Occupation: Actor
Date of Birth: May 12, 1978
Place of Birth: Pompton Plains, NJ
Sign: Sun in Taurus, Moon in Cancer
Relations: Mother: Angela (pediatric nurse); father: Gary (shipping company manager); sisters: Heather, Chiara; girlfriend: undisclosed
Education: Hasbrouck Heights Junior-Senior High School, Hasbrouck, NJ; New York University; Montclair State University
Sean Penn outgrew stoned Spicoli, Robin Williams is no longer greeted with "Na-nu, na-nu," and Tom Hanks ultimately shed his Bosom Buddies drag. We assume that Jason Biggs can take comfort that he won't always be known as the actor who filled a piecrust with more than just apples in the 1999 teen hit American Pie. Not that Biggs minds the notoriety.
"For the time being, it's all about being the pie guy," he told USA Today in a July 2000 interview. "But a long career is my goal. Folks like Tom Hanks and Robin Williams are people I admire, actors who've gone from comedy to winning Oscars for dramatic roles."
Biggs' potentially long career started at age 5, when his mother, Angela, decided that he and his equally photogenic older sister Heather could use modeling as a means to pay for a college education. Biggs credits his outgoing personality and "very curly, Afro-like hair" with his early success, which started with a JC Penney catalog shoot and culminated with a Cheerios commercial and a burgeoning interest in acting.
"It was fun to go into New York from my house in New Jersey and get to play make-believe at these auditions," Biggs informed Teen Celebrity magazine. "But acting was always a hobby, getting into college was the priority. The irony of it all is that I went to college for less than two semesters before getting a TV show."
While he was barely a teenager, Biggs' "hobby" first took him to Broadway: For two years, he worked opposite former Taxi star Judd Hirsch in the drama Conversations With My Father. In 1991, Biggs also had a recurring role alongside Dabney Coleman on the short-lived TV comedy Drexell's Class.
Three years later, having done the Great White Way, Biggs spent a season on the CBS soap As the World Turns. His portrayal of bad boy Pete Wendall earned him a 1995 Daytime Emmy Award nomination for Best Younger Actor in a Drama Series.
Regardless of his acting duties, Biggs recalls that his attention centered on school. "When I was on Broadway, I'd go to school, come home, do homework, eat dinner, and drive into New York City with a bunch of traffic to do the play," he explained to Teen Celebrity. "I'd be onstage and then back home by 11:30 p.m. to finish whatever wasn't done for school the next day."
The young thespian's multitasking paid off, and he graduated from suburban Hasbrouck Heights Junior-Senior High School in 1996. After spending a semester at New York University and a semester at New Jersey's Montclair State University, Biggs realized that his hobby had morphed into his passion.
In 1997, he headed to Los Angeles, where he set about working on the corny crime series Total Security, which starred James Belushi. That same year, he made his film debut alongside comedic pros Jerry Stiller and Elliott Gould in Camp Stories, a filmic flop that sparked the question "If you make your screen debut and no one sees it, does it count?"
For all intents and purposes, it didn't really count, and Biggs subsequently spent a disheartening year auditioning for spots on Felicity and Dawson's Creek. But in the midst of rejection calls from his manager, Biggs came across the script for American Pie.
"I loved this script," Biggs said in an interview with Mr. Showbiz. "It sounds crazy, like, 'Oh my God! I get to hump an apple pie!' But I get to do things that have never been done on film before. I get to push the envelope."
And that's exactly what Biggs and Pie directors Paul and Chris Weitz did. They pushed a great big envelope full of hormonal teenage boys, beer spiked with body fluids, and band geeks with flute fetishes. Audiences were eager to embrace Biggs and his honest, funny portrayal of Pie hero Jim. According to an interview with People, Biggs related to Jim's plight. "[In school], I was average. I wasn't a mack daddy, a total player," he said. "I had the angst and the curiosity and all those things that come with it."
Twentieth Century Fox jumped aboard the Biggs Bandwagon soon thereafter, offering the 20-something a two-picture development deal. Biggs' first project with Fox was Boys and Girls, in which he played Freddie Prinze Jr.'s best friend. He then won the lead in Amy Heckerling's comedy Loser, for which he reunited with Pie co-star and American Beauty Mena Suvari.
Biggs' next project, Prozac Nation, should give his serious side some play. The film adaptation of Elizabeth Wurtzel's autobiographical account of her intense fight against depression stars Christina Ricci and Biggs. He's also finishing up Saving Silverman, which features the talents of such scene-stealers as Jack Black and Steve Zahn.
Biggs is still aware that his Hollywood success story was spawned by his mother's desire that he earn money for an education. "Had I graduated from college, I would have been the first in my family to do so," Biggs confessed to USA Today. "Sometimes I think I'd like to go back. But I'm also a believer in everyone having their own paths."
MOVIES:
2001 Saving Silverman
2000 Prozac Nation
2000 Loser
2000 Boys and Girls
1999 American Pie
1997 Camp Stories
TV:
1999 Hey Hey, It’s Saturday
1997 Total Security
1994-1995 As the World Turns
1991 Drexell's Class
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
