Keanu Charles Reeves is a Canadian actor and musician. Born in Beirut and raised in Toronto, he made his acting debut in the Canadian television series Hangin In (1984), before making his feature film debut in Youngblood (1986). He had his breakthrough role in the science fiction comedy Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989), and he reprised his role in its sequels. He gained praise for playing a hustler in the independent drama My Own Private Idaho (1991) and established himself as an action hero with leading roles in Point Break (1991) and Speed (1994).

Following several box office failures, Reeves's performance in the horror film The Devil's Advocate (1997) was well received. Greater stardom came for playing Neo in the science fiction series The Matrix, beginning in 1999. He played John Constantine in Constantine (2005) and starred in the romantic drama The Lake House (2006), the science fiction thriller The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008), and the crime thriller Street Kings (2008). Following another commercially down period, Reeves made a successful comeback by playing the titular assassin in the John Wick film series, beginning in 2014. Time named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2022.

In addition to acting, Reeves has directed the film Man of Tai Chi (2013). He plays bass guitar for the band Dogstar and pursued other endeavours such as writing and philanthropy.

Early life

Reeves was born in Beirut, Lebanon. He is the son of geologist Samuel Nowlin Reeves, Jr. and costume designer/performer Patricia Bond. His father is an American of Hawaiian and Chinese ancestry, while Reeves' mother is English. When Reeves' mother first met his father, he was working in Beirut.

It is claimed that Reeves' father acquired his GED while serving time for distributing heroin at the Hilo International Airport while working as an unskilled laborer in Hawaii. Kim, Reeves' biological sister, received a leukemia diagnosis in the early 1990s. He also has a half-sister named Karina Miller through his mother and a second half-sister named Emma Rose Reeves through his father. Reeves had a turbulent upbringing, constantly traveling to different countries and sharing homes with different stepfathers. In 1966, his parents were divorced. Her mother married four times after her first divorce with Keanu's father. His grandparents searched for Reeves and his sisters.

Reeves was raised primarily in Toronto. In five years, he frequented four separate high schools, including the Etobicoke School of the Arts, through which he successfully graduated. Reeves says he was banned "because I was greasy and running about a lot. I was just a little boisterous and frequently spoke out of turn. I wasn't always the best-running machine at the school. I believe I was just getting in their way.

Birth, Age & Relation

56-year-old Canadian actor Keanu Reeves was born on 2 September 1964 in Beirut, Lebanon. Keanu Reeves's father's name was Patrick and he was a costume designer by profession and Keanu Reeves's mother's name was Samuel Reeves. Keanu Reeves was 3 years old when his father left his mother and his family.

In addition, Keanu Reeves has not yet tied the knot in terms of relationships. However, he has had live-in relationships with several actresses. Alexander Grant and Jennifer Syme are included. Speaking of Keanu Reeves's relationship with Jennifer Syme, the two had been together for a number of years and were planning to have a daughter together, but for a variety of circumstances, their daughter only lived a short time after being born.

Therefore, there was a break in their relationship, and Keanu Reeves and Jennifer split up. Then, in 2001, Jennifer was killed in an car accident. However, if we talk about Keanu Reeves and Alexander Grant, they have been dating since 2018 and are still together.

Struggle in Early Life & Education

In 1966, Keanu Reeves' parents separated. After that, his mother relocated the entire family to New York, where she later wed renowned Hollywood director Paul Arnon in 1970. However, this union did not survive long, and both parties obtained divorce in 1971. Keanu Reeves nevertheless profited enormously from this, and at the age of nine, he was given the opportunity to work on the stage show "Damn Yankees." Arnon, who lived close by, suggested hiring Keanu Reeves for a position at the Hedgeroga Theatre. In addition, let us mention that Keanu Reeves' mother was married four times.

Because their grandmother was Chinese, Keanu Reeves and his sisters were exposed to many aspects of Chinese art and culture throughout their formative years in Yorquilla, Toronto. Keanu Reeves attended a variety of institutions, including Toronto's renowned Etobicoke School of the Arts. Keanu Reeves had to repeatedly excel in school since he struggled with academics as a youngster, which was the cause of his frequent school switching.

Keanu Reeves then finished his schooling at De La Salle College, a Catholic institution in Toronto. While there, he excelled at ice hockey and had the desire to play professionally for the Olympic team. But he decided to become an actor when he was 15 years old. After that, he attended the Avondale Secondary Alternative School in Toronto, where he also taught acting, for grades 9 through 12.

Career and Movies

Reverse Edge, a 1986 movie in which Keanu Reeves appeared, was followed by Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, a 1989 movie. The Hollywood film that the audience as a whole enjoyed. Keanu Reeves also played it in the 1989 Hollywood movie Parenthood, which received rave reviews from all audiences. After this, the crowd appreciated Keanu Reeves' performance in the 1991 movie Point Break.

