Isaac Liev Schreiber (/ˈliË É›v/; born October 4, 1967) is an
American actor, director, screenwriter, producer, and narrator. He
became known during the late 1990s and early 2000s, having appeared in
several independent films, and later mainstream Hollywood films,
including the Scream trilogy of horror films, Ransom (1996), Phantoms
(1998), The Sum of All Fears (2002), The Manchurian Candidate (2004),
The Omen (2006), X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009), Taking Woodstock
(2009), Salt (2010), Goon (2011), Pawn Sacrifice (2014), and Spotlight
(2015). He later became known to a younger generation of audiences for
his voice work in My Little Pony: The Movie (2017), Isle of Dogs and
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (both 2018).Schreiber is also a
stage actor, having performed in several Broadway productions. In
2005, he won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play for his
performance in the play Glengarry Glen Ross. That year, he made his
debut as a film director and writer with Everything Is Illuminated
(2005), based on the 2002 novel of the same name. Schreiber has had
further success in the television world, most notably portraying the
eponymous protagonist of the Showtime drama series Ray Donovan
(2013â€"2020). The role has earned him five Golden Globe Award
nominations and three Primetime Emmy Award nominations. He also
narrates the HBO series 24/7, as well as various PBS
programs.Schreiber was born in San Francisco, California, the son of
Heather, a painter, and Tell Schreiber, an actor and carpenter. His
father is Protestant and his mother is Jewish. His maternal
grandfather, Alex Milgram, emigrated from Ukraine. Milgram, who was
the most significant male in Schreiber's youth, played the cello and
owned Renoir etchings, and made his living by delivering meat to
restaurants. His mother, who is an aficionada of classical music and
Russian literature, has said that she named Liev after her favorite
Russian author, Leo Tolstoy, while his father has stated that
Schreiber was named after the doctor who saved his mother's life. His
family nickname, adopted when Schreiber was a baby, is "Huggy."When
Schreiber was one year old, his family moved to the unincorporated
rural community of Winlaw, in the southern interior of British
Columbia. Over the next four years, his mother was hospitalized on
several occasions and underwent therapy related to a bad experience on
LSD that she had near the beginning of her marriage (in San
Francisco), according to Schreiber's father. After he threatened to
admit her to a mental institution, she left with her son. With his
father in pursuit, Schreiber and his mother were trailed by private
detectives in various states; when he was three, his father retrieved
him from an upstate New York commune where Heather had gone to escape
detection. By the time Schreiber was four, he was again with his
mother, living on the fourth floor of a dilapidated walkup at First
Avenue and First Street in New York City.
American actor, director, screenwriter, producer, and narrator. He
became known during the late 1990s and early 2000s, having appeared in
several independent films, and later mainstream Hollywood films,
including the Scream trilogy of horror films, Ransom (1996), Phantoms
(1998), The Sum of All Fears (2002), The Manchurian Candidate (2004),
The Omen (2006), X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009), Taking Woodstock
(2009), Salt (2010), Goon (2011), Pawn Sacrifice (2014), and Spotlight
(2015). He later became known to a younger generation of audiences for
his voice work in My Little Pony: The Movie (2017), Isle of Dogs and
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (both 2018).Schreiber is also a
stage actor, having performed in several Broadway productions. In
2005, he won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play for his
performance in the play Glengarry Glen Ross. That year, he made his
debut as a film director and writer with Everything Is Illuminated
(2005), based on the 2002 novel of the same name. Schreiber has had
further success in the television world, most notably portraying the
eponymous protagonist of the Showtime drama series Ray Donovan
(2013â€"2020). The role has earned him five Golden Globe Award
nominations and three Primetime Emmy Award nominations. He also
narrates the HBO series 24/7, as well as various PBS
programs.Schreiber was born in San Francisco, California, the son of
Heather, a painter, and Tell Schreiber, an actor and carpenter. His
father is Protestant and his mother is Jewish. His maternal
grandfather, Alex Milgram, emigrated from Ukraine. Milgram, who was
the most significant male in Schreiber's youth, played the cello and
owned Renoir etchings, and made his living by delivering meat to
restaurants. His mother, who is an aficionada of classical music and
Russian literature, has said that she named Liev after her favorite
Russian author, Leo Tolstoy, while his father has stated that
Schreiber was named after the doctor who saved his mother's life. His
family nickname, adopted when Schreiber was a baby, is "Huggy."When
Schreiber was one year old, his family moved to the unincorporated
rural community of Winlaw, in the southern interior of British
Columbia. Over the next four years, his mother was hospitalized on
several occasions and underwent therapy related to a bad experience on
LSD that she had near the beginning of her marriage (in San
Francisco), according to Schreiber's father. After he threatened to
admit her to a mental institution, she left with her son. With his
father in pursuit, Schreiber and his mother were trailed by private
detectives in various states; when he was three, his father retrieved
him from an upstate New York commune where Heather had gone to escape
detection. By the time Schreiber was four, he was again with his
mother, living on the fourth floor of a dilapidated walkup at First
Avenue and First Street in New York City.
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