Sean Penn

Sean Penn

Acting
Born 1960-08-17 Santa Monica, California, USA 8 credit(s) Popularity 3.5
Sean Justin Penn (born August 17, 1960) is an American actor and filmmaker. He is known for his intense leading man roles in film. His accolades include three Academy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and nominations for three British Academy Film Awards, an Emmy Award, and a Grammy Award. He received the Honorary César in 2015 and the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award in 2022. Penn made his feature film debut in the drama Ta...
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Biography

Profile information and background.

Sean Justin Penn (born August 17, 1960) is an American actor and filmmaker. He is known for his intense leading man roles in film. His accolades include three Academy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and nominations for three British Academy Film Awards, an Emmy Award, and a Grammy Award. He received the Honorary César in 2015 and the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award in 2022.

Penn made his feature film debut in the drama Taps (1981), before taking roles in Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982), Bad Boys (1983), and At Close Range (1986). He has won the Academy Award for Best Actor twice, for playing a grieving father in Mystic River (2003) and the gay rights activist Harvey Milk in Milk (2008). He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for playing the ruthless military officer Colonel Steven J. Lockjaw in One Battle After Another (2025). He was Oscar-nominated for Dead Man Walking (1995), Sweet and Lowdown (1999), and I Am Sam (2001). He also acted in Casualties of War (1989), State of Grace (1990), Carlito's Way (1993), The Game(1997), The Thin Red Line (1998), Hurlyburly (1998), 21 Grams (2003), Fair Game (2010), The Tree of Life (2011), Licorice Pizza (2021) and Daddio (2023).

Penn made his directorial film debut with the crime drama The Indian Runner (1991), followed by The Crossing Guard (1995), The Pledge (2001), and Into the Wild (2007). On stage, he acted in the Broadway plays Heartland (1981) and Slab Boys (1983). On television, he portrayed an astronaut in the Hulu drama series The First (2018) and John N. Mitchell in the Starz political thriller miniseries Gaslit (2022).

Penn has also engaged in political and social activism, including his criticism of the George W. Bush administration, his contact with the presidents of Cuba and Venezuela, his humanitarian work in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the 2010 Haiti earthquake, and his support for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy amidst the Russian-Ukrainian war.

Description above from the Wikipedia article Sean Penn, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Known For

Main acting credits and shows.

Variety & CNN Actors on Actors poster
Variety & CNN Actors on Actors
as Self
2025-12-05
aka Charlie Sheen poster
aka Charlie Sheen
as Self
2025-09-10
Everybody's Live with John Mulaney poster
Everybody's Live with John Mulaney
as Self - Actor and Founder of CORE
2025-03-12
C*A*U*G*H*T poster
C*A*U*G*H*T
as Executive Producer
2023-09-28
Gaslit poster
Gaslit
as John Mitchell
2022-04-24
Lights Out with David Spade poster
Lights Out with David Spade
as Self
2019-07-29
The First poster
The First
as Tom Haggerty
2018-09-14
Firing Line with Margaret Hoover poster
Firing Line with Margaret Hoover
2018-06-22

Crew Credits

Directing, writing, production, and other work.

No crew credits available yet.