Topher Grace is an American actor and editor, recogonized for his roles as Eric Forman in That 70's Show, Eddie Brock/Venom in Spider-Man 3, Tommy Donegal in Mona Lisa Smile, etc.
History
Early Life
Grace was born in New York City, the son of Pat, an assistant to the schoolmaster of the New Canaan Country School, and John Grace, a Madison Avenue executive. He has a sister, Jenny. Grace is of Ashkenazi Jewish, English, and Irish descent.
Grace grew up in Darien, Connecticut, where actress Kate Bosworth was a middle-school friend, and actress Chloë Sevigny—who later appeared with him in high school stage plays—was sometimes his babysitter.
Career
Grace was cast as Eric Forman on Fox's That '70s Show, which debuted in 1998. He played the role until the show's 8th and final season. His character was written out and replaced with a new character named Randy Pearson (Josh Meyers). Grace made a brief guest appearance in the final episode.
Grace played a prep school student who used marijuana and introduced his girlfriend to freebasing in director Steven Soderbergh's 2000 film Traffic, as well as having uncredited cameos as himself in Soderbergh's Ocean's Eleven and its 2004 sequel, Ocean's Twelve. "The joke is that you're supposed to play the worst version of yourself and I don't think too many people are comfortable with that. I never thought for a second that people were really going to think that's what I was like. I think that people will know that I was faking it in those movies", he told Flaunt magazine in 2007.
He planned to cameo in Ocean's Thirteen. However, due to his role in Spider-Man 3, he had to abandon these plans. As Grace said, "I was doing reshoots on Spider-Man 3. I was bummed. I actually talked to Steven Soderbergh about that and we had a thing and then I couldn't do it." He appeared in director Mike Newell's 2003 film Mona Lisa Smile.
In 2004, Grace played the leading roles in Win a Date with Tad Hamilton! and In Good Company. That same year, he starred in P.S., which received only a limited theatrical release. Grace won the National Board of Review's 2004 award for Breakthrough Performance Actor for his work in In Good Company and P.S.
On January 15, 2005, Grace hosted Saturday Night Live.
In 2007, Grace portrayed Eddie Brock/Venom in Spider-Man 3, directed by Sam Raimi. Grace himself was a fan of the comics and read the Venom stories as a child. In 2009, Grace became the subject of a recurring column on the entertainment/pop culture site Videogum, entitled "What's Up With Topher Grace?"
In 2010, Grace appeared in the ensemble comedy Valentine's Day and played the character of Edwin in Predators.
In 2011, Grace appeared in the 1980s retro comedy Take Me Home Tonight. He co-wrote the script and co-produced the film. Grace also starred opposite Richard Gere in the spy thriller The Double.
In 2012, Grace starred alongside Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Matthew Gray Gubler in the social film The Beauty Inside, which won a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding New Approach to an Original Daytime Program or Series in 2013. The film was directed by Drake Doremus and written by Richard Greenberg.
In 2014, Grace starred in the indie thriller The Calling, alongside Susan Sarandon, and appeared in Christopher Nolan's sci-fi adventure Interstellar, in a supporting role.
In October 2013, Grace joined HBO comedy pilot People In New Jersey with Sarah Silverman, but in January 2014, the pilot was passed on.
Grace co-starred in the comedy film American Ultra (2015), alongside Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart, playing a CIA agent.[22] That same year, he co-starred in Truth, with Robert Redford and Cate Blanchett, and based on the story of CBS's 60 Minutes report that George W. Bush had received preferential treatment to keep him out of the Vietnam War. Grace played Mike Smith, a researcher on the story.[23]
In January 2018, Grace joined the supernatural-thriller Delirium, which centers on a man recently released from a mental institute who inherits a mansion after his parents die. After a series of disturbing events, he comes to believe it is haunted.[24]
In 2019, he played Billy Bauer in the 2nd episode of Black Mirror’s 5th season, titled "Smithereens".
In 2021, he played a bearded cameraman in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) film Spider-Man: No Way Home in an uncredited cameo role (in reference to his role as Eddie Brock in Spider-Man 3), following J. Jonah Jameson and TheDailyBugle.net around while filming Spider-Man and several multiversal villains.
