Alden Caleb Ehrenreich (/ˈɛərənraɪk/;[1] born November 22, 1989)[2] is an American actor. He began his career by appearing in the television series Supernatural (2005), and in Francis Ford Coppola's films Tetro (2009) and Twixt (2011). Following supporting roles in the 2013 films Blue Jasmine and Stoker, his breakthrough came in 2016 with a lead role in the Coen brothers' comedy Hail, Caesar!, for which he gained praise.
Ehrenreich was born in Los Angeles, California,[3] the only child of Sari (née Newmann), an interior designer, and Mark Ehrenreich, an accountant.[4] He is named after the director Phil Alden Robinson, a family friend.[5][6] His stepfather, Harry Aronowitz, is an orthodontist.[2][7][8] Ehrenreich is Jewish;[9] his ancestors were Jewish emigrants from Austria, Hungary, Russia, and Poland, and he was raised in Reconstructionist Judaism.[3][5]
Ehrenreich was discovered at a friend's bat mitzvah reception by Steven Spielberg,[13] who watched a comedy video created by Ehrenreich and a friend, "which began in the present and eventually cut to 20 or 30 years later, with Mr. Ehrenreich, in a kimono, screaming to stop a wedding." Ehrenreich has described the comedic performance he gave in the movie as, "I ran around as a skinny little punk, trying on girls' clothes and eating dirt." He was then contacted by DreamWorks, a studio which Spielberg helped found, and met with its casting director.[14][15][16] Spielberg said of Ehrenreich:
[He] was in a bat mitzvah video that my daughter acted with him in for their best friend. They showed me the video and I loved it and I got him an agent. That's sort of how it all began... I thought he had a lot of promise in comedy... I didn't know he was going to rogue [into] drama. He was so funny in this video, I thought, "I have found the next really funny comedian." But most of his choices have been in drama and people don't know how really funny he is.[17]
In 2007, Ehrenreich won the role of Bennie Tetrocini in Francis Ford Coppola's Tetro.[20] Coppola asked Ehrenreich to read a passage from The Catcher in the Rye for his main audition.[7] The film was released in limited release in 2009 and received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised Ehrenreich's performance.[21][22] In 2011, he played a minor role in Coppola's subsequent film Twixt and appeared alongside Natalie Portman in the Sofia Coppola-directed Miss Dior Cherie commercial.[23]
Ehrenreich starred as Han Solo in the Star Wars anthology film Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018), following Solo's early life before the events of the original 1977 Star Wars. He headlined the Brave New World series on NBC, based on the 1932 novel of the same name by Aldous Huxley.[28]
In 2024, he joined Zach Cregger's horror thriller film Weapons (2026).[33] He also joined Anton Corbijn's Switzerland, alongside Helen Mirren, set to film in Fall 2024.[34]
^Pappademas, Alex (April 24, 2018). "Alden Ehrenreich Is Ready to Prove He's Worthy of Han Solo". Esquire. Retrieved May 30, 2018. His father died when he was just seven years old under tragic circumstances that he won't discuss. His mother is an interior designer who loves movies.
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