Keanu Reeves' lead performance in the critically acclaimed Hollywood picture Dracula from 1992 came next. Keanu Reeves's lead performance in the critically acclaimed Hollywood picture Speed from 1994 came next. Keanu Reeves followed this in the 1995 Hollywood picture Johnny Nimonic. He also appeared in the Hollywood movie A Walk in the Clouds in 1995. Keanu Reeves then had an appearance in the 1997 movie The Devil's Advocate.

For many years, people admired Keanu Reeves' performance. The Matrix, a 1999 Hollywood movie, featured Keanu Reeves in one of his best performances after that. The audience watched the movie when it first came out in theatres, and they gave it rave reviews. Then, in 2000, Keanu Reeves appeared in the Hollywood movie The Replacements. Along with this, the audience complimented his outstanding performance in the movie The Watcher in 2000.

Following this, Keanu Reeves starred in the Hollywood picture Sweet November from 2001, which likewise received positive reviews from the audience. The audience complimented Keanu Reeves' appearance in the 2003 movie Something's Gotta Give Hollywood, which came after this. In 2003, he also had a role in the Hollywood film The Matrix Reloaded, and he had a part in The Matrix Revolutions, which were successful and famous movies of his life. Keanu Reeves played the role after that in the Hollywood movie Constantine in 2005.

Following Keanu Reeves' performance in the 2006 film The Lake House Hollywood, the audience gave this Hollywood movie great marks for Keanu Reeves' performance. Along with this, he also made an appearance in the 2006 film A Scanner Darkly Hollywood. Then, in 2008, Keanu Reeves was featured in Dade and Earth Stood Still Hollywood.

2014–present: Resurgence with John Wick

After this series of commercial failures, Reeves' career rebounded in 2014. He played the titular role in the action thriller John Wick, directed by Chad Stahelski. In the first instalment of the John Wick franchise, Reeves plays a retired hitman seeking vengeance. He worked closely with the screenwriter to develop the story; "We all agreed on the potential of the project. I love the role, but you want the whole story, the whole ensemble to come to life", Reeves said. Filmed on location in the New York City area, the film was eventually released on October 24 in the United States. The Hollywood Reporter was impressed by the director's "confident, muscular action debut", and Reeves' "effortless" performance, which marked his return to the action genre. Jeannette Catsoulis of The New York Times praised Reeves' fight scenes and wrote he is "always more comfortable in roles that demand cool over hot, attitude over emotion". John Wick proved to be a box office success, grossing $86 million worldwide. Next, Reeves starred in a smaller-scale horror feature, Knock Knock (2015), a remake of the 1977 film Death Game. Described as "over-the-top destruction" by the Toronto Star, Reeves plays a father, home alone, when two young women show up and start a game of cat and mouse. His other releases in 2015 were the documentaries Deep Web, about crime on the dark web, and Mifune: The Last Samurai, about the life of a Japanese actor (Toshiro Mifune) famous for playing samurai characters. He narrated both films.

Reeves appeared in five film releases in 2016. The first was Exposed, a crime thriller about a detective who investigates his partner's death and discovers police corruption along the way. The film received negative reviews for its confused plot, and Reeves was criticized for displaying limited facial expressions. His next release, the comedy Keanu, was better received. In it he voiced the eponymous kitten. Reeves then had a minor role in The Neon Demon, a psychological horror directed by Nicolas Winding Refn. He played Hank, a lustful motel owner who appears in Jesse's (played by Elle Fanning) nightmare. In his fourth release, he played a charismatic leader of a settlement in The Bad Batch. His final release of the year was The Whole Truth, featuring Gabriel Basso, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Renée Zellweger, and Jim Belushi. He played Richard, a defence attorney. Noel Murray of The A.V. Club described it as "moderately clever, reasonably entertaining courtroom drama", with a skilled cast but overall a "mundane" film. Reeves also appeared in Swedish Dicks, a two-season web television series.

In 2017, Reeves agreed to reprise his role for a sequel in the John Wick franchise, John Wick: Chapter 2. The story carries on from the first film and follows John Wick as he goes on the run when a bounty is placed on him. The film was a critical and commercial success, grossing $171.5 million worldwide, more than its predecessor. Chris Hewitt of Empire magazine praised Reeves' performance, which complemented his previous action roles (Point Break and Speed). However, Justin Chang of the Los Angeles Times described the picture as "a down-and-dirty B-picture with a lustrous A-picture soul". Besides to this large-scale feature, Reeves starred in a drama, To the Bone, in which he plays a doctor helping a young woman with anorexia. It premiered at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival, followed by distribution on Netflix in July. Early reviews were positive, with praise for its non-glamorized portrayal of anorexia, although the New Statesman magazine thought it was irresponsible. That year, Reeves also made cameo appearances in the films A Happening of Monumental Proportions and SPF-18.

