Early and personal life

Foster was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of restaurant owners Gillian Kirwan and Steven Foster. He has described his parents as "free-spirited, Vietnam-protesting hippies". He has a younger brother, Jon, who is also an actor. When Foster was four years old, his family relocated to Fairfield, Iowa, after their Boston home was broken into by robbers while they were present.

Foster was raised Jewish, and had a Bar Mitzvah ceremony. His paternal grandparents were Celia (Segal) and Abraham Foster, who was a prominent judge and politician in Boston; their families emigrated from Russia. Foster practices Transcendental Meditation, and, while living in Fairfield, attended the Maharishi University of Management.

Foster began a relationship with actress Robin Wright in early 2012. They became engaged in early 2014, but called off their engagement on November 12, 2014 before reconciling again. On August 29, 2015 they announced they were ending their second engagement.

Career

Foster began working as an actor when he was sixteen years old. He dropped out of high school and moved to Los Angeles to pursue his career. In 1996 and 1997, he appeared in the television series Flash Forward and had an unsuccessful audition for the lead role in Richard Kelly's Donnie Darko. Over the next three years, Foster obtained small roles in two made-for-TV movies as well as two episodes of the TV series Freaks and Geeks.

In 2001, he acted in the film Get Over It. Foster also had a recurring role as Russell Corwin (22 episodes) in the HBO Original Series, Six Feet Under. After appearing in the films 11:14 and The Punisher, Foster appeared in Hostage with Bruce Willis, Kevin Pollak and Michelle Horn. In 2006, Foster appeared in X-Men: The Last Stand as the comic-book hero Angel / Warren Worthington III. In the crime thriller Alpha Dog, he played the character Jake Mazursky and added glaucoma drops to his eyes to simulate the appearance of a drug addict in the film. In 2007, he played cold-blooded killer Charlie Prince in the Western film 3:10 to Yuma. In February 2013, he was cast to replace Shia LaBeouf in the Broadway play Orphans as his first theater performance. In May 2014 it was announced that he would star opposite Gillian Anderson and Vanessa Kirby in Benedict Andrews' new production of A Streetcar Named Desire at the Young Vic in London. That production closed on September 19, 2014.

On December 4, 2013, Legendary Pictures announced that Foster would be joining the cast of the Warcraft film adaptation, set to be released in March 2016. Foster played Lance Armstrong in the biopic The Program.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1996	Kounterfeit	Travis
1999	Liberty Heights	Ben Kurtzman
2001	Get Over It	Berke Landers	Nominated — Teen Choice Award for Choice Chemistry (shared with Kirsten Dunst)
2002	The Laramie Project	Aaron Kreifels
2002	Big Trouble	Matt Arnold
2002	Phone Booth	Big Q	Uncredited
2003	Northfork	Cod
2003	11:14	Eddie
2004	The Punisher	Spacker Dave
2004	The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things	Fleshy Boy
2005	Hostage	Marshall "Mars" Krupcheck
2006	Alpha Dog	Jake Mazursky	Young Hollywood Award for Breakthrough Performance - Male
2006	X-Men: The Last Stand	Warren Worthington III / Angel
2007	3:10 to Yuma	Charlie Prince	Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actor Central Ohio Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated — Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated — Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated — Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
2007	30 Days of Night	The Stranger
2008	Birds of America	Jay
2009	The Messenger	Staff Sergeant Will Montgomery	Women Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor Nominated — San Diego Film Critics Society Award for Best Actor Nominated — St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor Nominated — Gotham Award for Breakthrough Actor/Actress
2009	Blink	AJ	Short film
2009	Pandorum	Bower
2011	Here	Will Shepard
2011	The Mechanic	Steve McKenna
2011	360	Tyler
2011	Rampart	Terry	Also producer
2012	Contraband	Sebastian Abney
2013	North of South, West of East	Cass
2013	Kill Your Darlings	William Burroughs
2013	Ain't Them Bodies Saints	Patrick Wheeler
2013	Lone Survivor	Matthew "Axe" Axelson
2015	The Program	Lance Armstrong	Limited release
2016	The Finest Hours	Seaman Richard Livesey
2016	Warcraft	Medivh	Post-production
2016	Inferno	Bertrand Zobrist	Post-production
2016	Hell or High Water	Tanner	Post-production

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1996-97	Flash Forward	Tucker "Tuck" James	Lead role; 26 episodes Nominated — Gemini Award for Best Performance in a Children's or Youth Program or Series (1997, 1998)
1998	You Wish	Earl	Episode: "Future Shock"
1998	I've Been Waiting for You	Charlie	Television film
1998	Breakfast with Einstein	Ryan	Television film
1999-2000	Freaks and Geeks	Eli	2 episodes
2000	Family Law	Jason Nelson	Episode: "A Mother's Son"
2001-02	Boston Public	Max Warner	2 episodes
2002	Bang Bang You're Dead	Trevor Adams	Television film Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Performer in Children's Programming
2003-05	Six Feet Under	Russell Corwin	22 episodes (1 uncredited) Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series (2004) Nominated — Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series (2005)
2005	Dead Zone, TheThe Dead Zone	Darren Foldes	Episode: "The Last Goodbye"
2007	My Name Is Earl	Glenn	2 episodes
2012	Robot Chicken	Orville Redenbacher / Time traveller	Voice; episode: "Executed by the State"

[ Source: Wikipedia ]