Jim Carrey

Jim Carrey’s screen presence begins with movement: the stretching face, the sudden change of voice, the sense that a scene’s physical limits are there to be tested. Born in Newmarket, Ontario, in 1962, the Canadian-American actor and comedian discovered impressions as a child and made his stand-up debut at 15. That first performance at Toronto’s Yuk Yuk’s went badly, but Carrey returned with a stronger act, earned paid club work and built a following as an impressionist. After moving to Hollywood in 1983, Carrey worked in television and film before becoming a regular on the ensemble sketch series In Living Colour from 1990 to 1994. Then came the remarkable run of Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, The Mask and Dumb and Dumber, all released in 1994. Those films made full use of his rubber-limbed comedy, rapid-fire voices and willingness to push a performance well beyond ordinary embarrassment. Carrey soon began testing that persona from different angles. He played the Riddler in Batman Forever, a menacing installer in The Cable Guy and a lawyer physically incapable of lying in Liar Liar. The Truman Show gave his restless energy a more vulnerable setting: as Truman Burbank, he played a man gradually recognizing the artificial boundaries of his life. The performance earned Carrey a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama, followed by another Golden Globe for his portrayal of Andy Kaufman in Man on the Moon. His work in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind showed how effective he could be when turning the volume down, playing Joel Barish with a restraint far removed from his broadest comedies. Carrey has continued moving between live action, voice work and family entertainment, including Horton Hears a Who!, A Christmas Carol and the Sonic the Hedgehog films, in which he plays Dr. Ivo Robotnik. He has also worked as a producer, screenwriter, author and painter. Across those shifts, the constant is a performer interested in transformation—sometimes through spectacle, sometimes through stillness.