Background

Ethnicity: Jason Bateman’s father is of English, some Scottish, 1/8th Swiss-German, 1/16th Swedish, and 1/16th Danish, ancestry. Jason’s mother was born in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England, and also has Maltese ancestry.

Jason Bateman was born January 14, 1969, in Rye, New York, the United States, to Victoria Elizabeth Bateman, a former flight attendant and Kent Bateman, an actor, writer and director of film and television, and founder of a repertory stage in Hollywood. He has an older sister, Justine, and three half-brothers. At four, his family moved to Salt Lake City, Utah, and later to California. At 10, he began to act professionally and started to work in commercials.

Education

Jason Bateman never finished high school due to his work on Teen Wolf Too.

Career

Around the age of 10, Bateman began to act professionally. He soon started to land work in commercials. At the age of 12, Jason first found his own taste of fame when he became a regular on the 1981 to 1982 season of the hit series Little House on the Prairie. Despite his young age, he easily portrayed a wide range of emotions in the role of orphan James Cooper, who is adopted by the Ingalls family.

His next regular role came on the sitcom Silver Spoons, playing slimy trouble maker Derek Taylor opposite Ricky Schroder from 1982 to 1984, earning him two Young Artist Award nominations. In the series, Bateman played Schroder's scheming school friend. His boy-next-door good looks and sense of humor made him very popular with younger audiences, especially teenaged girls.

That was immediately followed by a regular role in It's Your Move, which only ran one season, but earned him a third Young Artist Award nomination. He then played Valerie Harper's son in five seasons of the NBC-TV sitcom Valerie, earning a fourth Young Artist Award nomination. At 18, he made history as the Directors Guild of America's youngest-ever director when he helmed three episodes of the final season. When Harper exited after the second season, the show continued as The Hogan Family, and Sandy Duncan joined the cast as the boys' aunt.

While enjoying sitcom success, Bateman co-starred with sister Justine in the 1986 television movie Can You Feel Me Dancing? which was co-produced by their father. In the movie, Justine played a blind teenager trying to break free from her overprotective family and friends. Bateman played her brother in the film. Bateman then made his feature film debut in the poorly received Teen Wolf Too (1987), the sequel to the 1985 comedic hit starring Michael J. Fox. He played a relative of Fox's character who discovers that he also suffers from the family's werewolf curse. Grossing only $7.6 million at the box office, the film was considered a commercial failure. Bateman's father had also produced this film.

After The Hogan Family ended in 1991, Bateman continued to find work on television. None of these roles lasted for long, however. The family comedy Simon only lasted one season, from the fall of 1995 to the spring of 1996. The show focused on the lives of two very different brothers sharing an apartment in New York City. Next up for Bateman was Chicago Sons, a comedy about three brothers and their romantic misadventures. The show was a midseason replacement and was canceled after six months on the air.

Taking a professional risk, Bateman stepped away from his usual sitcom roles for the 2001 series Some of My Best Friends. The show was based on the 1997 independent comedy Kiss Me, Guido, which explored the relationship between a gay man (Bateman) and a straight Italian American man (Danny Nucci) who become roommates. "What makes me laugh about my character is that he's not really as smart or cool or good-looking as he thinks he is. I think this show is the best thing I've ever done," Bateman told The Advocate. Critics and television audiences did not share Bateman's opinion of the show, and it was canceled after only a few episodes.

Bateman entered an uncertain time in his career after the failure of the series. "After 26 years of doing something, most people either switch course or retire ... I was wearing out my welcome on TV; you get certain vibes that they'd rather see someone they hadn't seen before," the actor explained to Vogue.

Bateman regained his household name status when he procured the starring role in the Fox series Arrested Development, which went on to become a critical hit, then an audience favorite from 2003 to 2006. For his role as Michael Bluth, a level-headed man who has to deal with his dysfunctional family, Bateman won a 2005 Golden Globe.

After just three seasons on FOX, Arrested Development was canceled by the network in 2006. To fans' delight, however, the series was renewed by Netflix in 2013, with the entire original cast reuniting for its fourth season. Following another hiatus, Season 5 premiered on Netflix in May 2018.

Bateman's work on the initial run of Arrested Development helped revitalize his film career. He landed a string of small and supporting roles in such comedies as 2004's Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story and 2006's The Break-Up with Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn. Tackling more dramatic fare, Bateman appeared in the military thriller The Kingdom (2007) with Jamie Foxx and Jennifer Garner.

