Jason Lee (actor)

Jason Lee
Jason Lee in 2006
Born	Jason Michael Lee
Occupation(s)	actor, professional skateboarder
Years active	1991 – present

Jason Michael Lee (born April 25, 1970) is an American actor and former professional skateboarder. Lee is best known for his roles in the films of director Kevin Smith and the television show My Name Is Earl.

Biography

Early life

Lee was born in Orange County, California, the son of Carol (née Weaver), a homemaker, and Greg Lee. He was raised in Huntington Beach and attended Ocean View High School. He is really cool! I love Courtney.

Skateboarding

Lee was a prominent professional skateboarder in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Notable tricks performed by Lee included: tre flips, kickflip backside tailslides, and curb cut launched Japan airs. He was co-founder of Stereo Skateboards with Chris Pastras in 1992; the pair revived the company in 2003 after it had been defunct for several years. Chris Pastras' first Stereo Skateboard was famously thrown into a sulfur pit as part of the company's edgy advertisement campaign.

Lee and Tony Hawk were the first two skateboarders to receive a pro model shoe with Airwalk and also professional contracts with Element Skateboards. He had a part in the 1991 Blind skateboards video Video Days, shot by Spike Jonze. He also lent his voice and likeness to the skateboarding video-game Tony Hawk's Project 8.

In 2004, Jason Lee's skateboarding was featured in the video "Way Out East!", a video by his company, "Stereo" Skateboards.

Acting career

After taking some minor acting roles, including the Jonze-directed Sonic Youth music video for "100%," in 1992 and a small part in Allison Anders' 1993 film Mi Vida Loca, Lee left professional skating for a full-time acting career. His first major movie role was in Kevin Smith's Mallrats which became a cult hit. He remained a close friend of Smith and has appeared in most of the director's works, including Chasing Amy, Dogma, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, Jersey Girl, and Clerks II. Lee won an Independent Spirit Award for his role in Chasing Amy as Banky Edwards, a comic book inker.

Lee graduated to leading man roles in Heartbreakers (alongside Jennifer Love Hewitt) and Stealing Harvard (alongside Tom Green) as well as A Guy Thing (alongside Julia Stiles). He has had supporting roles in Vanilla Sky, Almost Famous as an egotistical rock star, Dreamcatcher, Big Trouble, The Ballad of Jack and Rose, and Mumford, as well as a minor role in Enemy of the State. Lee also voiced the supervillain Syndrome in the animated movie The Incredibles and its DVD bonus video Jack-Jack Attack. Lee reprised the role as a "robot copy" of Syndrome in the 2006 Disney on Ice play Disney Presents Pixar's The Incredibles in a Magic Kingdom Adventure. He is also the voice of Underdog in Underdog, and plays Dave Seville in the film Alvin and the Chipmunks.

On January 28, 2008, Jason Lee guest appeared as Kevin Bacon on internet rock comedy show Yacht Rock.

Television success

Lee was offered the lead role in the 2005 NBC sitcom, My Name Is Earl. According to interviews on the first season DVD, he passed on the series twice before finally agreeing to read for the pilot. In the series, Lee stars as Earl Hickey, a petty thief who finds karma and sets out to put right all his past wrongs. The series has received critical acclaim and strong ratings, and as of 2008 is still in NBC's lineup. Lee has received two Golden Globe nominations for Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series — Musical or Comedy in 2006 and 2007 as well as a nomination for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series in 2006.

Earl's brother Randy is played by Ethan Suplee, with whom Lee previously appeared in the movies Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Dogma, and Clerks II.

Personal life

Lee married actress and photographer Carmen Llywelyn in 1995, but they divorced in 2001. Lee was engaged to actress Beth Riesgraf and together have a son. In 2007, Lee and Riesgraf separated. On August 10th, 2008, Lee's partner Ceren Alkac gave birth to a daughter. On November 24, 2008, Lee's publicist announced that the couple had secretly wed in California in July of 2008.

Lee has a substantial collection of rare motorcycles which he rides daily. He owns a rare post-war custom Falcon Motorcycle which won Best Custom Motorcycle at the 2008 year Legend Of The Motorcycle International Concours d’Elegance.

Lee is a member of the Church of Scientology and is on the Board of Advisors for the Citizens Commission on Human Rights, an organization founded by the Church of Scientology "dedicated to investigating and exposing psychiatric violations of human rights."

Filmography

• "Video Days" (1991)
• My Crazy Life (1993)
• Mallrats (1995)
• Drawing Flies (1996)
• Chasing Amy (1997)
• A Better Place (1997)
• Kissing a Fool (1998)
• American Cuisine (film) (1998)
• Enemy of the State (1998)
• Dogma (1999)
• Mumford (1999)
• Almost Famous (2000)
• Heartbreakers (2001)
• Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001)
• Vanilla Sky (2001)
• Big Trouble (2002)
• Stoked: The Rise and Fall of Gator (2002) (documentary)
• Stealing Harvard (2002)
• A Guy Thing (2003)
• Dreamcatcher (2003)
• I Love Your Work (2003)
• Oh, What a Lovely Tea Party (2004) (documentary)
• Jersey Girl (2004)
• The Incredibles (2004)(voice)
• The Ballad of Jack and Rose (2005)
• Drop Dead Sexy (2005)
• Clerks II (2006)
• Rising Son: The Legend of Christian Hosoi (2006) (documentary)
• Monster House (2006) (voice)
• Underdog (2007)(voice)
• The Man Who Souled the World (2007) (documentary)
• Alvin and the Chipmunks (2007)

Upcoming films

• Noah's Ark: The New Beginning (2008) (voice) as Japheth
• The Other Side (2009) (voice) as Mortimer Flybait
• Alvin and the Chipmunks 2: The Squeakuel (2009) as David "Dave" Seville

Television

• Weapons of Mass Distraction (1997)
• My Name Is Earl (2005 – present)
• Celebrity Family Feud (2008) as Earl

External links

• Jason Lee at IMDb
• Interview conducted November 2006
• Jason Lee at Curlie