People
Paul Dano
Acting · follow into films and chains
Biography
Paul Franklin Dano (born June 19, 1984) is an American actor. He began his career on Broadway before making his film debut in The Newcomers (2000). He won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Debut Performance for his role in L.I.E. (2001) and received accolades for his role as Dwayne Hoover in Little Miss Sunshine (2006). For his dual roles as Paul and Eli Sunday in Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood (2007), he was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor. Dano has also received accolades for roles such as John Tibeats in Steve McQueen's 12 Years a Slave (2013) and Alex Jones in Denis Villeneuve's Prisoners (2013). His acting portrayal of musician Brian Wilson in Love & Mercy (2014) earned him a Golden Globe nomination in the category of Best Supporting Actor. Dano made his directorial debut with the drama film Wildlife (2018), based on the novel by Richard Ford. He co-wrote the screenplay with his partner Zoe Kazan. In 2018, he starred in the Showtime miniseries Escape at Dannemora, for which he received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie. In 2022, he played Edward Nashton / The Riddler in The Batman.
Notable films
Where to start
Highlights from credits and KinoChain journeys.
Prisoners
Appears in a KinoChain journey
There Will Be Blood
Appears in a KinoChain journey
Okja
Appears in a KinoChain journey
The Batman
As The Riddler
Little Miss Sunshine
Appears in a KinoChain journey
Where the Wild Things Are
Appears in a KinoChain journey
The Emperor's Club
Appears in a KinoChain journey
The Girl Next Door
As Klitz
Chains
KinoChain journeys
Public chains that pass through their films — or name them as a bridge.
The Cracks in the Picket Fence: Suburban Critique Across Generations
From the manicured lawns of 1999 to the glowing screens of today, this chain traces how cinema has dissected the suburban dream, revealing the isolation, confor...
8 films
The Price of Devotion
From the riverbank to the desert, a journey through American cinema's darkest portraits of faith, charisma, and the corruption that follows.
8 films
Wild Hearts: Feral Children and the Call of the Wild
From the forests of 18th-century France to the animated jungles of Mowgli, a journey through cinema's feral children and their quest for belonging.
7 films
The Classroom Without Walls
From a London schoolroom to a Parisian banlieue, a journey through films where teaching becomes an act of defiance and connection.
8 films
What We Make Monsters Of
A creature feature is rarely about the creature. From Na Hong-jin's Hope to a Scottish island burning its own kindness, this is a chain about communities that d...
8 films
Pure-Hearted Heroes
Sixty years after Batman '66 taught us that heroism can be bright, sincere, and utterly without irony, this chain celebrates films whose protagonists believe, s...
7 films
Escapes from Broken Realities
A journey through films where children and the childlike build imaginative refuges from fractured worlds, celebrating the twentieth anniversary of Terry Gilliam...
8 films
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Related people
Collaborators & neighbours
Acted
Dumb Money
2023 · Keith Gill
The Fabelmans
2022 · Burt Fabelman
The Batman
2022 · The Riddler
Escape at Dannemora
2018 · David Sweat
Okja
2017 · Jay
Love & Mercy
2015 · Brian Wilson 1960s
12 Years a Slave
2013 · John Tibeats
Prisoners
2013 · Alex Jones
Looper
2012 · Seth
Being Flynn
2012 · Nick Flynn
Cowboys & Aliens
2011 · Percy Dolarhyde
Where the Wild Things Are
2009 · Alexander (voice)
Gigantic
2008 · Brian
There Will Be Blood
2007 · Paul Sunday / Eli Sunday
Little Miss Sunshine
2006 · Dwayne Hoover
The Girl Next Door
2004 · Klitz
Taking Lives
2004 · Young Asher
The Emperor's Club
2002 · Martin Blythe