Jeremy Allen White

Jeremy Allen White (born February 17, 1991, Brooklyn, New York, U.S.) is an American actor best known for his intense but vulnerable performances as Phillip (“Lip”) Gallagher in the Showtime series Shameless (2011–21) and as Carmen (“Carmy”) Berzatto in FX’s The Bear (2022– ). Although he earned critical acclaim for both roles, the latter catapulted him to stardom.

Early life and first acting roles

White grew up with a younger sister, Annabelle, in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn. His parents, Eloise Zeigler and Richard White, had met as theater actors in New York City, but, after Jeremy Allen White was born, his father started a company that filmed depositions and his mother began working in education. Despite having an appearance similar to that of Gene Wilder and much speculation on social media, White is not the grandson of the Willy Wonka actor. As a kid, White studied ballet, tap, and jazz dance, but at age 11 he switched to theater, later saying that he had been unimpressed by his school’s dance program. While attending the Professional Performing Arts School in Manhattan, White interned at a casting agency. He also landed a few roles in plays; movies, including Beautiful Ohio (2006) and Afterschool (2008); and TV series, namely Law & Order in 2007–08.

Shameless and personal life

After graduating from the Professional Performing Arts School, in 2010 White was cast in the TV series Shameless as Phillip Gallagher, the eldest brother in a working-class family navigating a series of ups and downs on the South Side of Chicago. The program was an American adaptation of a British series and ran for 11 seasons. While filming Shameless, White appeared in the films The Time Being (2012), Bad Turn Worse (2013), Rob the Mob (2014), and After Everything (2018). He also had a recurring role in the first season (2018) of the anthology series Homecoming, which starred Julia Roberts, and a lead part in the horror film The Rental (2020), directed by Dave Franco. During this time White also began growing a family. In 2018 he welcomed a daughter, Ezer Billie White, with actress Addison Timlin, whom he had met in high school and had worked with on Afterschool. They wed in 2019 and had a second daughter, Dolores Wild White, in 2020.

The Bear

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After Shameless ended in 2021, White was offered the role of Carmen Berzatto in The Bear. In the series the troubled young chef returns to his native Chicago to run his brother’s sandwich shop. Despite the character’s similarities to White’s Shameless role, White accepted, later saying that he would have hated to see someone else play the part. To prepare for the series, White and costar Ayo Edebiri trained at the Institute of Culinary Education, Los Angeles. White also staged—culinary-industry lingo for participating in an unpaid internship with a chef to learn new techniques—with the chef Dave Beran at his Michelin-starred restaurant Pasjoli in Santa Monica, California. The Bear premiered in 2022 to critical and popular acclaim, and White was singled out for particular praise. For each of the first two seasons (2022 and 2023), he won a Golden Globe Award for best performance by a male actor in a musical or comedy television series, a Critics Choice Award for best actor in a comedy series, and a Screen Actors Guild Award for outstanding performance by a male actor in a comedy series. He also garnered two Emmys for outstanding lead actor in a comedy series (2023 and 2024).

The Iron Claw, Calvin Klein ad, and other projects from the early 2020s

White’s success on The Bear led to a number of roles on the big screen, including Fingernails, opposite Jessie Buckley and Riz Ahmed, and The Iron Claw (both 2023), alongside Zac Efron. The latter recounts the tragedies of the Von Erich wrestling family. White and his costars trained rigorously and practiced wrestling with professionals. In 2024 White became the latest hunk to strip down for a Calvin Klein underwear ad campaign. The images of White’s sculpted body in suggestive poses immediately went viral on social media and caused a sensation on the red carpet during the 2024 Golden Globes. In between these triumphs, however, White’s wife reportedly filed for divorce from the actor in 2023.