Biography
Jason Biggs gained overnight recognition for his role in the 1999 summer smash
American Pie. As the boy who put the American in the Pie, Biggs earned a place alongside
There's Something About Mary's
Ben Stiller on the screen roster of Most Embarrassing Moments Involving Genitalia and Inanimate Objects. What many people who saw him as an overnight success didn't realize, however, was that he'd actually been acting--on the screen, stage, and television--for most of his young life.
A native of Pompton Plains, New Jersey, where he was born May 12, 1978, Biggs began modeling and acting in commercials when he was a small child. When he was barely an adolescent, the young actor made his Broadway debut opposite
Judd Hirsch in the acclaimed play Conversations With My Father and landed a recurring role on the short-lived sitcom
Drexell's Class around the same time. At the age of fifteen, he joined the cast of the daytime drama
As The World Turns as Pete Wendall. His performance on the show, on which he appeared from 1994 to 1995, earned him a Daytime Emmy nomination. With this honor to his name, Biggs segued into film a short time later, debuting in the 1997
Camp Stories.
In 1999, the unequivocal hit that was
American Pie came along, and Biggs, portraying Jim, one of the more perpetually humiliated members of a group of four friends trying to lose their virginity by high-school graduation, made an undeniably distinct impression on critics and audiences alike. Riding high on his success, he soon entered into a two-picture deal with Miramax and a development project with 20th Century Fox Television, ensuring that his career had certainly gotten off to an auspicious and memorable start.
In the two years following
Pie, Biggs' recently-won popularity was evidenced by his starring roles in a number of films. Included amongst them were Robert Iscove's
Boys and Girls, which cast the actor as a college student, and
Amy Heckerling's
Loser, in which Biggs again set foot on a college campus to play a social misfit in love with an unattainable girl (
Pie co-star
Mena Suvari). Pairing the young star with two comic actors 10 years his senior (
Jack Black and
Steve Zahn),
Saving Silverman followed in early 2001; with it, Biggs completed a triumverate of critical and commercial failures.
Finding himself in need of a comeback at the ripe old age of 23, Biggs seemed poised to do just that later in the year, beginning with his reprisal of the bumbling post-adolescent Jim in
American Pie 2. Taking a step back from leading roles, the actor then poked fun at the movie industry with a cameo in director
Kevin Smith's satire
Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back before playing a supporting part opposite
Christina Ricci in the big-screen adaptation of Elizabeth Wurtzel's memoir,
Prozac Nation. After rounding out the
American Pie trilogy with 2003's
American Wedding, Biggs would once again appear opposite Ricci in the
Woody Allen comedy{
Anything Else (also 2003). Though the film may have performed fairly well with teens at the box office given the names of the young stars involved, an 'R' rating from the MPAA was likely the culprit in relegating the movie to little more than a brief "blip" on the box-office radar.
In 2004, Biggs returned to the screen with a supporting-role in
Jersey Girl, which reteamed him with Smith but was plagued by scathing reviews and the stigma of the "Bennifer" fiasco of 2003. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide