Greg Kinnear Biography And Filmography:

An attractive, cynical broadcaster turned actor, Greg Kinnear won attention for his arrogant and sarcastic bits on the television show "Talk Soup" (1991-94). This daily frontrunner of "The Daily Show" became the most popular program on E! Entertainment Television and a darling among entertainment executives.

The youngest of three sons born to a diplomat, Kinnear grew up in various places around the world, including Beirut, Lebanon and Athens, Greece. After attending the University of Arizona, the Indiana native Kinnear got his start promoting low-budget movies before changing direction and working in front of the camera. Kinnear hosted the television shows "College Mad House" (1989) and "The Best of the Worst" (1991-92) before landing his dream job with "Talk Soup". 

In 1994, Kinnear replaced Bob Costas on the late night interview show, "Later.” NBC moved production from New York City to Los Angeles to allow Kinnear to work on both jobs on "Later" and "Talk Soup". The overhauled "Later" included a live studio audience, frequent comedy sketches and a monologue where Kinnear commented on the day's events.

Greg Kinnear made his feature film introduction as a talk show host in "Blankman" (1994). But his first big break came when he was hired to take the William Holden role in the 1995 Sydney Pollack directed "Sabrina" starring Harrison Ford. Kinnear was then cast to star as a con man tuned postal worker who answers mail addressed to the Almighty in "Dear God" (1996), but that film struggled to find an audience. Kinnear was next cast as the newlywed husband of Lauren Holly in the romantic comedy "A Smile Like Yours" (1997), about a childless couple (Kinnear & Holly) who are attempting to conceive a child and discover that his sperm is "lazy".

Greg Kinnear then won a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award nomination, for his role as a gay man who makes friends with a bad-tempered neighbor (Jack Nicholson) in James L Brooks' comedy "As Good as It Gets" (1997) with Helen Hunt and Cuba Gooding Jr., where a single mother and waitress, a misanthropic author, and a gay artist form an unlikely friendship

Kinnear then had another supporting role as Meg Ryan's boyfriend in "You've Got Mail" (1998) starring Tom Hanks, about two business rivals who hate each other at the office but fall in love over the internet. Kinnear was next seen as Captain Amazing in "Mystery Men" (1999) with Ben Stiller, and showed his trademarked egotism as a college professor romancing a student in "Loser" (2000). One of his better movie roles was in "Nurse Betty" (also 2000) starring alongside Morgan Freeman and Renee Zellweger, a comedy about a widow's post-traumatic obsession with a soap opera star. Kinnear rounded out his year playing the timid love "The Gift” (2000) working with an all-star ensemble cast that included Katie Holmes, Cate Blanchett, Hilary Swank and Keanu Reeves, in the horror mystery about a woman with extrasensory perception who is asked to help find a young woman who has disappeared.

The following year Kinnear played a sly fox role, playing an attractive television producer who breaks up with his talk-show host lover (Ashley Judd) in the romantic comedy "Someone Like You" (2001). Kinnear next was next hired and cast in the television adaptation of the Pulitzer-winning discovery of marriage in, "Dinner With Friends" (2001) before being added to the ensemble cast of  "We Were Soldiers"(2002) starring Mel Gibson, the dramatic story of the first major battle of the American phase of the Vietnam War and the soldiers on both sides that fought it.  

Kinnear then scored the starring role in the movie "Auto Focus" (2002) playing Bob Crane, the star of "Hogan's Heroes" whose secret life of sexual exploits was discovered after he was found murdered in his apartment. Next, Kinnear starred in the Farrelly Brothers comedy "Stuck On You" (2003) working with Eva Mendes and Matt Damon, in which they played hostile conjoined twins. Kinnear then worked with Robert De Niro in the thriller "Godsend" (2004), playing opposite Rebecca Romijn-Stamos as a couple who raise a clone of their dead child, with alarming results. Next, Kinnear lent his voice talents to Ratchet, a corporate big shot in a world inhabited by mechanical beings in the animated smash hit “Robots” (2005) alongside the voices of Halle Berry, Amanda Bynes, Robin Williams, Jay Leno, Drew Carey and Mel Brooks. 

Kinnear then took on the Vic Morrow role of opposing coach in Richard Linklater's variation of the classic children's baseball film "The Bad News Bears" (2005) with Billy Bob Thornton, playing the role with plenty of cynicism instead of Marrow's father-like pain in the neck. In “The Matador” (2005) starring Pierce Brosnan, Kinnear played an every day kind of guy on a business trip in Mexico who makes friends with an assassin (Pierce Brosnan) who is going through a midlife crisis. 

Kinnear then took the starring role in the ensemble cast of “Little Miss Sunshine” (2006) with Steve Carell, portraying a badly confident and annoying motivational speaker not able to motivate anyone who goes on a road trip with his dysfunctional family to take his daughter to her beauty pageant. “Little Miss Sunshine” captivated critics after it made a showing at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival, with Greg Kinnear winning a number of kudos for his great performance. While “Little Miss Sunshine” was still in theaters, Kinnear was cast in the sports drama, “Invincible” (2006) starring Mark Wahlberg, the story of NFL player Vince Papale, a former part-timer bartender turned special teams star on the Philadelphia Eagles. Kinnear played first year coach Dick Vermeil, who hopes to turn around 11-straight losing seasons by holding open tryouts for Philadelphia locals.

The following year, Kinnear once again starred with MF in the dramatic romance "Feast Of Love" (2007) a story of meditation on love and its various incarnations, set within a community of friends in Oregon. Next it was back to comedy in the summer smash hit "Baby Mama" (2007) with Tina Fey, about a successful, single businesswoman who dreams of having a baby and discovers she is infertile and hires a working class woman to be her unlikely surrogate. 

Kinnear then worked with Ricky Gervais and Tea Leoni in the comedy fantasy "Ghost Town" (2008) where a man whose people skills leave much to be desired dies unexpectedly, but is miraculously revived after seven minutes and wakes up to discover that he now has the annoying ability to see ghosts. Kinnear wrapped his year with the dramatic "Flash Of Genius" (2008), based on the true story of college professor and part-time inventor Robert Kearns' (Greg Kinnear) and his long battle with the U.S. automobile industry.

Kinnear then teamed with Matt Damon for the dramatic war movie "Green Zone" (2009), a thriller about a pair of CIA agents on the trail of certain Weapons of Mass Destruction and a foreign correspondent following their mission. Inspired by Imperial Life in the Emerald City.

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