Keanu Reeves

Keanu Charles Reeves is a Canadian actor and musician born in Beirut, Lebanon, on September 2, 1964, to Patricia Taylor, a costume designer and performer of English origin, and Samuel Nowlin Reeves Jr., an American of Native Hawaiian, Chinese, English, and Portuguese descent. His parents divorced in 1966, after which his mother relocated the family first to Sydney, Australia, then to New York City, where she married Paul Aaron, a Broadway and Hollywood director, in 1970. The family subsequently moved to Toronto, where Reeves grew up primarily in the Yorkville neighbourhood. He attended four high schools, including the Etobicoke School of the Arts, and was a successful ice hockey goalkeeper at De La Salle College, where he was once considered an OHL prospect before an injury ended his hockey career. Reeves has dyslexia and dropped out of high school at seventeen. He later obtained a green card through his American stepfather and moved to Los Angeles.

Reeves made his acting debut in 1984 in an episode of the Canadian television series Hangin' In, the same year he served as a correspondent for the CBC youth program Going Great. In 1985, he played Mercutio in a stage production of Romeo and Juliet at the Leah Posluns Theatre in North York, Ontario, and also appeared in Brad Fraser's Wolfboy in Toronto. His feature film debut came in 1986 in Peter Markle's Youngblood, in which he played a goalkeeper. That same year he appeared in River's Edge, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival to a largely positive response. His breakthrough arrived with Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure in 1989, in which he portrayed a time-traveling slacker alongside Alex Winter; the film grossed $40.5 million worldwide. He reprised the role in Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey in 1991 and again in Bill & Ted Face the Music in 2020.

Reeves earned praise for his performance in the independent drama My Own Private Idaho in 1991 and established himself as an action star with Point Break that same year and Speed in 1994. His performance in the horror film The Devil's Advocate in 1997 was well received following a period of box-office disappointments. He achieved greater stardom with the role of Neo in The Matrix in 1999, and became the highest paid actor for a single production when he reprised the role in the 2003 sequels The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions. He returned to the role once more in The Matrix Resurrections in 2021. Additional screen credits include John Constantine in Constantine in 2005, the voice of Duke Caboom in Toy Story 4 in 2019, the portrayal of Johnny Silverhand in the video game Cyberpunk 2077 in 2020, and the voice of Shadow the Hedgehog in Sonic the Hedgehog 3 in 2024. Reeves made his directorial debut with Man of Tai Chi in 2013 and staged a commercial comeback with the John Wick action film series beginning in 2014.

In 2020, The New York Times ranked Reeves fourth among the greatest actors of the 21st century, and in 2022, Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world. Beyond acting, he is a member of the musical band Dogstar, which released the album Somewhere Between the Power Lines and Palm Trees in 2023. He is the co-writer and creator of the BRZRKR comic book franchise, which ran from 2021 to 2023 and expanded to include spin-offs including The Book of Elsewhere in 2024. Reeves is also co-founder of the custom motorcycle manufacturer ARCH Motorcycle and co-founded the production company Company Films.

In 2025, Reeves brought his stage career to Broadway, appearing in a production of Waiting for Godot.