Topic: Jason Bateman

Jason Kent Bateman (born January 14, 1969) is an American television and film actor. After appearing in several 1980s and 1990s sitcoms including Silver Spoons, It's Your Move, and The Hogan Family, Bateman came to prominence in the early 2000s for playing Michael Bluth on Arrested Development, for which he won a TV Land, a Golden Globe, and two Satellite Awards. He has since established himself in Hollywood by appearing in several films including The Kingdom, Juno, Hancock, Up in the Air, Paul, and Horrible Bosses.

Bateman was born in Rye, New York, the son of Victoria Elizabeth, a former flight attendant for Pan Am, and Kent Bruce Bateman, an actor, film and television writer/director, and founder of a repertory stage in Hollywood. His mother was British, born in Shrewsbury. His older sister is actress Justine Bateman, of Family Ties fame. Bateman also has three half-brothers. His family moved to Salt Lake City, Utah, when he was four, and later to California.

Bateman began his television career on "Little House On The Prairie". He appeared in the Knight Rider third-season episode "Lost Knight" in 1984. He earned the status of teen idol in the mid-1980s in shows such as Silver Spoons, It's Your Move, and most notably Valerie (later renamed Valerie's Family, and then The Hogans, and then The Hogan Family after Valerie Harper left the series), and became the Directors Guild of America's youngest-ever director when he helmed three episodes of The Hogan Family at the age of eighteen. After the series ended its run, he gained international recognition in the motion picture Teen Wolf Too, which, despite his casting in the title role, was a box office failure. In 1994, he played opposite legendary actors Katharine Hepburn and Anthony Quinn in the television film This Can't be Love. It turned out to be Katharine Hepburn's last starring role in a movie. During this period, he had major roles on four series—Simon, Chicago Sons, George & Leo, and Some of My Best Friends—none of which lasted longer than one season. He also directed an episode of Two of a Kind in 1998. In 2002, he played the frisky sibling of Thomas Jane's character in the feature film The Sweetest Thing.