Jeremy Sisto is an American actor, producer and writer, best known for his roles in the HBO series Six Feet Under and NBC’s Law & Order as well as his numerous film appearances. Beyond film and television, he has also appeared on Broadway as Michael Klingenfelt in the stage adaptation of Festen (The Celebration).

Jeremy Sisto: Early Life

Jeremy Merton Sisto was born on October 6, 1974, in Grass Valley, California, to the family of farmers Richard Sisto and Reedy Gibbs, who were a jazz musician and an actress respectively. Jeremy Sisto and his sister Meadow, who is also a well-known American actress, spent their childhood years in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, before relocating to Chicago with his mother and sister after the parents divorced. There Sisto attended the Francis W. Parker School, where he excelled and demonstrated an affinity for acting. When asked about his first steps into acting, he told uInterview that once his family moved to Chicago, his mother became an actress, which had a significant role in the opportunities he and his sister had at an early age.

“She got agents and [was] doing commercials. And because she was a single mother, we were with her the whole time, so eventually the casting directors asked [my sister and me], if we wanted to audition for this or that… We started doing plays. As a kid, plays were really fun to do… I got a movie when I was 16, and sort of was very lucky in that right, so I just followed the path that was there before me.”

The Sisto siblings made their stage debut in a production of Tennessee Williams’ House Not Meant to Stand. This later led to him working with local theatre companies, including the Cherry Street Theater and the Absolute Theater Company. While constantly auditioning for small parts and commercials, Sisto’s real breakthrough came about when he was in high school. It was during those years that he made his film debut with a part in Lawrence Kasdan’s film Grand Canyon. After high school, he attended UCLA and continued to actively pursue an acting career. In the 1990s he relocated to Hollywood, where he got many supporting parts in movies and television.

Jeremy Sisto: Breakthrough and Further Film Work

Sisto’s role in Grand Canyon alongside Kevin Kline and Steve Martin opened a number of opportunities for his early career. He followed with roles in television films like Desperate Choices: To Save My Child in 1992, The Shaggy Dog in 1994 and The Day Lincoln Was Shot in 1998. He notably auditioned for the part of Jack Dawson in James Cameron’s Titanic but eventually lost the part to Leonardo DiCaprio. He also successfully embodied a killer in Hideaway in 1995 and a rich teen in Clueless that same year, Olympic gold medalist runner in Without Limits and Jesus Chris in the 1999 CBS miniseries Jesus among other parts. During the 1990s Sisto amassed an impressive number of film, mini-series and television credits, in which he portrayed a wide range of characters, demonstrating incredible versatility and depth for a young actor.

Sisto’s number of film credits to date is remarkable. He has appeared in over 50 films with various critical acclaim. Apart from acting, he has also produced a number of films. In 1998, he coproduced an unreleased film called Taken with his friend Ethan Embry. Similarly, he was on the production team of Paranoia 1.0 and Three Women of Pain. In April 2003, he started his own production company, Dima Entertainment. Later, in 2014, Sisto also tried his hand at screenwriting with the comedy film Break Point, which he also produced.

Jeremy Sisto: Six Feet Under

Despite his incredibly prolific work, Sisto largely remained unknown to a wider audience until his first long-term engagement for TV from 2001 to 2005 when he portrayed Billy Chenowith in the HBO drama series Six Feet Under. Along with his co-stars from the show he was nominated twice for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series. While engaged on the show, he also starred in the drama film Thirteen, the romantic comedy The Movie Hero, and the horror film Wrong Turn. Additionally, in 2004, he appeared on the Los Angeles stage as a gay baseball player who comes out in Richard Greenberg‘s play Take Me Out. He was nominated for a Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for this part.

Another significant TV opportunity came about for Sisto in 2008 when he joined the cast of the NBC crime drama series Law & Order as Detective Cyrus Lupo. He replaced Milena Govich‘s Detective Nina Cassady as the partner of Jesse L. Martin‘s Ed Green. He remained on the hit show for three seasons until 2010. More recently, Sisto was part of the cast of the ABC comedy series Suburgatory from 2011 to 2014 when the show was canceled by the network. He played the role of the divorcé father George Altman. His performance received a Critics’ Choice nomination in 2013.

Jeremy Sisto: Recent Projects

Sisto’s most recent work includes the short-lived ABC thriller drama Wicked City, where he portrayed a detective investigating a 1980s serial killer on the Sunset Strip, played by Ed Westwick. He also recently starred in the currently playing Johannes Roberts horror film The Other Side of the Door. The film tells the story of a couple who decide to remain in India where they are currently traveling, but as Sisto told uInterview, “tragedy hits and we lose one of their children.” The grief-stricken mother, played by Sarah Wayne Callies, learns about a Hindu temple where she can talk to her dead son on the other side of the door, which must remain closed at all times. The grieving mother disobeys this rule, which causes the boy’s spirit to haunt the family.

In 2019, Sisto lent his voice to the hit Disney film Frozen II. In 2018, Sisto starred in the crime series FBI, which has been renewed for a sixth season.

Jeremy Sisto: Personal Life

Sisto married actress Marisa Ryan in Las Vegas in 1993, when both were only 18 years old. They remained legally married until 2002 when the divorce was finalized, even though their marriage was practically short-lived. In 2009, he had a child with his soon-to-be wife Addie Lane. Their daughter named Charlie-Ballerina Sisto was born in June 2009, and the couple exchanged vows in a casual ceremony in October of the same year. They had a second child in March 2012, a boy named Bastian Kick Sisto. The family currently lives in Los Angeles.

Watch Jeremy Sisto’s full uInterview:

Read more about:
Oscars 2016: Best Dressed Photos Click here for the Oscars 2016: Best Dressed Photos Slideshow