Bateman reteamed with Garner for the 2007 independent comedy Juno, about a pregnant teenager (Ellen Page). In the film, he and Garner play a married couple who want to adopt Page's baby. Bateman gave a nuanced performance as a commercial jingle writer who, at mid-life, still harbors dreams of rock stardom and doesn't seem to want to grow up. The following year, he co-starred with Will Smith and Charlize Theron in the superhero comedy Hancock.

With roles in five films released in 2009, Bateman's film career was flourishing. He starred in Mike Judge's latest comedy Extract, playing the owner of an extract bottling company. In the political thriller State of Play, he had a supporting role opposite Russell Crowe, Ben Affleck, and Rachel McAdams. Bateman was also part of an ensemble cast for the relationship comedy Couples Retreat and had a part in the critically acclaimed comedic drama Up in the Air, starring George Clooney.

In 2010, Bateman starred opposite Aniston in the romantic comedy The Switch. He followed with the comedies Horrible Bosses (2011), with Colin Farrell and Charlie Day, and Identity Thief (2013), alongside Melissa McCarthy. In 2013, he also made his directorial debut and starred in Bad Words. In 2014, Bateman starred in the comedies This Is Where I Leave You and Horrible Bosses 2 and narrated the documentary Pump. He also narrated A LEGO Brickumentary, a documentary about the global appeal of Lego building blocks, in 2015.

In 2016, Bateman supplied more voice work for the massively successful animated film Zootopia and also appeared in the comedies Central Intelligence and Office Christmas Party. The following year, he stepped outside of his usual comfort zone for the Netflix dramatic series Ozark, going on to earn Golden Globe and Emmy nominations for his role as a family man who gets caught up with a drug cartel. In 2019, he was honored for his directing contributions to Ozark by winning an Emmy for Outstanding Direction of a Drama Series. In 2020 he appeared in The Outsider, an American drama miniseries based on the novel of the same name by Stephen King.

Achievements

• 

  In the 2000s, Bateman became known for his role as Michael Bluth using deadpan comedy in the sitcom Arrested Development, for which he won a Golden Globe and a Satellite Award.
  
  Jason Bateman was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6533 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on July 26, 2017.

Works

More photos

• movie

  • Up in the Air

    (From Jason Reitman, the Oscar-nominated director of "Juno...)

    2009
  • Juno

    (When she becomes unexpectedly pregnant by a guy pal, a 16...)

    2007
  • Arthur & Invisibles

    (From the creative mind of talented filmmaker Luc Besson (...)

    2006
  • Pump

    (Pump is an inspiring, eye-opening documentary that tells ...)

    2014
  • Hancock

    (Academy Award nominee Will Smith (Best Actor, The Pursuit...)

    2008
  • Moving Target

    (When a teenage musician finds his house empty and his fam...)

    1988
  • Hit & Run

    (A nice guy with a questionable past (Dax Shepard) risks e...)

    2012
  • Extract

    (Joel, the owner of an Extract plant, tries to contend wit...)

    2009
  • Identity Thief

    (Jason Bateman and Melissa McCarthy lead an all-star cast ...)

    2013
  • Starsky & Hutch

    (In Starsky & Hutch, the crime-fighting duo David Starsky ...)

    2004
  • The Longest Week

    (When Conrad (Jason Bateman) is kicked out and cut off at ...)

    2014
  • Couples Retreat

    (Vince Vaughn stars in this laugh-out-loud comedy about ei...)

    2009
  • Paul

    (From the director of Superbad, Paul is a must-own comedy ...)

    2011
  • State of Play

    (Academy Award-winner Russell Crowe leads an all-star cast...)

    2009
  • This is Where I Leave You

    (When their father passes away, four grown siblings bruise...)

    2014
  • Game Night

    (Bateman & McAdams star as Max & Annie, whose weekly coupl...)

    2018
  • Bad Words

    (Jason Bateman directs and stars in this outrageously funn...)

    2013
  • Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story

    (A group of misfits enter a Las Vegas dodgeball tournament...)

    2004
  • Horrible Bosses

    (Three friends, harassed, insulted, and terrorized by thei...)

    2011
  • The Kingdom

    (A high-intensity thriller about a team of elite FBI agent...)

    2007
  • The Gift

    (Jason Bateman, Joel Edgerton, and Rebecca Hall star in th...)

    2015
  • The Break-Up

    (After Brooke (Aniston) calls it quits with her boyfriend ...)