Personal life
Grace started dating actress Ashley Hinshaw in January 2014, and the two became engaged in January 2015. On May 29, 2016, Grace and Hinshaw married near Santa Barbara, California. On August 1, 2017, Hinshaw confirmed that she and Grace were expecting their first child. Their daughter, Mabel Jane Grace, was born in November 2017.
Grace is a supporter of FINCA International, a microfinance organization.
Roles
Filmography
Films
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Traffic | Seth Abrahams | |
| 2001 | Ocean's Eleven | Himself | Uncredited cameo |
| 2002 | Pinocchio | Candlewick (character) (voice) | English dub |
| 2003 | Mona Lisa Smile | Tommy Donegal | |
| 2004 | Win a Date with Tad Hamilton! | Pete Monash | |
| 2004 | P.S. | F. Scott Feinstadt | |
| 2004 | Ocean's Twelve | Himself | Uncredited cameo |
| 2004 | In Good Company | Carter Duryea | |
| 2007 | Spider-Man 3 | Eddie Brock / Venom | |
| 2008 | Personal Effects | Clay (voice) | Uncredited |
| 2010 | Valentine's Day | Jason Morris | |
| 2010 | Death Bed Subtext | Ben | Short film |
| 2010 | Predators | Edwin | |
| 2011 | Take Me Home Tonight | Matt Franklin | Also writer and executive producer |
| 2011 | The Double | Ben Geary | |
| 2012 | The Giant Mechanical Man | Doug | |
| 2013 | The Big Wedding | Jared Griffin | |
| 2014 | Don Peyote | Glavin Culpepper | |
| 2014 | The Calling | Ben Wingate | |
| 2014 | Playing It Cool | Scott | |
| 2014 | Interstellar | Getty | |
| 2015 | American Ultra | Agent Adrian Yates | |
| 2015 | Truth | Mike Smith | |
| 2017 | The Institute | Vincent | |
| 2017 | War Machine | Matt Little | |
| 2017 | Opening Night | Nick | Also producer |
| 2018 | Delirium | Tom | |
| 2018 | BlacKkKlansman | David Duke | |
| 2018 | Under the Silver Lake | Man at Bar | |
| 2019 | Mississippi Requiem | ||
| 2019 | Breakthrough | Pastor Jason Noble | |
| 2021 | Spider-Man: No Way Home | Bearded cameraman | Uncredited |
| TBA | Irresistible | Post-production |
Music Videos
| Year | Song | Role | Artist |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | In The Street | Eric Forman | Cheap Trick |
| 2011 | Don't You Want Me Baby | Himself | Atomic Tom |
Television
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1998–2006 | That '70s Show | Eric Forman | 179 episodes |
| 2002 | What's New, Scooby-Doo? | Guard 1 (voice) | Episode: "Space Ape at the Cape" |
| 2003 | King of the Hill | Chris (voice) | Episode: "Megalo Dale" |
| 2005 | Saturday Night Live | Himself / Host | Episode: "Topher Grace/The Killers" |
| 2005 | Stella | Older Kevin | Episode: "Paper Route" |
| 2005 | Robot Chicken | Eric Forman (voice) | Episode: "Gold Dust Gasoline" |
| 2008 | The Simpsons | Donny (voice) | Episode: "The Debarted" |
| 2011 | Too Big to Fail | Jim Wilkinson | Television film |
| 2012 | Comedy Bang! Bang! | Cameraman | Episode: "Seth Rogen Wears a Plaid Shirt & Brown Pants" |
| 2012 | The Beauty Inside | Alex | 6 episodes |
| 2013 | People in New Jersey | Carl Levin | Unsold pilot |
| 2015 | The Muppets | Himself | Episode: "Pilot" |
| 2015 | Drunk History | Milton Bradley | Episode: "Games" |
| 2016 | TripTank | Leonard (voice) | Episode: "Sick Day" |
| 2017 | Workaholics | Noel | Episode: "Weed the People" |
| 2017 | Get Shorty | Tyler Mathis | 2 episodes |
| 2019 | Love, Death & Robots | Rob | Episode: "Ice Age" |
| 2019 | The Hot Zone | Dr. Peter Jahrling | 6 episodes |
| 2019 | Black Mirror | Billy Bauer | Episode: "Smithereens" |
Theater
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | Lonely, I'm Not | Porter | Second Stage Theatre |
Video Games
| Year | Title | Voice role |
|---|---|---|
| 2007 | Spider-Man 3 | Eddie Brock / Venom |