Glen Powell

Powell has been dating actress and model Michelle Randolph since 2025. He previously dated model Gigi Paris from 2020 to 2023, and was romantically linked to Nina Dobrev in 2017 and Australian television host Renee Bargh from 2018 to 2019.

Powell is a licensed pilot. Tom Cruise paid for him to attend flight school after they worked together on Top Gun: Maverick. Powell is also a devoted supporter of the Texas Longhorns and moved from Los Angeles back to Austin in 2024.

Powell developed an interest in movies after watching Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park with his father at age five. As a child, he made science-fiction films with a home video camera and friends, and later performed in productions including The Music Man, Oliver!, and The Sound of Music through Austin Musical Theatre.

At age 14, Powell made his film debut as the Long-fingered Boy in Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over, which was filmed in Austin. He continued acting while attending Westwood High School, where he played football and lacrosse. His early screen credits included The Wendell Baker Story, Fast Food Nation, The Hottest State, and The Great Debaters.

Denzel Washington directed and starred in The Great Debaters, in which Powell played Preston Whittington. Washington encouraged Powell to pursue acting and introduced him to agent Ed Limato, after which Powell moved to Los Angeles in 2008. Before establishing himself as a full-time actor, Powell worked as a script reader for producer Lynda Obst and appeared in guest roles on television series including Without a Trace, CSI: Miami, and Rizzoli & Isles.

Powell began landing larger parts in the mid-2010s. He played Chad Radwell, a fraternity brother at Wallace University, in 16 episodes of Ryan Murphy's horror-comedy series Scream Queens from 2015 to 2016. The role brought him wider recognition for his comedic performance.

In 2016, Powell appeared as college baseball player Finnegan in Richard Linklater's Everybody Wants Some!! and portrayed astronaut John Glenn in Hidden Figures. He later played Sergeant Dylan Chutsky in Sand Castle and Mark Reynolds in The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. His performance as part of the Hidden Figures cast earned a Screen Actors Guild Award in 2017.

Powell reunited with Linklater as a voice actor in Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood. He also had voice roles in Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous, Rick and Morty, and Family Guy.

Powell's breakthrough came with Top Gun: Maverick, in which he played naval aviator Jake "Hangman" Seresin opposite Tom Cruise. He had originally auditioned for Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw, but Miles Teller won that role. Cruise and the production team were impressed by Powell's audition and offered him the part of Hangman after Cruise personally encouraged him to accept it.

Powell underwent underwater escape simulations and flight training for the film, including flights in F-18 aircraft. The role made him widely known and established him as a leading actor in major studio films.

He followed Top Gun: Maverick with the romantic comedy Anyone but You, co-starring Sydney Sweeney. The film reimagined William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing and became a sleeper hit. Powell and Sweeney also played along with romance speculation during the film's promotion as part of its marketing strategy.

Powell co-wrote, produced, and starred in Hit Man, playing professor Gary Johnson, who works undercover as a supposed assassin for a police department. The film marked his writing debut with Richard Linklater and earned Powell a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy.

In Twisters, Powell played storm chaser Tyler Owens opposite Daisy Edgar-Jones. He drew on a childhood experience in which he and members of his family took shelter while an F5 tornado passed near Jarrell, Texas.

Powell helped create and produce the comedy series Chad Powers, playing football player Russ Holliday and the disguised character Chad Powers. The series was renewed for a second season. His later projects include The Running Man, How to Make a Killing, and the voice role of Fox McCloud in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.

In 2025, Powell formed the production company Barnstorm and signed a first-look deal with Universal Pictures. He is also set to co-write and produce The Comeback King, directed by Judd Apatow, and to star in J. J. Abrams's The Great Beyond.