Thumbsucker

Background:

“I got lucky to do this movie. Way, way lucky. If I would have gotten a movie that the script wasn’t as good, I still would have done it because I hadn't done anything before. So this is something that really just, luckily, fell into my pocket. And it was kind of awesome.” Lou Taylor Pucc on “Thumbsucker”

An award-winning American actor who started his career in community theater when he was 10 years old, Lou Taylor Pucci gained recognition for his starring portrayal of Justin Cobb, a 17-year-old struggling with his addiction to sucking his thumb, on Mike Mills' “Thumbsucker” (2005). The fine performance won the blond performer the Special Jury Prize at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival and Berlin's Silver Bear Award. “Thumbsucker” was Pucci's second big screen outing after the well-received “Personal Velocity: Three Portraits” (2002). He has since added his resumes with roles in such movies as “The Chumscrubber” (2005), “50 Pills” (2006), “Fast Food Nation” (2006), “Southland Tales” (2006) and “The Go-Getter” (2007), and in the HBO acclaimed miniseries “Empire Falls” (2005).

Recently appearing in “Explicit Ills” (2008), the blue-eyed who topped the Elle Girl list of “The 50 Sexiest Guys'” in 2005 is set to act in the upcoming films “Fanboys,” “Brief Interviews with Hideous Men,” “The Horseman” and “The Informers,” all of which expected for release in 2008.

Pucci is a skilled Magician specializing in the art of sleight-of-hand.

Godspell

Childhood and Family:

Lou Taylor Pucci was born on July 27, 1985, in Seaside Heights, New Jersey. His father, Lou Pucci, is a guitarist who formerly played with the bands Leap Of Faith and The Watch, and his mother, Linda Pucci, is a former model and once crowned the title of Miss Union Country. He has two brothers, Adam and Zak, and a younger sister named Penelope “Poo” Ann, who was named after the musical “Bye, Bye, Birdie.”

In 2003, Lou graduated from Christian Brothers Academy in Lincroft, New Jersey. In his senior year of high school, he took home a trophy at his school for his Halloween costume, during which he dressed as still movie legend Charles Chaplin. He actively participated in his school's theater, Pegasus Productions, where he performed in such productions as “Godspell,” Cole Porter's “Anything Goes” and “A Christmas Carol.”

The Go-Getter

Career:

“I always knew I was going to be in entertainment, but no one was really making me be there. Like my parents kinda named me Lou Taylor Pucci because they thought it was a good stage name.” Lou Taylor Pucci

Lou Taylor Pucci had no solemn curiosity in acting as a child until his aunt bribed him to audition for a community theater production of “Oliver” when he was 10. He landed a part in the ensemble and subsequently caught by the acting bug. He went on to appear in several musicals, including one “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,” in which he played Benjamin, and by the age of 12, Pucci debuted on Broadway in a production of “The Sound of Music,” playing the main role of Freidrich. He acted on the hit play along side Richard Chamberlain and Rebecca Luker.

Pucci's first film role arrived three years later when he was cast as Kevin in a small independent movie by Rebecca Miller, “Personal Velocity: Three Portraits,” which starred Kyra Sedgewick, Fairuza Balk and Parker Posey. Filmed in 2000, the drama was shown at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2002, from which it won the Grand Jury Prize, and at the Toronto Film Festival in September, that same year. After the appearance, Pucci won an agent, Billy Lazarus of United Talent Agency (UTA), and a manager, Bob Glennon.

In 2005, Pucci landed his first starring role in “Thumbsucker,” the movie directorial debut of music video director Mike Mills which was nominated for Best First Feature at the Independent Spirit Awards. Delivering a delicate and zany turn as a teenager who attempts to break free from his addiction to his thumb, the young actor won the hearts of both critics and audience alike and picked up a Silver Berlin Bear for Best Actor at the 2005 Berlin Film Festival and a Special Jury Prize at the Sundance. Among his costars in the comedy/drama were Tilda Swinton, Keanu Reeves, Benjamin Bratt, Vince Vaughn and Vincent D'Onofrio. He said, “I liked most working with Vincent D'Onofrio, he's just awesome.”

Also in that same year, Pucci was featured along side Glenn Close, Ralph Fiennes, Jamie Bell and Camilla Belle on the independent drama “The Chumscrubber,” directed by Arie Posin, supported Helen Hunt, Ed Harris, Paul Newman and Philip Seymour Hoffman in the Golden Globe Award-winning HBO mini series “Empire Falls,” scripted by Richard Russo from his Pulitzer-winning novel and directed by Fred Schepisi. Besides, he starred in Green Day music video's “Jesus of Suburbia.”

Pucci returned to leading roles in 2006 when he was cast as Darren, an undergraduate student who loses his college scholarship and later sells ecstasy to make his tuition payment, on the comedy “50 Pills.” He followed it up by having a bit part in Richard Linklater's “Fast Food Nation” (2006), based on the Eric Schlosser best-selling book, playing the supporting role of Martin Kefauver on “Southland Tales” (2006), starring Dwayne Johnson, Seann William Scott, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Mandy Moore and Justin Timberlake, and guest starring as Joey Frost on the “Law & Order: CI” episode of “Cruise to Nowhere” (2006).

In 2007, Pucci starred with Zooey Deschanel and Jena Malone on “The Go-Getter,” a comedy/drama by Martin Hynes, and portrayed Danny on the horror/thriller “Carriers,” which was jointly directed and penned by Àlex and David Pastor. Recently, he played the role of Jacob in the Mark Webber drama “Explicit Ills” (2008).

The 23-year-old actor has completed filming an adventure movie by Kyle Newman called “Fanboys” (2008). He will have roles in such forthcoming films as “Brief Interviews with Hideous Men” (2008), starring Julianne Nicholson, “The Horseman” (2008), opposite Dennis Quaid, and “Bret Easton Ellis' 'The Informers'” (2008), for director Gregor Jordan and also starring Winona Ryder, Mickey Rourke,Billy Bob Thornton and Kim Basinger.

Awards:

• Sundance Film Festival: Special Jury Prize-Dramatic, “Thumbsucker,” 2005

• Berlin International Film Festival: Silver Berlin Bear, Best Actor, “Thumbsucker,” 2005