Early life

Burns was born in Woodside, Queens, New York, the son of Molly (née McKenna), a federal agency manager, and Edward J. Burns, a public relations spokesman and police officer. He was raised a Roman Catholic. Burns is the second of three children (with siblings Mary and Brian) in an Irish American family. He was raised in Valley Stream, New York, on Long Island. He briefly attended Chaminade High School before transferring to Hewlett High School. After high school, Burns attended, from 1987 to 1992, SUNY Oneonta, University at Albany, and Hunter College.

Career

Burns got his start in the film industry right after college as a production assistant on the Oliver Stone film, The Doors. While working as a gofer at Entertainment Tonight, he financed, produced, directed and starred in his first film The Brothers McMullen in his spare time, which was largely shot in his hometown of Valley Stream. Once he completed the film, he was able to get a copy to Robert Redford after an ET junket interview for Quiz Show at the Rhiga Royal Hotel in Manhattan. In 1996, Burns wrote, directed and starred in the ensemble drama She's The One with Jennifer Aniston, Cameron Diaz and Amanda Peet, as well as Sidewalks of New York in 2001.

Burns is also known for his acting work on movies such as Saving Private Ryan (1998), Life or Something Like It (2002), and Confidence (2003). Looking for Kitty (2004), which Burns wrote, directed and starred in, was shot with a hand-held $3,000 digital Panasonic AG-DVX100 camera with a Mini35 adapter. The film's entire budget was $200,000 and was filmed in New York City with a tiny crew and without standard permits. Burns discussed this unusual film-making process in the director's commentary on the DVD and wrote in the Director's Letter "If you are an aspiring filmmaker, in this day of inflating budgets and runaway production, the truth is you can make a movie for no money in New York... and have a blast".

His film Purple Violets premiered exclusively on iTunes on November 20, 2007. Burns began a string of guest appearances on the HBO original series Entourage mid-way through season 3, as well as appearing as Grace Adler's boyfriend in Will & Grace. In Entourage Burns plays himself and is (within the context of the series) writing a new TV series in which Johnny Drama is able to land a part. In 2007, Burns announced plans to partner with Virgin Comics to create a series entitled Dock Walloper. Burns plans to use the comic series as a springboard to a film of the same story.

In March 2009, The Lynch Pin, a series of shorts starring, written and directed by Burns were released via the internet. The ten episodes are only available to view online as of August 2009 and future plans for the project are unknown.

With the modest success of Purple Violets, Burns was considering taking a studio directing assignment to make money. After reading a few scripts and taking a few meetings, he chose to remain a writer/director. He then wrote "Nice Guy Johnny" and shot it quickly, on the RED One camera, for a reported $25,000 with a small crew. "Nice Guy Johnny" premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2010.

To coincide with the 10th anniversary of the Tribeca Film Festival in 2011, Burns wrote a movie, Newlyweds that he also directed and starred in. Following a model similar to Nice Guy Johnny, Newlyweds was shot on the Canon 5D, with an even smaller crew, for $9000 in 12 days. The film premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2011 as the closing night film. He claimed on Twitter that the $9,000 budget broke out to "5k for actors, 2k insurance, 2k food and drink. 9k in the can." In 2013 Burns starred as real-life gangster Bugsy Siegel in Frank Darabont's miniseries, Mob City.

In 2012, Burns set up a screenwriting contest with the web startup Scripped for a crowdsourced screenplay which he intended to help get produced.

Personal life

Burns is married to model Christy Turlington and has two children, Grace (born 2003) and Finn (born 2006). Burns is a Roman Catholic.

Filmography

Year	Title	Director	Producer	ScreenWriter	Actor	Roles	Notes
1995	The Brothers McMullen	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Barry/Finbar McMullen	Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature Producers Guild of America Award - Nova Award Sundance Film Festival - Grand Jury Prize - Dramatic Deauville American Film Festival - Jury Special Prize (tied with Denise Calls Up) Nominated - Deauville American Film Festival - Grand Special Prize
1996	She's the One	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Mickey Fitzpatrick	Nominated - Deauville American Film Festival - Grand Special Prize
1998	Saving Private Ryan				Yes	Private Richard Reiben	Online Film Critics Society - Best Ensemble Cast Performance Nominated - Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
1998	No Looking Back	Yes		Yes	Yes	Charlie
2001	15 Minutes				Yes	Fire Marshal Jordan Warsaw
2001	Shark Attack 2					Surfer Guy 2
2001	Sidewalks of New York	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Tommy Reilly
2002	Lethargy				Yes	Store Clerk	Short film
2002	Ash Wednesday	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Francis Sullivan
2002	Life or Something Like It				Yes	Pete Scanlon
2003	Confidence				Yes	Jake Vig
2004	The Breakup Artist				Yes	Himself
2004	Looking for Kitty	Yes		Yes	Yes	Jack Stanton
2005	Will & Grace				Yes	Nick	3 episodes
2005	A Sound of Thunder				Yes	Travis Ryer
2005	The River King				Yes	Abel Grey
2006	The Groomsmen	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Paulie
2006-2009	Entourage				Yes	Himself	4 episodes
2006	The Holiday				Yes	Ethan Ebbers
2007	Purple Violets	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Michael Murphy	Direct-to-iTunes Savannah Film and Video Festival - Best Feature
2008	One Missed Call				Yes	Detective Jack Andrews	Nominated - Teen Choice Awards - Choice Movie Actor : Horror/Thriller
2008	27 Dresses				Yes	George
2009	The Lynch Pin	Yes		Yes	Yes	Dan Lynch
2009	Echelon Conspiracy				Yes	John Reed
2010	Nice Guy Johnny	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Uncle Terry	Boston Film Festival - Festival Prize - Best Director Nominated - Woodstock Film Festival - Jury Prize - Best Narrative Feature
2011	Newlyweds	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Buzzy
2011	Vietnam in HD				Yes	Joe Galloway (voice)	3 episodes
2012	Man on a Ledge				Yes	Jack Dougherty
2012	Friends with Kids				Yes	Kurt
2012	Alex Cross				Yes	Tommy Kane
2012	The Fitzgerald Family Christmas	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Gerry
2013	Mob City				Yes	Bugsy Siegel	5 episodes
2014	Louie				Yes	Himself	Episode: "So Did the Fat Lady"
2015	Public Morals	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Terry Muldoon	Main role; television series

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Film	Result
1995	Independent Spirit Award	Best Feature	The Brothers McMullen	Won
	Sundance Film Festival Award	Best Dramatic Film		Won
1999	Screen Actors Guild Award	Outstanding Performance by a Cast	Saving Private Ryan	Nominated
	Online Film Critics Society Award	Best Ensemble Cast Performance		Won
2008	Teen Choice Award	Choice Movie Actor: Horror/Thriller	One Missed Call	Nominated
2010	Boston Film Festival Award	Best Director	Nice Guy Johnny	Won

[ Source: Wikipedia ]