He is 32 years old and has already lived more than half his life from set to television. Jeremy Allen White (Brooklyn, USA) is the fashionable boy in Hollywood who everyone calls up to offer him movies and star in magazine covers. His work on the series The Bear, the second season of which just premiered in Spain on Disney+, could earn him his first Emmy at next year’s gala, not forgetting that he already won his first Golden Globe in January. But before Allen White took to the stage with this magnetic figurine, attracting connections and opportunities, he already had years of professional experience behind him. Experienced as an actor since he was barely a teenager, he won audiences’ affections in the decade bringing Phillip Lip Gallagher to life in ‘Shameless,’ the comedic drama that aired on Showtime from 2011 to 2021.
Now in his thirties, he’s aware of the interest sparked by his role as the tormented, lonely, and perfectionist chef Carmy Berzatto in the aforementioned film The Bear, considered by many to be among the best contemporary novels. “When the show premiered, the phones started ringing,” the interpreter told Esquire magazine in May, acknowledging that his career is going through a period of transition. In most episodes he appears in a simple white short-sleeved t-shirt and an indigo apron revealing the many tattoos on his arms. Enough for the actor to heat up the mood on X (the platform formerly known as Twitter), where he has become a TV crush for thousands of fans. “I’m not on Twitter but everyone on the show is and we have a group. So yes, Ebon [Moss-Bachrach, Richard en la serie]Lion [Boyce, Marcus en el show]Ayo [Edebiri, Sydney en la serie] and everyone else told me. I’m embarrassed, but I understand. I don’t know. The chefs are attractive, I like them, I think they’re the coolest. “There’s something attractive about people who have a talent in every field,” he said in a chat with an interview last summer. “We didn’t expect the series to be so well received. We were in New York last summer and I walked around. It happened within a week. All of a sudden, people were yelling, “Yes, cook” — the two most repeated words in fiction’s kitchen —” the actor himself told Variety.
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Prior to his worldwide success with The Bear, Jeremy Allen White built his career as a long-distance career without stopping to work, learn and constantly be in the spotlight. Raised into a middle-class family in an affluent neighborhood of Brooklyn (he spent a quiet childhood in Carroll Gardens with his little sister Annabelle), his biography is devoid of dark episodes, family tragedies, or the popular tales of overcoming — and many times, teased — by Hollywood publicists. From an early age he knew how to seize the opportunities that presented themselves and align them with his goal: to become a professional actor. His passion for acting and dancing was evident from his early school years and as soon as he was of the right age, he began studying acting at a school in Manhattan.
Kate Miner and Jeremy Allen White in a 2021 image from Shameless. ©Showtime Networks Inc./Courtesy Everett Collection / Cordon Press
At the age of 18 he came to Los Angeles. By that time, he had already taken part in one project or another, including his debut on the big screen. He made the leap to cinema in 2006 with the film Beautiful Ohio, and five years later, already established in the mecca of cinema, he took on the role that would change his life as part of the cast of Shameless. For 11 seasons and 134 episodes, Jeremy Allen was White Lip Gallagher, one of the children of a large dysfunctional family in south Chicago (the city where The Bear takes place) with an alcoholic father (William H. Macy ) and an older sister who became the head of the family (Emmy Rossum). He began the series when he was 20 and didn’t finish until his 30s, an “incredible” experience, as the actor put it, who nonetheless questioned his career after being immersed in the same project for so many years. “There was a time when I didn’t feel like an actor anymore, I felt like I was just here to do this show,” he told Variety in 2022.
The bitter side of fame
As might be expected given the impact of The Bear, projects for The New Yorker are piling up. Three titles are currently awaiting release. On the one hand, the film “Fingernails”, a science fiction drama with romantic undertones, in which he shares the screen with Riz Ahmed. On the other hand, The Iron Claw, a biographical film about the Von Erich brothers, a dynasty of wrestling fighters who found success in the early 1980s before experiencing a series of family tragedies, is expected to hit theaters in December to the so-called “curse of Erich”. In the film, Allen White brings to life Kerry Von Erich, a five-time world champion, alongside the cast of Zac Efron and Lily James.
Left to right: Jeremy Allen White, Lionel Boyce and Ebon Moss-Bachrach in season one of The Bear. ©FX Networks/courtesy Everett Collection/Cordon Press
The physical preparation for the role was not exactly easy. If he attended cooking schools in the months leading up to filming The Bear and spent several weeks with Chef Dave Beran at a Santa Monica restaurant — “I started there as a fly on the wall and then did some prep with them during the day.” And in the end he cooked the food that was served” – for the Von Erich brothers’ film, food also played an important part in the preparation, but in a completely different way. Allen White described in Esquire the hypercaloric diet he had to follow to gain weight and size: “I had to eat all the time. Never stop. In the morning there were waffles and almond cream. For lunch I ate turkey and avocado burgers. It’s really disgusting. You try to consume as much as possible and to be honest it doesn’t feel very good. I also had to exercise, but trying to grow physically like that is not a way of life. His third planned project is the feature film You Can’t Win, based on the Jack Black novel of the same name, which is currently in post-production, according to the IMDB platform.
Jeremy White Allen’s voice and actions are also gaining visibility, which is why his participation in the strike called by actors’ union SAG-AFTRA is so telling. Like many screenwriters and fellow professionals, the interpreter has expressed his support for industry demands and didn’t hesitate to be seen holding a sign at one of the union-convened rallies on the streets of Los Angeles.
Jeremy Allen White at the actors’ union SAG-AFTRA strike on July 20 in Los Angeles.Hollywood To You/Star Max (GC Images)
On the other end of the scale, he experiences the less pleasant side of fame: the exposure of his private life. His presence in the media in recent months has not only been due to his new professional challenges, but also to his divorce from actress Addison Timlin. The couple, who have been friends since they were teenagers when they met on the set of the 2008 film Afterschool, have been together since 2013. In October 2018, they welcomed their first daughter, Ezer Billy. A year later, they walked the aisle in an intimate and simple ceremony in Beverly Hills, and in 2020, the family grew around little Dolores. They discreetly posted on their social media profiles and from time to time revealed the good relationship they had. Even in January, when the actor won the Golden Globe, he remembered his wife in his acceptance speech: “I love you to the core, thank you for everything you do and for everything you’ve done,” he said from the stage.
Fans were stunned by the news of their divorce in May. People magazine claimed it was Timlin who filed the divorce papers, although the reasons remain confidential. There was hope for reconciliation during these months after some pictures of the couple accompanied by their daughters came to light in July. But it all fell apart when Allen White was photographed kissing model Ashley Moore a few weeks later.
Jeremy Allen White and Addison Timlin at the Golden Globes on January 10 in Beverly Hills, California. Matt Winkelmeyer (FilmMagic)
After devoting more than half his life to acting, the interpreter is living his most promising professional moment. He avoids embracing the reassuring feeling that critics’ approval brings, while trying to recognize himself as a good actor. As he put it to actress Jennifer Coolidge, with whom he spoke at the Variety-sponsored Actors on Actors reunion, “It’s disappointing how sometimes I feel like I need a director’s endorsement.” The Bear was and I’m finally feeling like, ‘okay, maybe I belong a little bit.’ But it’s a shame I’ve been an actor for 15 years.