Jonathan Kolia Favreau (born October 19, 1966) is an American actor, filmmaker, screenwriter, and producer. His early film career includes bit parts and supporting roles in Ted Kotcheff’s Folks! (1992), with Tom Selleck, Don Ameche, Anne Jackson, Wendy Crewson, Christine Ebersole, and Michael Murphy; Hoffa (1992), with Jack Nicholson, Danny DeVito (who also directed), Armand Assante, J.T. Walsh, and Robert Prosky; and David Aspaugh’s Rudy (1993), with Sean Astin, Ned Beatty, Jason Miller, Prosky, Lili Taylor, and Charles S. Dutton.
Jonathan Kolia Favreau (born October 19, 1966) is an American actor, filmmaker, screenwriter, and producer. His early film career includes bit parts and supporting roles in Ted Kotcheff’s Folks! (1992), with Tom Selleck, Don Ameche, Anne Jackson, Wendy Crewson, Christine Ebersole, and Michael Murphy; Hoffa (1992), with Jack Nicholson, Danny DeVito (who also directed), Armand Assante, J.T. Walsh, and Robert Prosky; and David Aspaugh’s Rudy (1993), with Sean Astin, Ned Beatty, Jason Miller, Prosky, Lili Taylor, and Charles S. Dutton.
He had a major breakout when he wrote and starred in the indie comedy Swingers (1996), with Vince Vaughn, Ron Livingston, Patrick Van Horn, Alex Désert, and Heather Graham. Other notable films of the late 1990s include George Hickenlooper’s Persons Unknown (1996), with Joe Mantegna, Kelly Lynch, Naomi Watts, Walsh, and Xander Berkeley; Deep Impact (1998) with Robert Duvall, Téa Leoni, Elijah Wood, Vanessa Redgrave, Maximilian Schell, Morgan Freeman, Aleksandr Baluev, Mary McCormack, Blair Underwood, Kurtwood Smith, and James Cromwell; Peter Berg’s Very Bad Things (1998), with Cameron Diaz, Daniel Stern, Piven, Christian Slater, Leland Orser, Kobe Tai, and Jeanne Tripplehorn; and TV movie Rocky Marciano, with Penelope Ann Miller, Judd Hirsch, and George C. Scott.
Films in the 2000s include Love & Sex (2000), with Famke Janssen, Noah Emmerich, Ann Magnuson, Cheri Oteri, and Josh Hopkins; The Replacements (2000), with Keanu Reeves, Gene Hackman, Orlando Jones, Brooke Langton, Rhys Ifans, and Jack Warden; Daredevil (2004), with Ben Affleck, Jennifer Garner, Michael Clarke Duncan, Colin Farrell, Joe Pantoliano, and David Keith; The Big Empty (2003), with Joey Lauren Adams, Bud Cort, Jon Gries, Daryl Hannah, Adam Beach, Gary Farmer, Rachael Leigh Cook, Brent Briscoe, Melora Walters, Kelsey Grammer, and Sean Bean; Nancy Meyers’s Something’s Gotta Give (2003), with Nicholson, Diane Keaton, Reeves, Amanda Peet, and Frances McDormand; and Richard Loncraine’s Wimbledon (2004), with Kirsten Dunst, Paul Bettany, Sam Neill, James McAvoy, Bernard Hill, Eleanor Bron, and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau.
Films in the mid to late 2000s include Peyton Reed’s The Break-Up (2006), with Vaughn
Jennifer Aniston, Adams, Ann-Margret, Judy Davis, Vincent D’Onofrio, Cole Hauser, John Michael Higgins, and Justin Long; a voice role in Open Season (2006), with Martin Lawrence, Ashton Kutcher, Debra Messing, Gary Sinise, Billy Connelly, Jane Krakowski, and Patrick Warburton; Four Christmases (2008), with Vaughn, Reese Witherspoon, Duvall,, Mary Steenburgen, Dwight Yoakam, Tim McGraw, Kristin Chenoweth, Jon Voight, and Sissy Spacek; I Love You, Man (2009), with Paul Rudd, Jason Segel, Rashida Jones, Andy Samberg, J.K. Simmons, Jane Curtin, and Jaime Pressly; a voice role in G-Force (2009), with Zach Galifianakis, Bill Nighy, Will Arnett, and the voices of Sam Rockwell, Tracy Morgan, Penélope Cruz, Nicolas Cage, and Steve Buscemi; and Couples Retreat (2009), with Vaughn, Jason Bateman, Faizon Love, Kristin Davis, Malin Åkerman, Kristen Bell, and Jean Reno.
