tormented man who was kidnapped by a nihilistic couple 26 years ago and initially framed as a suspect in a separate kidnapping.

In 2014, Dano played a younger version of the Beach Boys founder Brian Wilson (with John Cusack as an older version of Wilson) in the biopic Love & Mercy, for which he received a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

In 2015, Dano appeared with Michael Caine and Harvey Keitel in the Italian comedy-drama Youth; Dano portrayed Jimmy Tree, an actor doing research for an upcoming role who is frustrated to be best known for a previous role as a robot. In January 2016, Dano appeared as Pierre Bezukhov in the BBC's six-part adaptation of Tolstoy's War and Peace.

In Fall 2016, he appeared in a video as an onstage "stand-in" during the Nostalgic for the Present concert tour of Australian singer Sia, for her song "Bird Set Free."

In July 2016, it was announced that Dano would make his directorial debut with the movie Wildlife, based on the 1990 novel of the same title by Richard Ford. The movie was set to be produced by June Pictures and to star Carey Mulligan and Jake Gyllenhaal. Dano stated, "I have always wanted to make films and have always known I would make films about family. I couldn't be happier to have such beautiful collaborators like Carey and Jake leading the way." The film received critical acclaim when it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. It also screened at the Cannes Film Festival, the Toronto Film Festival and the Mill Valley Film Festival. The film has earned a 94% on Rotten Tomatoes with the consensus reading, "Wildlife's portrait of a family in crisis is beautifully composed by director Paul Dano -- and brought brilliantly to life by a career-best performance from Carey Mulligan".

In 2016, Dano played the role of Hank Thompson in Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan's absurdist black-comedy film Swiss Army Man, alongside Daniel Radcliffe and Mary Elizabeth Winstead. His character is a suicidal man, stranded on an island, who befriends a farting corpse. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 22, and opened in theaters on June 24. Although some viewers walked out of the film viewing due to its bizarre humor, critics left generally favorable reviews of the film. Dano won the Critics' Choice Award twice in 2007, and was nominated in 2014 and 2016.

In 2018, he portrayed escaped inmate David Sweat in the Showtime miniseries Escape at Dannemora alongside Patricia Arquette and Benicio del Toro, for which he received a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series.

From December 27, 2018 to March 17, 2019, Dano starred in the critically acclaimed Broadway revival of Sam Shepard's True West, with Ethan Hawke, at the Roundabout Theater Company's American Airlines Theater in New York.

2020s

In October 2019, Dano was cast as The Riddler in Matt Reeves's 2022 superhero film The Batman. Reeves wrote the role with Dano in mind after seeing Dano's portrayal of Brian Wilson in Love & Mercy.

In April 2021, Paul Dano was cast in Steven Spielberg's semi-autobiographical coming-of-age film The Fabelmans as Burt Fabelman, a character loosely based on Spielberg's father Arnold. The film was released in 2022 to universal acclaim; with Dano's performance earning praise from Pete Hammond of Deadline Hollywood describing him as "terrific as the genuinely nice and loving father torn between following his own career and caring for his wife and family under increasingly difficult circumstances" and Stephanie Zacharek of Time including Dano in Times Top 10 movie performances of 2022, describing his portrayal as "the sum of all the things that so many men of that generation just didn't know how to be; we also see a deep well of love, no less real for being left unexpressed." Dano would subsequently receive nominations for Best Supporting Actor at the Screen Actors Guild Awards and Critics' Choice Movie Awards.

In 2022, Dano starred in AMC's animated drama Pantheon. In March 2022, it was announced that Dano would make his comic debut writing The Riddler: Year One for DC's Black Label imprint. The six issue limited series is set in the continuity of The Batman and showcase the rise of Edward Nashton / Patrick Parker into becoming the Riddler.

In September 2022, it was announced that Dano would star in Craig Gillespie's Dumb Money, an adaptation of Ben Mezrich's The Antisocial Network, alongside Seth Rogen, Sebastian Stan and Pete Davidson. The film was released in theaters in September 2023. The same year, Dano was a member of the Feature Film Jury at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival.

