Biography
Date of Birth
26 December 1991, New York City, New York, USA
Height
5' 10" (1.78 m)
Mini Biography
Dylan O'Brien was born in New York City, to Lisa Rhodes, a former actress who also ran an acting school, and Patrick B. O'Brien, a camera operator. His father is of Irish descent and his mother is of English, Spanish, and Italian ancestry. Dylan grew up in Springfield Township, Union County, New Jersey, before moving with his family to Hermosa Beach, California when he was 12 years old. Before getting bit by the acting bug, Dylan planned to attend film school and become a cinematographer, just like his father. But once he landed the role of Scott's (Tyler Posey) goofy sidekick Stiles on Teen Wolf (2011), he decided to put off school (he was initially under consideration for the role of Scott, but he was more interested in playing Stiles).
Dylan has developed an extensive YouTube following for a series of comic online shorts which he directed, produced and starred in. He made his film debut as one of the stars of the entirely improvised independent feature film High Road (2011), directed by Upright Citizens Brigade. O'Brien's first lead role in a film was playing Dave in the comedy The First Time (2012), opposite Britt Robertson and directed by Jonathan Kasdan. He subsequently had a supporting role, playing tech expert Stuart, in the Vince Vaughn/Owen Wilson comedy The Internship (2013), and headlined the fantasy adventure film The Maze Runner (2014), also starring Will Poulter and Kaya Scodelario, as well as its sequel, Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials (2015) and the final movie, The Death Cure (2018). He landed the role of Stu in the first episode of Weird City (2019) and also got the role of Sam Taylor in the first episode of Amazing stories (2020). He made two other movies in the meantime, Monster Problems and The Education of Fredrick Fitzell (unreleased).
Trivia
He is a New York Mets fan.
Played drums in the band called "Slow Kids At Play".
Dylan's father is of Irish ancestry. Dylan's mother is of Italian, Spanish, and English descent.
His father is a camera operator and his mother was a stage actress when she was younger.
He first got noticed in his senior year of high school by a director who saw the YouTube videos he did at the time. After the experience of filming a web series with her, he decided to pursue a career in acting while taking classes at community college. He eventually left college after a few months when he scored the role of Stiles on MTV's Teen Wolf after four auditions.
He has one older sister named Julia; they are 16 months apart.
Was reported to be considered for Peter Parker/Spider-Man in Captain America: Civil War (2016) and Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), among others, before the role went to Tom Holland. On March 1, 2015, a source on Reddit stated that Dylan had been cast in the role, a story that was repeated by most prominent film news sites. In both the 2010 and 2015 casting cycles for Spider-Man, no actor reported by film websites as being all-but-confirmed for the role has ever ended up actually cast as Spider-Man. The other actors erroneously reported to have been cast are Logan Lerman (in April 2010), Jamie Bell (in June 2010), Josh Hutcherson (on June 30, 2010, one day before the official casting of Andrew Garfield), and Asa Butterfield (in May 2015).
Was seriously injured during filming a scene for Maze Runner: The Death Cure (2018). Filming for the film was immediately halted after O'Brien was hospitalized and the release date was pushed back, from February 17, 2017 to, ultimately, January 26, 2018. [March 2016]
Trademarks:
Goofy personality
Quotes
I feel like I'm good with girls. I understand them and am good at loving them. I've always felt like that's been natural for me.
I don't really give much thought to the roles that I'd ideally love to play.
I didn't have that many friends my first few years of high school. It was very cliquey and I'm super shy, so it was hard to make friends.
Growing up, I was in love with Jennifer Aniston from 'Friends.'
Part of growing up is realizing you learn to love so many people. It's about forming those relationships and finding what will last forever.
The thing I like a lot about acting is I'll never learn enough. I'll never know it inside and out.
The perfect date is the one where anything and everything goes wrong, but at the end of it, all you want is to see them again.
In high school, girls started wearing high-waisted pants with their shirts tucked into them. I don't get what that's about.
I'm never offered any sort of roles. I need to audition in a typically lengthy process to receive roles.
I'm a big root beer guy.
I'd like to get into some sort of workout regimen so I can properly be healthy and exercise like a normal human being. I seem to not do that... ever.
I never have an opinion about clothes and know nothing about fashion.
I love baseball - 'Moneyball' was my favorite book when I was 13.
I just want to work with good filmmakers and do good projects that mean something to me and play interesting characters. That's really it.
I just happened to step into acting. And now I can't imagine myself doing anything else.
With TV, you just have to finish the days and get the episodes out. And it's always going to be an impossible schedule. That's the funny thing with TV that not a lot of people realize.
My heroes are guys like Tom Hanks, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Matt Damon. These are amazing actors with amazing careers that every actor should aspire to. I'm not saying I'm going to get anywhere close. It's not going to be an easy feat. I'm just in awe of their careers.
I'm always a little innately shy when I first talk to a girl, and I think I always will be! But I think that's a good thing. You don't want to lose that.
I was in school, but I wasn't into school. I wasn't doing what I wanted to be doing in school, which was film studies. That was what I intended on doing, but I didn't go away to a university because I wanted to stay in L.A. and audition while I took classes, so I elected to go to a community college and just take G.E. courses. It was terrible.
I moved to California when I was twelve and I got a video camera and made little movies because I didn't have any friends yet. I would force my sister to make these movies with me - which became my YouTube channel.
I just really like fun, cool, interesting, quirky girls. And sometimes you find that in 6'2 model bodies and sometimes they're short and brunette. All shapes and sizes - it's really about the personality. That sounds cliché, but it's so freaking true!
You don't disrupt genius at work.
Yeah, I've only been acting since I was 18 out of high school.
When a chick has a sense of humor, there's nothing more attractive.
