Glen Powell

Glen Powell is an American actor, writer and producer who has built a career spanning action films, romantic comedies, dramas and major Hollywood blockbusters. Born Glen Thomas Powell Jr. on 21 October 1988 in Austin, Texas, he began acting at a young age and spent years in supporting roles before becoming a leading man. Powell's screen career began during his teenage years, with an early appearance in Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over (2003). He later appeared in films and television productions, gradually establishing himself in Hollywood. One of his early film roles came in The Great Debaters (2007), directed by and starring Denzel Washington. Powell later appeared in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises (2012) and had a small role in The Expendables 3 (2014). His profile increased considerably when he joined the cast of the television series Scream Queens in 2015. Powell played Chad Radwell, an arrogant and often ridiculous fraternity president whose exaggerated personality let him showcase the comic timing that would become an important part of many of his later performances. Another significant role arrived with Richard Linklater's Everybody Wants Some!! (2016). Powell played Finnegan in the ensemble comedy about a group of college baseball players in 1980s Texas. The film earned strong reviews and helped establish him as a performer who can combine comedy with natural screen charisma. That same year, Powell portrayed astronaut John Glenn in Hidden Figures (2016). The acclaimed historical drama told the story of the African-American women mathematicians whose work played a crucial role in NASA's early space programme. Powell continued working across different genres, appearing in films including Sand Castle (2017) and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (2018). He also starred opposite Zoey Deutch in the Netflix romantic comedy Set It Up (2018), which became a popular entry in the genre and demonstrated his potential as a romantic lead. His career reached another level with Top Gun: Maverick (2022). Powell played Lieutenant Jake "Hangman" Seresin, one of the elite naval aviators selected for a dangerous mission under the instruction of Tom Cruise's Pete "Maverick" Mitchell. Powell's confident and competitive Hangman initially appears as a rival to Miles Teller's Rooster, but the character became one of the film's memorable supporting players. The enormous worldwide success of Top Gun: Maverick introduced Powell to a much larger international audience and marked a major turning point in his career. He followed that success with the romantic comedy Anyone but You (2023), starring opposite Sydney Sweeney. Powell played Ben, whose complicated relationship with Sweeney's Bea develops during a destination wedding in Australia. The film became a strong theatrical success and further established Powell as a Hollywood leading man. Powell then reunited with director Richard Linklater for Hit Man (2023), playing Gary Johnson, a college professor who works undercover for the police by posing as a professional contract killer. Powell also co-wrote the screenplay with Linklater and served as a producer, giving him a substantial creative role behind the scenes while also starring in the film. In 2024, Powell led the disaster movie Twisters alongside Daisy Edgar-Jones. Playing charismatic storm chaser Tyler Owens, Powell helped bring the world of tornado chasing back to cinemas decades after the original Twister became a major hit in 1996. His other credits include Devotion (2022), in which he portrayed naval aviator Tom Hudner opposite Jonathan Majors, and voice work in the animated film Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood (2022). After spending much of his early career steadily building experience through smaller and supporting roles, Powell's rise to leading-man status was far from an overnight success. His mix of comedy, action, and old-fashioned movie-star charisma has let him move comfortably between large-scale blockbusters and smaller, character-driven projects. From Everybody Wants Some!! and Hidden Figures to Top Gun: Maverick, Anyone but You, Hit Man and Twisters, Glen Powell's career reflects years of persistence before his eventual breakthrough as one of Hollywood's most prominent contemporary leading men.