Dano joined Adam Sandler and Carey Mulligan in Netflix's Spaceman, an adaptation of Jaroslav Kalfař's novel Spaceman of Bohemia, directed by Johan Renck. The film was released in March 2024 on Netflix. The same year, Dano appeared in the television series Mr. & Mrs. Smith with Donald Glover, Maya Erskine, Michaela Coel and John Turturro. He received his second Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series for his appearance in the series.

In March 2025, Dano appeared in The Studio as a guest star.

In June 2025, it was announced that Dano would write and potentially direct and produce "a high-concept comedy" for Universal Pictures, produced by The Daniels. In November 2025, it was announced that Paul Dano would star in The Chaperones, an upcoming A24 drama directed by India Donaldson.

In December 2025, Dano was reported to have joined the cast of Florian Zeller's psychological thriller Bunker.

Personal life Dano has been in a relationship with actress and screenwriter Zoe Kazan since 2007. They have a daughter, born in August 2018, and a son, born in October 2022. They reside in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn.

Dano was the vocalist and lead guitarist of the band Mook.

Performances and works Film +Key Denotes productions that have not yet been released Year Title Role Notes 2000 The Newcomers Joel 2001 L.I.E. Howie Blitzer Credited as Paul Franklin Dano 2002 The Emperor's Club Martin Blythe Too Young to Be a Dad Matt Freeman 2004 Taking Lives Young Asher The Girl Next Door Klitz 2005 The Ballad of Jack and Rose Thaddius The King Paul 2006 Little Miss Sunshine Dwayne Fast Food Nation Brian 2007 Weapons ChrisThere Will Be BloodPaul Sunday / Eli Sunday 2008 Explicit Ills Rocco Light and the Sufferer Don ("Light") Gigantic Brian Weathersby Also executive producer 2009 Taking Woodstock VW Guy The Good Heart Lucas Where the Wild Things Are Alexander (voice) 2010 The Extra Man Louis Ives Meek's Cutoff Thomas Gately Knight and Day Simon Feck 2011 Cowboys & Aliens Percy Dolarhyde 2012 Being Flynn Nick Flynn Ruby Sparks Calvin Weir-Fields Also executive producer Looper Seth For Ellen Joby Also executive producer 2013 12 Years a Slave John Tibeats Prisoners Alex Jones 2014 Love & Mercy Brian Wilson 2015 Youth Jimmy Tree 2016 Swiss Army Man Hank 2017 Okja Jay 2018 Wildlife Director, writer, and producer 2021 The Guilty Matthew Fontenot (voice) 2022 The Batman Edward Nashton / The Riddler The Fabelmans Burt Fabelman 2023 Dumb Money Keith Gill 2024 Spaceman Hanuš Voice 2025 The Wizard of the Kremlin Vadim Baranov 2026 Bunker TBA Post-production 2027 Possession Filming The Chaperones Post-production Vegas: A Love Story Ryder Post-production

Television Year Title RoleNotes 1997 Smart Guy Nicholas Episode: "She Got Game" 2002–2004 The Sopranos Patrick Whalen 2 episodes 2016 War & Peace Pierre Bezukhov Miniseries, 6 episodes 2018 Escape at Dannemora David Sweat Miniseries, 7 episodes 2022 Saturday Night Live Himself Episode: "Zoë Kravitz/Rosalía" 2022–2023 Pantheon Caspian Keyes Voice role, 16 episodes 2024 Mr. & Mrs. Smith Hot Neighbor / Harris Materbach 3 episodes Fantasmas Jeff Episode: "Cookies and Spaghetti" 2025 The Studio Himself Episode: "The Promotion"

Theater

Music videos + Year Title Artist(s) Director(s) Notes 2026 "Here" Mumford & Sons with Chris Stapleton Bradley J. Calder

Discography With Mook''' The Eggs EP (2007) Mook (2011)