Topic: Jon Favreau

Jonathan Kolia "Jon" Favreau (pronounced /ˈfævroʊ/; born October 19, 1966) is an American actor, screenwriter, film director and comedian. He is best known for appearing in films including Rudy, I Love You, Man, Swingers and Couples Retreat, as well as directing such films as Elf, Iron Man, and Iron Man 2. He is also known for playing the role of Pete Becker, Monica Geller's boyfriend during season three of the television sitcom Friends.

Jon Favreau was raised in Flushing, Queens, New York, the son of Madeleine, an elementary school teacher who died of leukemia in 1979, and Charles Favreau, a special education teacher. Favreau's mother was Jewish and his father is a Catholic of Italian and distant French-Canadian ancestry. He graduated from the Bronx High School of Science in 1984 and attended Queens College from 1984 to 1987, before dropping out. He briefly worked for Bear Stearns on Wall Street before returning to Queens College for a semester in early 1988. He dropped out of college for good (a few credits shy of completing his degree), and in the summer of 1988, moved to Chicago to pursue a career in comedy. He performed at several Chicago improvisational theaters, including the ImprovOlympic and the Improv Institute.

While in Chicago, Favreau landed his first film role alongside Sean Astin as the pudgy tutor D-Bob in the classic sleeper hit Rudy (1993). Favreau met Vince Vaughn — who played a small role in this film — during shooting. The next year, he appeared in the college film PCU alongside Jeremy Piven, and also stepped into the world of television in the 1994 episode of Seinfeld titled "The Fire" as Eric the Clown. He then moved to Los Angeles, where he made his breakthrough in 1996 as an actor-screenwriter with the film Swingers, which was Vaughn's breakthrough role as the glib and extremely confident Trent Walker, a perfect foil to Favreau's heartbroken Mike Peters. In 1997, he appeared on the popular TV sitcom Friends, portraying Pete Becker, whom Monica Geller dates for several episodes, and who competes in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).