Early life

Dano was born in New York City, New York, the son of Gladys (née Pipp) and Paul A. Dano. He has a younger sister named Sarah. He is of Austrian, Czech, Slovak, and Swedish descent. Dano spent the first few years of his childhood in New York City and initially attended the Browning School, while his father worked as a businessman in New York.

While he was a child, Dano's family moved to New Canaan, Connecticut, finally settling in Wilton, Connecticut. Dano continued his education there at Wilton High School, graduating in 2002 and attending Eugene Lang College in New York City. He was involved in community theater, and while performing in New Canaan, his parents were encouraged to take him to New York.

Career

Acting

At age 10, Dano was noted for roles in classical plays on Broadway, making his debut at age 12 in the John Tillinger directed revival of Inherit the Wind along with George C. Scott and Charles Durning. He appeared in an episode of the sitcom Smart Guy and a minor role in the 2000 family drama The Newcomers, as well playing the part of Patrick Whalen, in a few episodes of The Sopranos in season 4.

Dano acted in his first major film role when he was 16, playing the character of Howie Blitzer, a teenage boy who becomes involved with a middle-aged ephebophile, played by Brian Cox, in L.I.E. (2001). He then appeared in the TV movie Too Young to Be a Dad as a high school student whose life is disrupted when his girlfriend becomes pregnant. In 2004 he played a small role as young Martin Asher in Taking Lives with Angelina Jolie and Ethan Hawke. In 2005, he played supporting roles in The King with Gael Garcia Bernal, and The Ballad of Jack and Rose with Daniel Day-Lewis.

He came to greater attention in 2006, when he played a voluntarily mute teenager as part of an ensemble in the comedic drama Little Miss Sunshine, which received critical acclaim and collective awards for its cast. Dano's work with Daniel Day-Lewis led to a dual role opposite him in his next film, Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood, playing identical twin brothers Eli and Paul Sunday. This earned him a BAFTA nomination for Best Supporting Actor, and brought him positive reviews, with Texas Monthly saying that his performance was "so electric that the movie sags whenever he's not around." and Peter Travers remarking "All praise to the baby-faced Dano...for bringing sly cunning and unexpected ferocity to Plainview's most formidable opponent." Rolling Stone magazine included Dano in its Hot List for 2007, calling his performance style "Daniel Day-Lewis + Billy Crudup × Johnny Depp."

Dano appeared in several additional Broadway productions including A Thousand Clowns at the Roundabout Theatre, and in the Ethan Hawke directorial debut Things We Want during its 2007 Off-Broadway run.

In 2008, he starred in Gigantic, a poorly-reviewed film about a man seeking to adopt a Chinese baby, co-starring Zooey Deschanel. He reunited with Brian Cox in 2009's The Good Heart, a low-budget English-language Icelandic film. He provided the voice of one of the creatures in the film adaptation of Where the Wild Things Are. He played a genius inventor in 2010's Knight and Day, an action thriller starring Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz. The same year he appeared in Meek's Cutoff, a well-reviewed historical drama. In 2011, he had a supporting role in the big-budget science fiction film Cowboys and Aliens.

Dano appeared in three feature films in 2012: Ruby Sparks, as a writer whose fictional character (played by Zoe Kazan, the film's writer and Dano's girlfriend) inexplicably appears as a real person; time-travel thriller Looper, in a supporting role with Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis; and with Robert De Niro in Being Flynn as the film's writer Nick Flynn, about his relationship with his father. In 2014, Dano played a younger version of the Beach Boys founder Brian Wilson, with John Cusack as an older version of Wilson, in the biopic Love & Mercy, for which he received a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. In January 2016, Dano played Pierre Bezukhov in the BBC's six-part adaptation of Tolstoy's War and Peace.

Music

Dano is the vocalist and lead guitarist of the band Mook.