Films in the 2010s include a voice role in Zookeeper (2011), with Kevin James, Rosario Dawson, Leslie Bibb, Ken Jeong, Donnie Wahlberg, Nat Faxon, Joe Rogan, and the voices of Cher, Nick Nolte, Adam Sandler, Sylvester Stallone, Judd Apatow, Jim Breuer, Love, Richie Minervini, Maya Rudolph, Bas Rutten and Don Rickles; a voice role in John Carter (2012), with Taylor Kitsch, Lynn Collins, Samantha Morton, Mark Strong, Ciarán Hinds, Dominic West, James Purefoy, and Willem Dafoe; People Like Us (2012), with Chris Pine, Elizabeth Banks, Olivia Wilde, Michael Hall D’Addario, and Michelle Pfeiffer; Identify Theft (2013), with Bateman, Melissa McCarthy, Peet, Tip ‘T.I.’ Harris, Genesis Rodriguez, Morris Chestnut, John Cho, Robert Patrick, and Eric Stonestreet; Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), with Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, Margot Robbie, Matthew McConaughey, Kyle Chandler, Rob Reiner, and Jean Dujardin; Term Life (2016), with Vaughn, Hailee Steinfeld, Bill Paxton, Jonathan Banks, Mike Epps, Jordi Molla, Shea Whigham, William Levy, Taraji P. Henson, Annabeth Gish, and Terrence Howard; and a voice role in Ron Howard’s Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018), with Alden Ehrenreich, Woody Harrelson, Emilia Clarke, Donald Glover, Thandiwe Newton, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Joonas Suotamo, and Bettany.
He made his directorial debut on the film Made (2001), with Vaughn, Peter Falk, Sean Combs, Love, and Jannsen. His other directing credits include Elf (2003), with Will Ferrell, James Caan, Zooey Deschanel, Steenburgen, Ed Asner and Bob Newhart; Zathura (2005), with Josh Hutcherson, Jonah Bobo, Dax Shepard, Kristen Stewart, Tim Robbins, and the voice of Frank Oz; Cowboys & Aliens (2011), with Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, Wilde, Rockwell, Adam Beach, Paul Dano, Keith Carradine, Clancy Brown, Walton Goggins, and Wyatt Russell; Chef (2014), with Sofía Vergara, John Leguizamo, Scarlett Johansson, Oliver Platt, Bobby Cannavale, Amy Sedaris, Emjay Anthony, Dustin Hoffman, and Robert Downey Jr.; The Jungle Book (2016), with Neel Sethi, the voice and motion capture performances of Bill Murray, Ben Kingsley, Idris Elba, Lupita Nyong’o, Johansson, Giancarlo Esposito, and Christopher Walken; and The Lion King (2019), with the voices of Donald Glover, Seth Rogen, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Alfre Woodard, Billy Eichner, John Kani, John Oliver, Florence Kasumba, Eric André, Keegan-Michael Key, JD McCrary, Shahadi Wright Joseph, Beyoncé Knowles-Carter, and James Earl Jones.
He has been significantly involved with the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He directed, produced, and appeared as Happy Hogan in the films Iron Man (2008) and Iron Man 2 (2010). He also served as an executive producer or appeared as the character in the films The Avengers (2012), Iron Man 3 (2013), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Avengers: Endgame (2019), Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019), Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021), and Deadpool & Wolverine (2024).