Reeves reunited with Winona Ryder in the 2018 comedy Destination Wedding, about wedding guests who develop a mutual affection for each other. They had worked together previously in Bram Stoker's Dracula, A Scanner Darkly and The Private Lives of Pippa Lee. Reeves also co-produced and starred in two thrillers. Siberia, in which he plays a diamond trader who travels to Siberia to search for his Russian partner, and Replicas, which tells the story of a neuroscientist who violates laws and bioethics to bring his family back to life after they die in a car crash. Siberia was critically panned; reviewers thought the plot was nonsensical and Reeves had little chemistry with co-star Ana Ularu. Replicas did not fare well with critics either; The A.V. Club praised Reeves' performance, but gave the film a grade D−, adding it is "garbage". It was also a box office failure, earning $9.3 million from a budget of $30 million.

Returning to the John Wick franchise, Reeves starred in John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum (2019), the third feature in the series directed by Stahelski. The film takes place immediately after the events of John Wick: Chapter 2 and features new cast members including Halle Berry. The film was another box office hit, grossing $171 million in the United States and more than $155 million internationally. The Globe and Mail's reviewer gave the film three out of four stars, praising the fight scenes, but felt there was "aesthetic overindulgence" with the cinematography. The Guardian's Cath Clarke questioned Reeves' acting; she wrote that "he keeps his face statue-still [...] three movies in, franchise bloat is beginning to set in". Reeves was nominated for Favorite Male Movie Star of 2019 in the People's Choice Awards, and the film itself was nominated for Best Contemporary Film in the Art Directors Guild Awards. Reeves then voiced Duke Caboom in 2019's Toy Story 4, the fourth instalment of Pixar's Toy Story franchise. In that same year on April 27 and 28, a film festival was held in his honour, called KeanuCon, hosted in Glasgow, Scotland. Over two days, nine of his films were screened for guests.

As early as 2008, Reeves and Alex Winter had shown enthusiasm for a third Bill & Ted film, but the project went into development limbo. Finally in 2020, Bill & Ted Face the Music, the third film in the franchise was released. The critic from Salon magazine was disappointed in Reeves' performance, but praised the film for its message that "music has the power to unite the world". Leah Greenblatt of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a grade B, and complimented the onscreen chemistry between Reeves and Winter. He also appeared in The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run as a tumbleweed named Sage. Reeves appears as Johnny Silverhand in the video game Cyberpunk 2077. In December 2021, Reeves returned to the screen for the fourth film in The Matrix franchise: The Matrix Resurrections. Carrie-Anne Moss also reprised her role as Trinity. The Matrix Resurrections was a box office disappointment; one critic praised Reeves' and Moss' performances, but thought the film was "no game-changer".

Upcoming projects

In 2019, Reeves travelled to São Paulo to produce a Netflix series, Conquest. Details are being kept secret. A comic book series, BRZRKR, co-written by Reeves was published in March 2021. He is expected to star in a film adaptation of it. A fifth sequel to John Wick was planned, but Stahelski said he would like to give the franchise a "rest" for the time being. Reeves will reprise his role as Johnny Silverhand in the Cyberpunk 2077 expansion, Phantom Liberty.

Personal life

In 1998, Reeves met director David Lynch's assistant Jennifer Syme at a party thrown for his band Dogstar, and they started dating. On December 24, 1999, Syme gave birth eight months into her pregnancy to the couple's child, who was stillborn. The couple broke up several weeks afterward, but later reconciled. On April 2, 2001, Syme was killed when her vehicle collided with three parked cars on Cahuenga Boulevard in Los Angeles. Syme was impaired, and also not belted in. Reeves told investigators that they were back together, and had brunch together in San Francisco the day before the accident. Reeves acted as a pallbearer for Syme, who was buried next to their daughter. He was scheduled to film the sequels to The Matrix the following spring, but sought "peace and time", according to friend Bret Domrose of Dogstar.

Reeves has also been romantically linked to longtime friend and filmmaker Brenda Davis, whose child he is godfather to, and model-actress China Chow. In 2009, Reeves met Alexandra Grant at a dinner party; they went on to collaborate on two books together. They went public with their relationship in November 2019.

Reeves is discreet about his spiritual beliefs, saying that it is something "personal and private". When asked if he was a spiritual person, he said that he believes "in God, faith, inner faith, the self, passion, and things", and that he is "very spiritual" and "supremely bountiful". Although he does not formally practice Buddhism, the religion has left a strong impression on him, especially after filming Little Buddha. He said, "Most of the things I've come away with from Buddhism have been human—understanding feelings, impermanence, and trying to understand other people and where they're coming from."

