His career has covered almost every base in showbiz, starting in radio, diving into television, then finally film.
And now Greg Kinnear can be seen holding his own with the best of them, most recently alongside Cate Blanchett in The Gift, which opens today.
Kinnear (right) was born on June 17, 1963, in Longsport, Indiana. As his father served as a US diplomat, Kinnear's early life was spent in such far-flung cities as Athens and Beirut. It was in Athens that Kinnear first got into performing - on radio as host of School Daze With Greg Kinnear.
He returned to the US when college rolled around and eventually graduated from the University of Arizona with a degree in broadcast journalism. It was then that Kinnear decided to head for the bright lights of Los Angeles. First stop was a job as a marketing assistant with Empire Entertainment, the people we can hold responsible for such classics as Assault Of The Killer Bimbos. From there Kinnear landed a job on the Movietime cable channel, which would later become the E! Entertainment Network. Initially, Kinnear's career as a reporter was short-lived - he was sacked and found himself picking up work as an extra in TV shows such as LA Law.
By 1991, though, E! had brought him back into the fold and he hosted the successful Talk Soup programme, which would run until 1994. Kinnear then jumped ship to NBC, hosting Later With Greg Kinnear and making that rare successful TV-to-Hollywood crossover by landing his first film role - as a talk show host in Damon Wayans' Blankman. That led to a role opposite Harrison Ford in Sabrina (1995), in which he was the only real shining light. But it was 1997 that saw Kinnear's career hit its peak. He was cast in James L Brooks' As Good As It Gets alongside Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt, winning a best supporting actor Oscar nomination for his role as Nicholson's put-upon neighbour.
From there Kinnear appeared inYou've Got Mail (1998) and Mystery Men (1999) as well capping his rise with turns in both Nurse Betty and The Gift.
