Jonah Hill is an American actor and screenwriter. Hill has had a successful career as an actor in comedic films, appearing in roles in the films Accepted, Grandma's Boy, Knocked Up, Superbad, and Evan Almighty. Hill was born Jonah Hill Feldstein in Los Angeles, California. Hill is Jewish and grew up in Los Angeles, attending Brentwood School and then Crossroads School in Santa Monica. After graduating from high school, Hill left California and to attend school at New School University, where he studied acting. Jonah's brother Jordan is the manager for the bands Maroon 5, Staind, Big City Rock, Collective Soul, and others.
In college, Jonah Hill began writing his own plays and performing them in the bar Black and White in the East Village. His plays developed a small following and helped him realize that his true desire was to act in film. Hill befriended Dustin Hoffman's children, Rebecca and Jake, who introduced him to their father. The elder Hoffman asked him to audition for a role in I Heart Huckabees, in which Hill made his film debut. Jonah has wanted to be a writer since he was a young age, dreaming of someday joining the writing teams of The Simpsons, Saturday Night Live, and The Larry Sanders Show.
Hill is currently writing two screenplays, which will both be produced by Apatow. One of the films, The Middle Child, would star Hill as a young man who returns from college to find that his parents gave a child up for adoption before he was born. The role of Jonah's older brother was written with frequent collaborator Seth Rogen in mind. Hill is also writing Pure Imagination, a comedy for Sony about a man who develops an imaginary friend after a traumatic experience. Filming is expected to begin in 2008 and the film will be directed by Harold Ramis. At one point, he was also writing a screenplay with close friend and Huckabees co-star Jason Schwartzman.