Jeremy Renner

Jeremy Renner's breakthrough arrived in 2008 through his central performance in Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker, which secured an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. Over the following ten years he concentrated on major franchises, above all The Avengers and Mission: Impossible, before circling back to music with the 2019 release of his first single, "Main Attraction."

A Modesto, California native, Jeremy Renner finished Fred C. Beyer High School in 1989 and enrolled at Modesto Junior College. He initially studied criminology and computer science yet gravitated toward acting. His screen debut occurred in 1995's National Lampoon's Senior Trip; a succession of brief television appearances followed until he played the title character in the 2002 independent film Dahmer. That performance drew sufficient praise to open doors to supporting parts in larger productions, among them 2003's S.W.A.T., 2005's North Country, and two 2007 releases: 28 Weeks Later and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.

Bigelow chose Renner to lead her Iraq war thriller The Hurt Locker. The picture earned widespread critical approval and later commercial success, yielding Renner's Academy Award nomination for Best Actor; although he did not win, the film took Best Picture and Best Director. He next appeared in Ben Affleck's The Town, then portrayed Hawkeye in the 2012 Marvel release The Avengers. During the next seven years he continued in Marvel entries, maintained a recurring role in Tom Cruise's Mission: Impossible series, and performed in David O. Russell's 2013 Oscar-nominated American Hustle.

Once The Avengers concluded in 2018, Renner began his musical career. That year he issued a cover of Crash Test Dummies' "Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmmm" and contributed vocals to Sam Feldt's single "Heaven (Don't Have a Name)." The following year he released his debut solo single, "Main Attraction," which was soon followed by "Nomad" and "Sign."