Garrett Hedlund

Born name: Garrett John Hedlund
Date of Birth: September 3, 1984
Place of Birth: Roseau, Minnesota, United States
Height: 1.86 m
Nationality: American
Occupation: Actor, model, singer
Partner(s): Kirsten Dunst (2012–2016)
Emma Roberts (2019–present)
Garrett John Hedlund (born September 3, 1984) is an American actor, model, and singer. His films include Friday Night Lights (2004), Troy (2004), Four Brothers (2005), Eragon (2006), Country Strong (2010), Tron: Legacy (2010), On the Road (2012), Inside Llewyn Davis (2013), Unbroken (2014), Pan (2015), Mudbound (2017), and Triple Frontier (2019).

Early life
Garrett John Hedlund was born on September 3, 1984, in Roseau, Minnesota, to Kristine Anne (née Yanish) and Robert Martin Hedlund. He is the youngest of three children, with a brother, Nathaniel, and a sister, Amanda. His father is of Swedish descent and his mother is of German and Norwegian descent. Hedlund was raised on a remote beef cattle farm near the small town of Wannaska, Minnesota. In the 10th grade, he moved to live with his mother in Arizona, where he saved his tips from working as a waiter to pay for lessons with acting coach Jean Fowler, with whom he worked on speeches and script material.

Career
As a teenager, Hedlund modeled for L.L. Bean and Teen magazine. In 2003, at the age of 18, Hedlund moved to Los Angeles to pursue his acting career.

Hedlund debuted in his first feature film playing Brad Pitt's younger cousin Patroclus in the mythological epic adventure war drama Troy. The film was released on May 14, 2004. He also co-starred with Billy Bob Thornton, Connie Britton and Tim McGraw as Don Billingsley in the 2004 sports drama Friday Night Lights, where McGraw played his abusive father.

He co-starred with Mark Wahlberg in the crime drama Four Brothers as Jack Mercer. He co-starred with Ed Speleers, Jeremy Irons and Sienna Guillory in the fantasy-adventure film Eragon as Murtagh. In 2007, he co-starred with Lindsay Lohan, Jane Fonda and Felicity Huffman in the comedy-drama Georgia Rule, directed by Garry Marshall. The film was released May 11, 2007 and was panned by critics. Georgia Rule failed to surpass box office expectations, making only a lifetime gross of $41 million. That same year, he co-starred with Kevin Bacon in the crime thriller Death Sentence. In 2010, he co-starred with Jeff Bridges in the science fiction/action film Tron: Legacy, a sequel to the 1982 film Tron. The film was released on December 17, 2010.

Hedlund co-starred with Gwyneth Paltrow, Leighton Meester and his Friday Night Lights co-star, country musician Tim McGraw in the musical drama Country Strong, which was released on December 22, 2010. He recorded a number of songs for the film including "Chances Are" which appeared on Country Strong: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack. His performance was well received by critics. Noting voice similarities between Hedlund and Charlie Robison, Roughstock said "the best song on this album belongs to him" and Country Weekly wrote that of all the songs performed by actors in this film, his was "the most convincing". Six other songs, including a duet with Meester, were featured on a second soundtrack titled Country Strong: More Music from the Motion Picture.

Hedlund was cast as Kaneda Shotaro in the live-action version of Akira, but production of the film was cancelled. He also co-starred with Kristen Stewart, Amy Adams, Steve Buscemi, Terrence Howard, Kirsten Dunst and Viggo Mortensen as Dean Moriarty in the 2012 adventure drama On the Road. The film was directed by Walter Salles and based on Jack Kerouac's novel of same name. Disney said in December 2012 that Hedlund would reprise his role of Sam Flynn in the sequel to Tron: Legacy.

Hedlund reportedly turned down the roles of Finnick in the sequel to the dystopian science fiction/adventure film The Hunger Games titled Catching Fire and Christian Grey in the film adaptation of E. L. James' best-selling novel Fifty Shades of Grey. In 2014, Hedlund co-starred with Jack O'Connell and Domhnall Gleeson in the historical drama Unbroken directed by Angelina Jolie. In 2018, Garrett co-starred with Sharon Stone as an aspiring artist in Steven Soderbergh's HBO murder mystery drama series Mosaic.

Personal life
Hedlund dated his On the Road co-star Kirsten Dunst from 2012 to 2016.

As of March 2019, Hedlund is dating actress Emma Roberts.