Chris Pratt

***Christopher Michael Pratt*** (June 21, 1979, Virginia, Minnesota, USA) is an American actor known for starring in television, as well as in action and animated films. He rose to prominence for his television roles, particularly as Andy Dwyer in the NBC sitcom Parks and Recreation (2009–2015), for which he received critical acclaim and was nominated for the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series in 2013.

Pratt also starred earlier in his career as Bright Abbott in The WB drama series Everwood (2002–2006) and had roles in Wanted (2008), Jennifer's Body (2009), Moneyball (2011), The Five-Year Engagement (2012), Movie 43 (2013), Zero Dark Thirty (2013), Delivery Man (2013), and Her (2013). He went on to establish himself as a Hollywood leading man in 2014, with lead roles in Marvel Studios' Guardians of the Galaxy as Star-Lord and Warner Animation Group's The Lego Movie as Emmet Brickowski. Both films were critically and commercially successful, becoming the year's third and fifth highest-grossing films respectively in North America.

Pratt has since starred in Jurassic World (2015) and its sequel Fallen Kingdom (2018), The Magnificent Seven, Passengers (both 2016) and The Tomorrow War (2021). He also reprised his Marvel role in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017), Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Avengers: Endgame (2019), as well as the upcoming Thor: Love and Thunder (2022) and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023). In 2022, he is set to voice Mario in Nintendo and Illumination's untitled Mario film. In 2015, Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world.

Christopher Michael Pratt was born on June 21, 1979, in Virginia, Minnesota, the youngest child of Kathleen Louise (née Indahl), who worked at a Safeway supermarket, and Daniel Clifton Pratt, who worked in mining and later remodeling houses. Pratt's father died in 2014 from multiple sclerosis. His mother is of Norwegian descent. When Pratt was seven years old, the family moved to Lake Stevens, Washington. Pratt placed fifth in a high school state wrestling tournament; he later recalled that when his wrestling coach asked him what he wished to do with his life, he said "'I don't know, but I know I'll be famous and I know I'll make a shit ton of money.' I had no idea how. I'd done nothing proactive." He graduated from Lake Stevens High School in 1997.

Pratt dropped out of community college halfway through the first semester and, after working as a discount ticket salesman and daytime stripper, he ended up homeless in Maui, Hawaii, sleeping in a van and a tent on the beach. He told The Independent, "It's a pretty awesome place to be homeless. We just drank and smoked weed and worked minimal hours, just enough to cover gas, food, and fishing supplies." He recalled listening to the Dr. Dre album 2001 daily, to the point where he knew every lyric; years later, he rapped Eminem's verses from the song "Forgot About Dre" extemporaneously during an interview. During his time in Maui, he worked for Christian missionary organization Jews for Jesus.

While Pratt had been known to this point for playing supporting characters and he was best known for his portly character on Parks and Recreation, 2014 marked a turning point in his career when he headlined two major studio films: Emmet Brickowski in The Lego Movie, which grossed $469.1 million; and Peter Quill / Star-Lord in Marvel Studios' Guardians of the Galaxy, which grossed $773.3 million. Pratt had initially turned down the role of Peter Quill, explaining he did not "want another Captain Kirk or Avatar moment" (after humbling auditions for both). The film's casting director, Sarah Finn, suggested Pratt to the director James Gunn, who had struggled to cast that role and dismissed the idea. In spite of this, Finn arranged for a meeting between the two, at which point Gunn was convinced that Pratt was perfect for the role. Pratt also won over Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige, despite having gained weight again for the comedy film Delivery Man. The role was part of a multi-film deal that Pratt signed with Marvel. Bruce Diones of The New Yorker noted, "Pratt, overflowing with charisma, plays the leader of the pack of misfits, and his blissed-out space cowboy (with a love for seventies music) is so full of good will that he buoys the film and its requisite whizbang special effects."

In November 2013, Pratt, an avid fan of Jurassic Park (1993) who has referred to the film as "my Star Wars", replaced Josh Brolin as the lead in Jurassic World (2015). He played Owen Grady, who works training Velociraptors. Jurassic World grossed $652.3 million in North America and $1.018 billion overseas for a worldwide total of $1.670 billion. His performance was praised, with Peter Travers of Rolling Stone stating that Pratt "ace[d] it as an action hero and invests his sexual banter with a comic flair the movie could have used more of." He reprised the role in the sequel, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, which was released on June 22, 2018. Although a commercial success, the sequel received mixed reviews, with Brian Lowry of CNN criticizing the film for "largely neutralizing [...] Pratt's charm and comedic skills."

In May of 2021, Pratt and Parks and Recreation announced the upcoming release of a new album based on Pratt's character Andy Dwyer. In June 2021, they officially released a pair of singles, "The Pit" and "Two Birds Holding Hands". The album, which is called Mouse Rat: The Awesome Album, was released in August 2021. In September 2021, it was announced that Pratt would be voicing the Nintendo mascot Mario in an upcoming film based on the video game series of the same name. In November 2021, it was announced that he would be voicing the titular cat of the upcoming animated film Garfield, being directed by Mark Dindal from a script by David Reynolds.