Jason Bateman

Jason Bateman has built a career around composure: the measured reaction, the dry aside and the increasingly strained attempt to keep chaos under control. That quality made Michael Bluth a natural fit in Arrested Development, the acclaimed comedy that cast Bateman in 2003 and later returned for two Netflix seasons. His performance earned him a Golden Globe and multiple Emmy nominations, establishing one of the defining roles of his adult career. Born in Rye, New York, on January 14, 1969, Bateman started working young. After appearing in a Golden Grahams commercial, he joined Little House on the Prairie as James Cooper and went on to prominent parts in Silver Spoons, It's Your Move and The Hogan Family. At 18, he directed three episodes of The Hogan Family, becoming the Directors Guild of America's youngest-ever director. Teen Wolf Too brought him to movie audiences in 1987, though his later film career would prove far more varied. Bateman has moved comfortably between broad comedy and darker material. His film roles include Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, Juno, Hancock, Extract, Horrible Bosses, The Gift and Game Night. He also voiced the quick-witted fox Nick Wilde in Zootopia. Behind the camera, he made his feature directing debut with Bad Words, in which he also starred, and later directed and starred in The Family Fang. That balance between acting and directing became especially important with Ozark. Bateman played financial adviser Marty Byrde across the crime drama's four seasons and directed seven episodes, including the series finale. His direction of the second-season premiere won a Primetime Emmy in 2019. He subsequently directed, executive produced and co-starred in the opening episodes of The Outsider. Whether playing the reasonable man in a comedy, turning colder for a thriller or shaping a story from behind the camera, Bateman tends to work through restraint rather than display. It is a screen presence built for complications—and a career broad enough to keep finding new ones.