Jonathan Kolia Favreau (born October 19, 1966 in Queens, New York) is an American actor, director and producer.
Like half the famous comedians in America, he is a Second City alum. Often works with Vince Vaughn. He kickstarted the Marvel Cinematic Universe when he directed Iron Man, and plays the role of Harold "Happy" Hogan in it additionally. His collaboration with Disney also extends to the direction of some of their animal-centric remakes ("live-action" or "photorealistic", you decide) and Star Wars, as the creator and showrunner of the franchise's first live-action TV show, The Mandalorian. He is also a "friend of the show" for Binging with Babish, in which he has appeared multiple times (he even gave Andrew "Babish" Rea the carving fork Carl Casper used to twirl the spaghetti in the aglio e olio scene).
Not to be confused with the former speechwriter for Barack Obama who now hosts the popular podcast Pod Save America.
Directing / producing filmography:
- Made (2001)
- Elf (2003)
- Zathura (2005)
- Iron Man (2008)
- Iron Man 2 (2010)
- Cowboys & Aliens (2011)
- Revolution (2013)
- Chef (2014)
- The Jungle Book (2016)
- The Lion King (2019)
- Prehistoric Planet (2022, producer)
- The Mandalorian (2019-present, showrunner)
- The Book of Boba Fett (2021-present)
- The Mandalorian & Grogu (TBA, director)
Acting filmography:
- Rudy (1993) — D-Bob
- PCU (1994) — Gutter
- Swingers (1996; also co-produced) — Mike Peters
- Friends (1997; 6 episodes) — Pete Becker
- Very Bad Things (1998) — Kyle Fisher
- Deep Impact (1998) — Dr. Gus Partenza
- Love & Sex (2000) — Adam Levy
- The Replacements (2000) (2000) — Daniel "Danny" Bateman
- Daredevil (2003) — Franklin "Foggy" Nelson
- Elf (2003) — Mr. Narwhal (voice), Doctor Ben
- My Name Is Earl (2006) — Mr. Patrick
- The Break-Up (2006) — Johnny O
- Open Season (2006) — Reilly (voice)
- Marvel Cinematic Universe — Harold "Happy" Hogan
- Iron Man (2008)
- Iron Man 2 (2010)
- Iron Man 3 (2013)
- Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
- Avengers: Endgame (2019)
- Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019)
- What If...? (2021, four episodes)
- Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)
- Four Christmases (2008) — Denver McVie
- I Love You, Man (2009) — Barry
- G-Force (2009) — Hurley the Guinea Pig (voice)
- Couples Retreat (2009) — Joey
- Star Wars
- Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2010, 2013; 6 episodes) — Pre Vizsla (voice)
- Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018) — Rio Durant (voice)
- The Mandalorian (2019) — Paz Vizsla (voice)
- The Book of Boba Fett (2022, one episode) — Paz Vizla (voice)
- Zookeeper (2011) — Jerome the Bear (voice)
- John Carter (2012) — Thark Bookie (voice)
- People Like Us (2012) — Richards
- Identity Thief (2013) — Harold Cornish
- The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) — Manny Riskin
- Chef (2014) — Carl Casper
- Entourage (2015) — As Himself
- Term Life (2016) — Jimmy Lincoln
- The Jungle Book (2016) — Pygmy Jog (voice)
Tropes associated with Jon Favreau include:
- Author Appeal:
- Favreau is a clear fan of old-style gangster movies like Goodfellas. His recent Disney productions either have heavy criminal underworld/gangster themes and characters like The Mandalorian; while his Disney remakes have their villains' characterizations altered to be more like mob bosses (such as King Louie being rewritten into an Italian mob boss, and Scar meeting Shenzi to offer an alliance is played up as a meeting between crime lords).
- Favreau also has a fascination with father-son relations. Elf and the Iron Man movies feature a protagonist with daddy issues. Likewise both Chef and Mandalorian star a working single father trying to raise a child. It's implied that this theme was inspired by Favreau's upbringing in which he was raised by his father after his mother died from leukemia.
- Creator's Oddball: Prehistoric Planet, a Speculative Documentary about dinosaurs, is quite a departure from the family-friendly comedies and franchise series that Favreau worked on.
- Playing Against Type: In the Star Wars TV shows, Favreau plays a Mandalorian terrorist and his zealous descendant. Both are far cries from Favreau's typically comedic roles.
- Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism: Most films he has directed are far on the idealistic side, especially Elfnote , Zathura and Iron Man. Even The Jungle Book, which is considerably more cynical than the film it's remaking, is ultimately upbeat and with a positive message.
- Typecasting: Favreau ends up playing a lot of plucky comic-relief sidekicks, most notably as Happy in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
