Jeremy Renner

Jeremy Lee Renner was born on 7 January 1971 in Modesto, California, the eldest of seven children. He studied computer science before a drama class changed his plans, and he spent his early twenties between stage work, small television roles and renovating houses to pay the bills — a habit of building things with his hands that has never left him.

His first major notice came with the independent film Dahmer in 2002, followed by steady character work through the decade. Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker made him a leading man in 2008 and brought a Best Actor nomination; Ben Affleck’s The Town brought a second nomination two years later, for Best Supporting Actor.

From 2011 he moved between two of the biggest franchises in cinema — Clint Barton in the Marvel films and later the series Hawkeye, and William Brandt in Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol and Rogue Nation — while keeping room for smaller, harder films such as Wind River. Since 2021 he has led all four seasons of Taylor Sheridan’s Mayor of Kingstown as Mike McLusky.

Away from acting he writes and releases his own music, and in 2023 he turned his vehicle-rebuilding passion into the Disney+ series Rennervations, converting decommissioned trucks and buses into mobile studios and classrooms for young people. That work continues through the RennerVation Foundation, which he founded with his sister Kym.

In January 2023 he was crushed by a snowcat near his Nevada home and survived more than thirty broken bones. His 2025 memoir My Next Breath tells that story — the recovery, the people around him, and learning to walk, breathe and work again.