When asked on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in 2019 about his views on what happens after death, Reeves replied, "I know that the ones who love us will miss us".

In 2023, the lipopeptide Keanumycin, a substance deadly to fungi, was named in honor of Reeves.

Business and philanthropy

Reeves supports several charities and causes. In response to his sister's battle with leukemia, he founded a private cancer foundation, which aids children's hospitals and provides cancer research. In June 2020, he volunteered for Camp Rainbow Gold, an Idaho children's cancer charity. Reeves has said, "Money is the last thing I think about. I could live on what I have already made for the next few centuries". It was rumoured that Reeves gave away a substantial portion, estimated to be $35–$125 million, of his earnings from The Matrix to the special effects and makeup crews. However, this has been significantly embellished; Reeves negotiated a smaller deal, relinquishing his contractual right to a percentage of the sequels' profits in exchange for a more extensive special effects budget.

After filming John Wick: Chapter 4, Reeves, Chad Stahelski and Brazilian jiu-jitsu instructor Dave Camarillo, signed an exclusive training uniform that was put up for auction in March 2023 to raise money for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

Reeves co-founded a production company, Company Films, with friend Stephen Hamel. In 2011, Reeves, an avid motorcyclist, co-founded Arch Motorcycle Company, which builds and sells custom motorcycles, with Gard Hollinger. In 2017, Reeves, Jessica Fleischmann, and Alexandra Grant founded book publisher, X Artists' Books (also known as XAB). He has written two books: Ode to Happiness and Shadows, both of which are collaborations with Grant; he provided the text to her photographs and art.

Censorship

In 2022, Reeves's recitation of the Beat poem "Pull My Daisy" for a virtual benefit concert for Tibet House US, a nonprofit organization affiliated with the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, angered Chinese nationalists. Reeves's films have been banned from streaming platforms in China such as iQiyi, Tencent Video and Youku.

In the media

In a 2005 article for Time magazine, Lev Grossman called Reeves "Hollywood's ultimate introvert". He has been described as a workaholic, charming and "excruciatingly shy". During the production of Constantine, director Francis Lawrence commented on his personality, calling him "hardworking" and "generous". His co-star Shia LaBeouf said, "I've worked with him for a year and a couple of months, but I don't really know him that much". Erwin Stoff of 3 Arts Entertainment has served as Reeves's agent and manager since he was 16, and produced many of his films. Stoff said Reeves "is a really private person" and keeps his distance from other people.

In 2010, an image of Reeves became an internet meme after photographs of him were published, sitting on a park bench with a sad facial expression. The images were posted on the 4chan discussion board and were soon distributed via several blogs and media outlets, leading to the "Sad Keanu" meme being spread on the internet. An unofficial holiday was created when a Facebook fan page declared June 15 as "Cheer-up Keanu Day". He would later downplay the photo, saying, "Man, I was eating a sandwich. I was thinking—I had some stuff going on. I was hungry."

Reeves's casual persona and ability to establish rapport have been observed by the public, leading him to be dubbed the "Internet's boyfriend". In 2019, Vox cited Reeves's unorthodox filmography and ability to appeal to nerd culture as the primary reasons for his internet popularity. While filming Bill & Ted Face the Music in July 2019, Reeves and other cast members came across a house with a banner reading "You're Breathtaking" and "Mini Keanu", two memes that had come out of Reeves's appearance at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2019 for the game Cyberpunk 2077. Reeves took time to sign the banner, and talk to the family.

Reeves appeared on Forbes' annual Celebrity 100 list in 2001 and 2002, at number 36 and 49, respectively. In 2005, Reeves received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions to the motion picture industry. In 2016, The Hollywood Reporter calculated that Reeves had earned $250 million for The Matrix franchise, making him one of the highest-paid actors. In 2020, The New York Times ranked him at number four on its list of the 25 Greatest Actors of the 21st Century.

Filmography and awards

Prolific in film since 1985, Reeves's most acclaimed and highest-grossing films, according to the review aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes, include: River's Edge (1987), Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989), My Own Private Idaho (1991), Much Ado About Nothing (1993), Speed (1994), The Matrix (1999), John Wick (2014), John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017), John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum (2019), and Toy Story 4 (2019). Reeves has won four MTV Movie Awards, and received two Best Actor nominations at the Saturn Awards. He was nominated twice for a People's Choice Award: Favorite Male Movie Star and Favorite Action Movie Star, for his performance in John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum (2019).

In September 2021, Tae Kwon Do Life Magazine deemed Reeves the "#1 Martial Arts movie star in the world" based upon his multiple films in the genre, their popularity, and sheer box office gross.