Jeremy Piven

Jeremy Samuel Piven (born July 26, 1965) is an American actor and producer. He is known for his roles as Ari Gold in the comedy series Entourage, for which he won a Golden Globe Award and three consecutive Emmy Awards, and as Spence Kovak on Ellen DeGeneres's sitcom Ellen. He also starred in the British period drama Mr Selfridge, which tells the story of the man who created the luxury English department store chain Selfridges. 2Early years Piven was born in Manhattan, New York, to a Jewish family of Ukrainian-Jewish descent His parents are Byrne Piven (1929–2002) and Joyce Hiller Piven (née Goldstein), both of whom were actors and drama teachers. He grew up in Evanston, Illinois. Piven was raised in a Reconstructionist household. He graduated from Evanston Township High School, and attended Harand Theater Camp in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin as a teenager. He played Bernardo in West Side Story there. In Illinois, he trained at Piven Theatre Workshop, founded by his parents. He also attended Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, where he departed after his sophomore year to attend New York University's Tisch School of the Art