Personal life

Dano has been dating actress and screenwriter Zoe Kazan since 2007.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2000	The Newcomers	Joel
2001	L.I.E.	Howie Blitzer	Directors' Week Award for Best Actor Independent Spirit Award for Best Debut Performance Grand Jury Award for Outstanding Actor in a Feature Film Stockholm International Film Festival Award for Best Actor
2002	The Emperor's Club	Martin Blythe
2004	The Girl Next Door	Klitz
2004	Taking Lives	Young Asher
2005	The Ballad of Jack and Rose	Thaddius
2005	The King	Paul
2006	Little Miss Sunshine	Dwayne	Awards Circuit Community Award for Best Cast Ensemble (shared with Greg Kinnear, Toni Collette, Steve Carell, Alan Arkin and Abigail Breslin) Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Young Performer Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Cast Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture Nominated — Empire Award for Best Male Newcomer Nominated — Gotham Award for Best Ensemble Cast Nominated — Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male
2006	Fast Food Nation	Brian
2007	Weapons	Chris
2007	There Will Be Blood	Paul Sunday / Eli Sunday	Nominated — Awards Circuit Community Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated — Chlotrudis Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated — Detroit Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated — Golden Schmoes Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated — International Online Cinema Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated — Online Film & Television Association Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated — Village Voice Film Poll Award for Best Supporting Actor
2008	Explicit Ills	Rocco
2008	Light and the Sufferer	Don ("Light")
2008	Gigantic	Brian Weathersby
2009	Taking Woodstock	VW Guy
2009	The Good Heart	Lucas
2009	Where the Wild Things Are	Alexander	Voice
2010	The Extra Man	Louis Ives
2010	Meek's Cutoff	Thomas Gately
2010	Knight and Day	Simon Feck
2011	Cowboys & Aliens	Percy Dolarhyde
2012	Being Flynn	Nick Flynn
2012	Ruby Sparks	Calvin Weir-Fields
2012	Looper	Seth
2012	For Ellen	Joby
2013	12 Years a Slave	John Tibeats	Black Reel Award for Best Ensemble Boston Online Film Critics Association Award for Best Ensemble Southeastern Film Critics Association Award for Best Ensemble Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Award for Best Ensemble Nominated — Alliance of Women Film Journalists Award for Best Ensemble Cast Nominated — Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Acting Ensemble Nominated — Detroit Film Critics Society Award for Best Ensemble Cast Nominated — Georgia Film Critics Association Award for Best Ensemble Nominated — Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Cast Nominated — San Diego Film Critics Society Award for Best Performance by an Ensemble Nominated — Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
2013	Prisoners	Alex Jones	National Board of Review Award for Best Cast Nominated — San Diego Film Critics Society Award for Best Performance by an Ensemble Nominated — Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Award for Best Ensemble
2014	Love & Mercy	Brian Wilson	Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actor Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor Florida Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor Gotham Award for Best Actor Kermode Award for Best Actor New York Film Critics Online Award for Best Actor San Francisco Film Critics Circle for Best Actor Alliance of Women Film Journalists Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated — Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male Nominated — London Film Critics' Circle Award for Actor of the Year Nominated — North Carolina Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated — Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture Nominated — Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated — Detroit Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture Nominated — St. Louis Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated — San Diego Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated — San Francisco Film Critics Circle for Best Supporting Actor Nominated — Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor
2015	Youth	Jimmy Tree	Italian title: La giovinezza
2016	Swiss Army Man	Hank
2017	Okja		Filming

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1998	Smart Guy	Nicholas	Episode: "She Got Game"
2002	Too Young to Be a Dad	Matt Freeman	Television film
2002-2004	The Sopranos	Patrick Whalen	2 episodes
2015	Codes of Conduct	Jared Rotmensen	Pilot
2016	War & Peace	Pierre Bezukhov	6 episodes

Stage

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1996	Inherit the Wind	Howard	Royale Theatre
1997-98	A Christmas Carol	Street Urchin	The Theater at Madison Square Garden
2007	Things We Want	Charles	Acorn Theatre
2010-11	A Free Man of Color	Meriwether Lewis	Vivian Beaumont Theater

[ Source: Wikipedia ]