Movies

2001: Training Day
2001: Waking Life (voice)
2000: Hamlet
1999: Joe the King
1999: Snow Falling on Cedars
1998: Great Expectations
1998: The Newton Boys
1998: The Velocity of Gary
1997: Gattaca
1995: Search and Destory
1995: Before Sunrise
1994: Floundering
1994: Reality Bites
1993: Alive
1992: Rich in Love
1992: Waterland
1991: A Midnight Clear
1991: Mystery Date
1991: White Fang
1989: Dead Poets Society
1989: Dad
1985: Explorers

BOOKS
1996: The Hottest State

Story

A self-described slob, Ethan has carved out a career for himself as a modern renaissance man, working in a number of different fields and proving adept at all of them. In an addition to acting, he has published an acclaimed novel The Hottest State, co-founded a Manhattan theatre company and directed a short film. He was also at the reins of an as-yet-unreleased movie starring celebrity wife Uma Thurman - all before he turned 30.

Born in Austin, Texas, on Novermber 6, 1970, Ethan was just three years old when his parents divorced and he and his mother moved across the country to settle in West Windsor, New Jersey. At an early age, he began taking acting classes at Princeton University's McCarter Theater, where he made his stage debut aged 13 in a production of St. Joan. Spotted by a scout, a few weeks later Ethan was auditioning for a part in the 1985 teen sci-fi feature Explorers. Despite a barrage of publicity the film flopped and, encouraged by his mother, Ethan withdrew from acting with only one film under his belt. The failure was a defining moment in his life. From that point on he would play the acting game by his own rules, choosing parts he wanted rather than Hollywood to choose for him .

Four years later, Ethan was back in a supporting role in Dead Poet's Society. The film was an immediate hit, earning him good reviews and the lead role in a 1991 Disney adaptation of Jack London's White Fang. At the same time, Ethan - determined not to be seduced by the glitz of Hollywood after his Explorers experience - began to stride out on the boards. In 1992 he made his Broadway debut in a production of Chechkov's The Seagull, and a year later co-founded Malaparte, a non-profit theatre group based in Manhattan.

Meanwhile he conserved his cinema career with a series of coming-of-age roles, and had his first high-profile lead in the 1994 romantic comedy Reality Bites, opposite Winona Ryder. The following year's romantic feature Before Sunrise. proved to be a breakthrough for Ethan, upping his sensitive hunk quotient with females everywhere.

From there on Hollywood sat up and took notice. In 1997, Ethan snagged his first adult role in Gattaca - on the set of which he met his future wife Uma Thurman - and a year later led a cast that included Robert De Niro in a modern day version of Great Expectations. Then came Snow Falling On Cedars in 1999, and the following year he became the youngest actor to play Hamlet on screen in a Gen-X version of the Shakespearean play.

Ethan and Uma's first child, daughter Maya Ray, was born a month after the couple were married in 1998. And in January 2002 - one month before he earned his greatest acclaim to date, an Oscar nomination for Training Day - the couple welcomed their son Roan.

And Ethan continues to seek new challenges. "Success is designed to stunt your growth," he said recently. "You have to constantly try to keep in check why it is you're doing what you're doing and not just let inertia carry you forward."