Brad Pitt

Brad Pitt was born William Bradley Pitt in Shawnee, Oklahoma, and grew up in Springfield, Missouri. At Kickapoo High School, he took part in sports, debate, student government, and school musicals. He studied journalism with an emphasis on advertising at the University of Missouri, but left two credits short of graduating to pursue acting in California.

Before securing regular acting work, Pitt drove limousines, delivered refrigerators, and worked in a chicken costume for El Pollo Loco. His earliest credited roles were on television, including appearances in Another World, Dallas, Growing Pains, and Glory Days. His small role as a charming criminal in Thelma & Louise (1991), directed by Ridley Scott and featuring Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon, brought him widespread attention.

Pitt followed the breakthrough with A River Runs Through It (1992), directed by Robert Redford, in which he played Paul Maclean. He then moved between romantic, comic, and darker roles in films including True Romance, Interview with the Vampire, Legends of the Fall, Se7en, and 12 Monkeys. His performance as Jeffrey Goines in 12 Monkeys earned him a Golden Globe Award and his first Academy Award nomination.

Pitt deliberately challenged his image as a conventional leading man in films such as Seven Years in Tibet, The Devil’s Own, Meet Joe Black, and David Fincher’s Fight Club (1999). As Tyler Durden, the charismatic leader of an underground fight club, he played a volatile and unconventional character opposite Edward Norton. The film later became a cult classic.

In 2001, Pitt joined George Clooney, Matt Damon, Bernie Mac, and Julia Roberts in Steven Soderbergh’s Ocean’s Eleven. He played the relaxed, resourceful con artist Rusty Ryan, returning for Ocean’s Twelve (2004) and Ocean’s Thirteen (2007). The successful heist series established one of his most recognizable screen characters.

Pitt portrayed Achilles in the historical epic Troy (2004), strengthening his position as an action star. He then co-starred with Angelina Jolie in Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005), an action film about a married couple who secretly work as spies. Pitt and Jennifer Aniston co-founded Plan B Entertainment with Brad Grey in 2002, and Pitt later became the company’s sole owner after his divorce from Aniston.

Pitt continued to alternate between commercial films and demanding character parts. In Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds (2009), he played Lieutenant Aldo Raine, who leads a group of Jewish American soldiers fighting the Nazis in occupied France. He also provided the voice of a superhero rival in Megamind and played a domineering father in Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life (2011).

In Moneyball (2011), Pitt portrayed Oakland Athletics general manager Billy Beane, whose use of statistical analysis challenged conventional approaches to assembling a baseball team. The performance earned Pitt an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor, and he also served as a producer on the film.

His other significant projects from this period included the crime drama Killing Them Softly, the zombie thriller World War Z, the historical drama 12 Years a Slave, and the World War II film Fury. As a producer of 12 Years a Slave, Pitt shared the Academy Award for Best Picture with director Steve McQueen and the film’s other producers. Plan B has also produced films including The Departed and Women Talking.

Pitt earned his first Academy Award for acting for his supporting performance as stuntman Cliff Booth in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood (2019). He played the longtime friend and stunt double of Leonardo DiCaprio’s fading television actor in a story set in Los Angeles during 1969. The role also brought Pitt a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor.

In the same year, he starred in Ad Astra as an astronaut searching for his missing father. His later acting credits include a cameo in The Lost City, the action film Bullet Train, and Damien Chazelle’s Babylon, in which he played movie star Jack Conrad. Pitt reunited with George Clooney in Wolfs (2024), playing one of two rival professional fixers forced to work together.

Pitt played a returning Formula One driver in F1: The Movie (2025). He has also been connected as a producer to projects involving the Isle of Man TT motorcycle race.

Pitt was married to Jennifer Aniston from 2000 to 2005. He later married Angelina Jolie in 2014 after they had co-starred in Mr. & Mrs. Smith. Their separation began in 2016, and the divorce is variously described as finalized in 2019 or 2024. Pitt and Jolie have six children, Maddox, Pax, Zahara, Shiloh, Knox, and Vivienne, including adopted and biological children.

Pitt co-founded Not on Our Watch, a campaign that directed resources toward countries experiencing humanitarian crises, including Darfur. In 2006, he established the Make It Right Foundation to help construct environmentally friendly homes in New Orleans for people displaced by Hurricane Katrina. The project later faced construction problems and legal disputes.

Pitt has also pursued visual art. In 2022, he exhibited sculptures at a museum in Finland, including a miniature house made from tree bark and tape.