    2006
  • The Change-Up

    (Ryan Reynolds and Jason Bateman star in the outrageous co...)

    2011
  • Love Stinks

    (Seth Winnick has it all: a successful career in televisio...)

    1999
  • Necessary Roughness

    (The Texas State Armadillos are fourth down and nowhere-to...)

    1991
  • The Sweetest Thing

    (A girl finds she is forced to educate herself on the etiq...)

    2002
  • The Switch

    (Seven years after the fact, a man comes to the realizatio...)

    2010
  • The Family Fang

    (A brother and sister try to unravel the mysterious disapp...)

    2015
  • Sol Goode

    (An all-star cast anchors this comedy about jobless Sol Go...)

    2001
  • Disconnect

    (A hard-working lawyer, attached to his cell phone, can't ...)

    2012
  • Zootopia

    (Disney presents an action-comedy adventure set in the all...)

    2016
  • Horrible Bosses 2

    (Nick, Dale, and Kurt decide to become their own bosses by...)

    2014
  • Smokin' Aces

    (Slick Las Vegas illusionist Buddy "Aces" Israel isn't pla...)

    2007
  • Office Christmas Party

    (You're invited to the most outrageous holiday party of th...)

    2016
  • A LEGO Brickumentary

    (If you thought you knew the world of LEGO you don't know ...)

    2015
  • Teen Wolf Too

    (Todd Howard is a struggling teenager. Nothing seems to be...)

    1987
  • The Promotion

    (Richard (John C. Reilly) and Doug (Seann William Scott) a...)

    2008
  • Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium

    (When Mr. Magorium (Hoffman), the proprietor of a magical ...)

    2007

• TV series

  • Little House on the Prairie: The Complete Series

    (While this is the dramatic, gripping story of a young pio...)

  • Sit Down, Shut Up

    (From Emmy Award-winning writer Mitchell Hurwitz (Arrested...)

  • The Outsider

    (A gruesome murder leads a local detective into a disturbi...)

  • Growing Up Fisher

    (It's not every family that's brought closer together by d...)

  • Arrested Development: Seasons 1-4

    (In this critically acclaimed hit sitcom, you'll meet the ...)

Religion

Jason is a Christian and has chosen in the last decade to work on primarily Christian-based productions. He married a Lebanese Christian and comes from a family that practiced the religion. His sister is also a public born-again Christian.

Politics

Bateman endorsed Senator Bernie Sanders in the 2016 presidential election. He has also donated to the Democratic Party in the past.

Views

Jason Bateman supports several charities, including Alex’s Lemonade and Express Yourself. He also attended Charity Ping Pong Tournament in 2017.

Quotations: "I don't have anything to fix! I don't smoke, I don't drink, and I don't eat carbs. My life is just great now. Normal. Vanilla."

"Acting is just playing the violin in an orchestra. Directing is being the conductor."

"If people are going to complain about stereotyping, it's as likely to be Italian-Americans as gay people."

Personality

Jason Bateman is a cycling enthusiast and an avid runner that averages five miles a day. "It's my meditation time," he says. "I clear my mind and think about the day." He leaves the iPod at home, preferring his own thoughts for company.

He has suffered from alcohol and drug abuse in the past. He has fought back his drug and alcohol problems successfully and valiantly and is the perfect example that hard work and persistence will ultimately pay.

Interests

• Politicians

  Bernie Sanders

• Writers

  Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson

• Sport & Clubs

  cycling, golf, baseball, Los Angeles Dodgers

• Music & Bands

  Black Keys

Connections

Jason Bateman lives in Los Angeles, California, with his wife Amanda, the daughter of singer Paul Anka. The couple married in 2003 and welcomed their first child, Francesca, in 2006. Their second daughter, Maple, was born in 2012.

Father:

Kent Bateman

Mother:

Victoria Elizabeth Bateman

Spouse:

Amanda Anka

Sister:

Justine Bateman

Daughter:

Maple Sylvie Bateman

Daughter:

Francesca Nora Bateman

colleague:

Charlize Theron

colleague:

Will Smith

colleague:

Allison Janney

colleague:

Vera Farmiga

colleague:

Anna Kendrick

colleague:

Patrick Wilson

colleague:

Colin Farrell

colleague:

Kristen Bell

colleague:

Alexander Skarsgård

colleague:

Olivia Wilde

References

• Jason Bateman on Twitter