Liev Schreiber biography
Synopsis
In 1994, Liev Schreiber made his first film, Mixed Nuts, and for the next several years he established himself in independent films. Schreiber entered the mainstream in 1996 in Wes Craven's Scream horror trilogy. He portrayed Orson Wells in the HBO production of RKO 281, a film for which he earned Golden Globe and Emmy nominations for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Movie.
Early Life
Actor. Born Isaac Liev Shreiber, on October 4, 1967, in San Francisco, California. His parents, Tell, a stage actor, and Heather, a painter, divorced in the early '70s. Liev was raised on New York's Lower East Side by his mother, who also drove a cab part-time to support her son.
Schreiber attended Brooklyn Tech High School and later trained at London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts and Yale School of Drama, from which he graduated in 1992. He originally intended to be a playwright, but prior to applying to Yale a teacher encouraged him to pursue acting instead. In 1993, he made his Broadway debut in In the Summer House, followed by numerous off-Broadway productions.
Film Debut
In 1994, Schreiber made his first film, Mixed Nuts, playing a transvestite opposite Steve Martin. For the next several years, Schreiber established himself in independent films, including Denise Calls Up and Party Girl (1995), costarring Parker Posey; Walking and Talking (1996), featuring Catherine Keener and Anne Heche; and Stanley Tucci's sleeper comedy Big Night (1996), costarring Minnie Driver and Isabella Rossellini. Schreiber again teamed with Posey and Tucci in 1997's well-received The Daytrippers.
Schreiber entered the mainstream in 1996, playing Cotton Weary in Wes Craven's horror trilogy Scream (1996), Scream 2 (1997), and Scream 3 (2000). Shortly after the original Scream, he appeared in the Mel Gibson thriller Ransom (1996). These high-profile films opened even more doors for him in Hollywood. He was featured in Phantoms (1998) with Ben Affleck; Twilight (1998), sharing scenes with Hollywood veterans Paul Newman, Susan Sarandon and Gene Hackman; and Sphere (1998), with Denzel Washington and Sharon Stone.
On Stage and Screen
Despite his success in film, Schreiber is proudest of his theatrical work. He is an accomplished Shakespearean actor, and has worked with the Public Theater's New York Shakespeare Festival on critically acclaimed productions of The Tempest (1995), Macbeth and Cymbeline (1998); and in 1999, he played the title role in Hamlet.
Also in 1999, Schreiber returned to his independent-film roots, starring as the cuckolded husband in Tony Goldwyn's poignant drama, A Walk on the Moon, with Dianne Lane. He portrayed Orson Wells in the HBO production of RKO 281, a film for which he earned Golden Globe and Emmy nominations for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Movie. In 1999, Schreiber worked with Ned Beatty on Spring Forward, a film shot throughout the four seasons of New England (and released in 2000). That year he also appeared in the Oscar-nominated The Hurricane, starring Denzel Washington.
In 2000, Schreiber appeared as Laertes in the film version of Hamlet, starring Ethan Hawke as the Danish prince. He returned to Broadway to star in a production of Harold Pinter's Betrayal, directed by David Leveaux, and costarring Juliette Binoche (in her Broadway debut, for which she received a Tony nomination) and John Slatterly. In a New York Times review of his performance, Ben Brantley called Schreiber "one of the most gifted and complex actors of his generation." Other film projects include Dial 9 for Love, with Katie Carr and Jeanne Tripplehorn; and Kate and Leopold, with Meg Ryan and Natasha Lyonne.
In recent years, Schreiber has continued to work on a variety of projects, from small independent films to big-budget action movies. He wrote and directed the 2005 film adaptation of Johathan Safran Foer's Everything Is Illuminated. In 2009, Schreiber took on the comic book character of Sabretooth in X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
Personal Life
Outside of acting, Schreiber is a devoted father. He and girlfriend Naomi Watts have two sons, Alexander Pete and Samuel Kai.