He is also known for his work on the Star Wars franchise with Dave Filoni, creating the Disney+ original series The Mandalorian (2019–2023), with Pedro Pascal, Carl Weathers, Werner Herzog, Omid Abtahi, Esposito, Emily Swallow, Timothy Olyphant, Katee Sackhoff, Mark Hamill, and Sedaris. Alongside Filoni, he serves as an executive producer on all of the show’s spin-off series, including The Book of Boba Fett (2021-2022), with Temuera Morrison, Ming-Na Wen, Jennifer Beals, Sophie Thatcher, and the voice of Matt Berry; Ahsoka (2023-), with Dawson, Natasha Liu Bordizzo, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Ray Stevenson, Ivanna Sakhno, Diana Lee Inosanto, David Tennant, Eman Esfandi, Evan Whitten, Genevieve O’Reilly, Hayden Christensen, Ariana Greenblatt, Lars Mikkelsen, and Anthony Daniels; and Skeleton Crew (2024-2025), with Jude Law, Ravi Cabot-Conyers, Ryan Kiera Armstrong, Kyriana Kratter, Robert Timothy Smith, and Nick Frost. He also directed the Star Wars film The Mandalorian and Grogu (2026), with Pascal, Jeremy Allen White, Jonny Coyne, Steve Blum, Scorsese, and Sigourney Weaver.
Each review will be linked to the title below.
(*seen originally in theaters)
(**seen rereleased in theaters)
- Folks! (1992) – directed by Ted Kotcheff
- Hoffa (1992) – directed by Danny DeVito – uncredited extra
- Rudy (1993) – directed by David Anspaugh
- PCU (1994) – directed by Hart Bochner
- Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle (1994) – directed by Alan Rudolph
- Speechless (1994) – directed by Ron Underwood
- Grandpa’s Funeral (1995) – directed by Patricia Resnick – TV short
- Batman Forever (1995)* – directed by Joel Schumacher
- Notes from Underground (1995) – directed by Gary Walkow
- Swingers (1996) – directed by Doug Liman – also writer, co-producer
- Just Your Luck (1996) – directed by Gary Auerbach
- Person’s Unknown (1996) – directed by George Hickenlooper
- Desert Breeze (1996) – directed by Allan Arkush – TV movie
- Dogtown (1997) – directed by George Hickenlooper
- Deep Impact (1998) – directed by Mimi Leder
- Very Bad Things (1998) – directed by Peter Berg
- Rocky Marciano (1999) – directed by Charles Winkler – TV movie
- Love & Sex (2000) – directed by Valerie Breiman
- The Replacements (2000)* – directed by Howard Deutch
- Made (2001) – also director, writer, co-producer
- The First $20 Million Is Always the Hardest (2002) – directed by Mick Jackson – co-writer only
- Daredevil (2003)* – directed by Mark Steven Johnson
- The Big Empty (2003) – directed by Steve Anderson
- Elf (2003)* – also director
- Something’s Gotta Give (2003)* – directed by Nancy Meyers
- Wimbledon (2004) – directed by Richard Loncraine
- Zathura: A Space Adventure (2005) – director only
- The Break-Up (2006) – directed by Peyton Reed
- Open Season (2006) – directed by Roger Allers, Jill Culton, & Anthony Stacchi
- Iron Man (2008)* – also director, executive producer
- Four Christmases (2008) – directed by Seth Gordon
- I Love You, Man (2009)* – directed by John Hamburg
- G-Force (2009) – directed by Hoyt Yeatman
- Couples Retreat (2009) – directed by Peter Billingsley – also co-writer
- Iron Man 2 (2010) – also director, executive producer
- Zookeeper (2011) – directed by Frank Coraci
- John Carter (2012)* – directed by Andrew Stanton
- The Avengers (2012)* – directed by Joss Whedon – executive producer only
- People Like Us (2012) – directed by Alex Kurtzman
- Identity Theft (2013) – directed by Seth Gordon
- Iron Man 3 (2013)* – directed by Shane Black – also executive producer
- The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) – directed by Martin Scorsese
- Chef (2014)* – also director, writer, producer
- Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)* – directed by Joss Whedon – executive producer only
- Entourage (2015) – directed by Doug Ellin – cameo as himself
- The Jungle Book (2016)* – director, producer, voice
- Term Life (2016) – directed by Peter Billingsley
- Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)* – directed by John Watts
- Avengers: Infinity War (2018)* – directed by Anthony & Joe Russo – executive producer only
- Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)* – directed by Ron Howard
- The Lion King (2019) – director only – also producer
- Avengers: Endgame (2019)* – directed by Anthony & Joe Russo – cameo, executive producer
- Spider-Man: Far from Home (2019)* – directed by John Watts
- Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)* – directed by John Watts
- Deadpool & Wolverine (2024)* – directed by Shawn Levy
- The Mandalorian and Grogu (2026)* – director, co-writer, co-producer
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