Steve Buscemi has built a career out of portraying some of the most unique and unforgettable characters in recent cinema.
Buscemi has won an Independent Spirit Award, The New York Film Critics Award and was nominated for a Golden Globe for his role in MGM’s Ghost World directed by Terry Zwigoff, co-starring Thora Birch and Scarlett Johansson. He was also nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Emmy for his role as “Tony Blundetto” in season five of The Sopranos and received Guest Actor Emmy nominations for his appearances on NBC’s 30 Rock and IFC’s Portlandia. He was nominated for a Lola from the German Film Academy Awards for his work in John Rabe, which was directed by Academy Award-winning director Florian Gallenberger and stars an international cast.
He starred in the HBO drama Boardwalk Empire, which garnered him a Golden Globe, two Screen Actors Guild Awards and two Emmy nominations.
Born in Brooklyn, New York, Buscemi began to show an interest in drama while in his last year of high school. Soon after, he moved to Manhattan to study acting with John Strasberg. There he and a fellow actor and writer Mark Boone Junior began writing and performing their own theater pieces in performance spaces and downtown theaters. This soon led to Steve being cast in his first lead role in Bill Sherwood's Parting Glances as a musician with AIDS.
Since this impressive breakout performance, Buscemi has become the actor of choice for some of the most respected directors in the business. His resume includes Martin Scorsese's New York Stories; Jim Jarmusch's Coffee and Cigarettes and Mystery Train, for which he received an IFP Spirit Award nomination; Alexandre Rockwell's Somebody To Love and the 1992 Sundance Film Festival Jury Award-winner In the Soup; Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs, for which he received an IFP Spirit Award for his standout performance as “Mr. Pink;” the Coen Brothers' Miller’s Crossing, Barton Fink, the Academy Award-winning Fargo and The Big Lebowski; Twenty Bucks; Tom DiCillo's Double Whammy and his Sundance Film Festival Award-winning Living in Oblivion with Dermot Mulroney and Catherine Keener; Desperado; Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead; Robert Altman's Kansas City; John Carpenter's Escape From L.A. with Kurt Russell; Jerry Bruckheimer Productions’ Con Air and Armageddon; Stanley Tucci's The Imposters; the HBO telefilm The Laramie Project; Love in the Time of Money; Tim Burton’s Big Fish; Michael Bay’s The Island; Terry Zwigoff’s Art School Confidential; I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry with Adam Sandler; I Think I Love My Wife with Chris Rock; and numerous cameo appearances in films such as Rising Sun, The Hudsucker Proxy, Big Daddy, Pulp Fiction, and The Wedding Singer. Buscemi’s recent screen credits include Miguel Arteta’s Youth in Revolt; Oren Moverman’s directorial debut, The Messenger; Rampart; The Incredible Burt Wonderstone opposite Steve Carell and Jim Carrey; Grown Ups 2 opposite Adam Sandler; Time Out of Mind; and Norman from director Joseph Cedar.
Buscemi has provided the voices for characters in many animated features including Pixar’s Monsters, Inc. and Monsters University as the voice of “Randall Boggs;” Columbia Pictures’ Final Fantasy; and Charlotte’s Web as the voice of “Templeton” the rat. He was the voice of “Nebbercracker” in Sony Pictures’ Oscar nominated animated film Monster House, executive produced by Steven Spielberg and Robert Zemeckis, and the voice of “Scamper” in MGM’s Igor opposite John Cusack. His other voice credits include G-Force, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer for Disney, and Columbia Pictures’ Hotel Transylvania, Hotel Transylvania 2, and Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation as the voice of “Wayne.” He was heard opposite Alec Baldwin in the DreamWorks Animation film The Boss Baby, which was nominated for an Academy Award in 2018.
In addition to his talents as an accomplished actor, Buscemi has proven to be a respected writer and director. His first project was a short film entitled What Happened to Pete, which was featured at several film festivals including Rotterdam and LoCarno, and aired on the Bravo Network