Jake Gyllenhaal

Jake Gyllenhaal, initially known as Jacob Benjamin Gyllenhaal is an American actor who was born on 19th December 1980 in Los Angeles, California. He belongs to the Swedish noble Gyllenhaal family. His father, Stephen Gyllenhaal, is a director and his mother, Naomi Foner, is a renowned producer/screenwriter. Moreover, his sister, Maggie Gyllenhaal, is also an actress. 

In 1998, Jake graduated from the Harvard-Westlake School based in Los Angles. He then went to Columbia University, from where his sister and mother also graduated, to study Eastern religions and philosophy. At Columbia University, he belonged to John Jay Hall. However, his stay at Columbia University was short-lived because he dropped out after 2 years to focus on his acting career.    

Jake has been exposed to filmmaking since childhood mainly because of his family’s association with the film industry. His movie debut came early at the age of 11 when he got a role in City Slickers (1991). He appeared in many of his father’s directed movies including A Dangerous Woman (1993) in which he appeared along with his sister. Moreover, he also appeared in two episodes of Molto Mario along with his mother and sister. Jake’s first lead role came at the age of 19 when he was cast in October Sky (1999). Two years later, he starred in Donnie Darko (2001) for which he was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Actor. One of his most prominent performances came in Nightcrawler (2014) for which he earned a nomination for the Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama Golden Globe. Some of his other well-received films include Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010), Stronger (2017), Wildlife (2018), and Spider-Man: Far from Home (2019) to name a few. He last starred in Michael Bay’s directed Ambulance (2022).

Gyllenhaal suffers from near-sightedness. Once he mentioned, “Without contact lenses, I’m practically blind. This is where the mystery of my weird view of things comes from”. After the release of his romance/drama film, Brokeback Mountain (2005), rumors started circulating about Jake’s sexual orientation. However, Jake responded to the rumor in an interview saying, “You know it's flattering when there's a rumour that says I'm bisexual. It means I can play more kinds of roles. I'm open to whatever people want to call me. I've never really been attracted to men sexually, but I don't think I would be afraid of it if it happened”.