Greg Kinnear

Born: June 1963
Where: Logansport, Indiana, USA

The wry broadcaster turned actor has shown his flair for deadpan satire with a number of roles including Loser and Auto Focus.

He gained notice for his smug, mock-sincere sarcasm and bemused takes on Talk Soup, the daily compilation of talk show highlights emphasizing the grotesque and bizarre.

The youngest of three sons born to a diplomat, Kinnear grew up in various places around the world, including Beirut, Lebanon and Athens, Greece.

After attending the University of Arizona, he got his start marketing low-budget films before switching gears and stepping in front of the camera.

He hosted the TV shows College Mad House and The Best of the Worst before hitting the big time with Talk Soup.

An apparent successor to David Letterman, Kinnear opted to replace Bob Costas on the late night interview show Later.

Having briefly worked as an actor in the late 80s and early 90s in TV movies, he made his feature film debut as a talk show host in Blankman.

But his first big break came when he was tapped to step into the William Holden role in the 1995 Sydney Pollack-directed remake of Sabrina.

Next came the relative failures Dear God and the romantic comedy A Smile Like Yours in 1997.

The actor bounced back opposite Jack Nicholson as the gay man who befriended his crusty neighbour in the comedy-drama As Good As It Gets.

He followed this with You've Got Mail with Meg Ryan and played Captain Amazing in Mystery Men as well as Loser and Nurse Betty opposite Renee Zellwegger.

Neo-Gothic chiller The Gift was followed by Someone Like You with Ashley Judd and a triumphant portrayal of sexaholic Bob Crane of Hogans Heroes in Paul Shrader's Auto Focus.

In Godsend, Greg worked opposite the legend that is Robert De Niro, although the film itself was critically panned. Recent work includes Richard Linklater's remake of the sport comedy Bad News Bears.