Paul Dano will make his directorial debut in 2018 with Wildlife, which screened at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. Dano wrote the adapted screenplay (with Zoe Kazan) from Richard Ford’s American classic. Wildlife stars Carey Mulligan and Jake Gyllenhaal and centers on the story of a teenage boy who witnesses the decay of his parent’s marriage after their move to Montana. Dano also produced the film which IFC will release this fall. Dano recently wrapped the Showtime limited series Escale at Dannemora starring alongside Benicio Del Toro and directed by Ben Stiller. In 2017, Dano starred in the critically acclaimed Joon-ho Bong film Okja starring opposite Tilda Swinton and Jake Gyllenhaal. Okja was nominated for the Palm d’Or at the Cannes International Film Festival. In 2015, Dano won the Gotham Independent Film Award for Best Actor for his critically acclaimed portrayal of Beach Boys songwriter and musician Brian Wilson in the film Love & Mercy. He also received Golden Globe and Film Independent Spirit Award nominations for his performance. Directed by Bill Pohlad, the film starred Elizabeth Banks and John Cusack and was released by Roadside Attractions in June 2015. Also in 2015, Dano starred in the Fox Searchlight film Youth, written and directed by Paolo Sorrentino (The Great Beauty) and nominated for the Palm d’Or at the Cannes International film festival. In 2013, Dano appeared in Steve McQueen’s critically acclaimed and Academy Award, BAFTA, and Golden Globe-winning 12 Years a Slave, alongside Michael Fassbender and Chiwetel Ejiofor. Dano portrayed the role of the wrathful slave-owner, John Tibeats. Also in 2013, Dano starred in Warner Brothers’ critically acclaimed thriller Prisoners, directed by Denis Villeneuve, and alongside Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal and Terrence Howard. Dano portrayed the role of Alex Jones in a chilling performance of a disturbed man with the IQ of a child who is suspected of kidnapping two little girls. In 2012, Dano starred in Sony’s action crime sci-fi film, Looper, directed by Rian Johnson and alongside Bruce Willis, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Emily Blunt. Dano also starred in and executive produced Fox Searchlight’s fantasy comedy drama, Ruby Sparks, directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris and written by Zoe Kazan—also starring Kazan and Chris Messina. Ruby Sparks accounts the story of a novelist struggling with writer’s block (Dano) who creates a female character that comes to life as a real person (Kazan). In 2007, Dano was nominated for a BAFTA in the Best Supporting Actor category for his portrayal of the identical twin brothers Paul and Eli Sunday in in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Academy Award nominated There Will Be Blood, starring Daniel Day-Lewis. In 2006, Dano won a Critics Choice award for Best Young Actor for his portrayal as the voluntarily mute brother, Dwayne, in Fox Searchlight’s critically acclaimed and Academy Award nominated Little Miss Sunshine, directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, and starring Abigail Breslin, Steve Carell, Greg Kinnear, Alan Arkin and Toni Collette. Dano’s first major film was at seventeen, when he portrayed the role of Howie Blitzer in the crime drama L.I.E., for which he won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Debut Performance and a Directors’ Week Award for Best Actor. L.I.E. chronicles the story of a 15-year-old Long Island boy who loses everything and becomes involved in a relationship with an older man. Additional credits include: Being Flynn, Meek's Cutoff, Where the Wile Things Are, BBC television drama mini-series, War and Peace, The Ballad of Jack and Rose, Swiss Army Man, For Ellen, Knight and Day, The Extra Man, The Good Heart, Gigantic, Cowboys & Aliens, Taking Woodstock, The Girl Next Door, Fast Food Nation, The Kink, The Ballad of Jack and Rose and Taking Lives. In 2007, Dano starred in Ethan Hawke’s off-Broadway directorial debut, Things We Want, alongside Peter Dinklage, Josh Hamilton and Zoe Kazan. He currently resides in New York City.
