Birthdate: Jan 4, 2003
Birthplace: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Jaeden Martell (birthname: Jaeden Wesley Lieberher) is an actor who has made successful from child to adult actor, starting with his feature debut at age 11 in director/writer Theodore Melfi’s comedy-drama, St. Vincent (2014), starring Bill Murray, Naomi Watts, Melissa McCarthy, Chris O’Dowd, and Terrence Howard. Martell was in another movie with Murray (though they didn’t share a scene), Cameron Crowe’s widely derided comedy, Aloha (2015), starring Bradley Cooper, Emma Stone, Rachel McAdams, John Krasinski, Danny McBride, and Alec Baldwin, and losing money for Columbia-Sony and 20th Century Fox with a $26 million box office.
Jaeden Martell managed to be the face of the poster of Jeff Nichols’ fascinating sci-fi movie, Midnight Special (2016), in which he played a crucial supporting role with co-stars Michael Shannon, Joel Edgerton, Kirsten Dunst, Adam Driver, and Sam Shepard, and which premiered at the Berlin film festival before a Warner Bros. release of a disappointing $7 million global return. Jaeden Martell was still being credited as “Jaeden Lieberher” and was again on the poster of director/writer/producer Bob Nelson’s Canadian drama based on Vittorio de Sica’s classic, Bicycle Thieves (1948), The Confirmation (2016), starring Clive Owen, Maria Bello, Robert Forster, Tim Blake Nelson, Patton Oswalt, and Matthew Modine, and was released by Saban Films.
Martell (credited under the last name of Lieberher) again co-starred and was the face on the poster of the Colin Trevorrow-directed drama, The Book of Henry (2017), co-starring Naomi Watts, Jacob Tremblay, Sarah Silverman, Lee Pace, Maddie Ziegler, and Dean Norris, but released to poor box office ($4.6 million return) by Focus Features. Martell was cast in the major role of Bill in the Andy Muschietti-directed adaptation of Stephen King’s horror saga, It (2017), with Bill Skarsgård, Jeremy Ray, Sophia Lillis, Finn Wolfhard, Wyatt Oleff, Chosen Jacobs, Jack Dylan Grazer, Nicholas Hamilton, and Jackson Robert Scott; and then Martell returned as Bill in director Muschietti’s sequel, It Chapter Two (2019), with both movies grossing a combined blockbuster total of $1.75 billion worldwide for Warner Bros.
Jaeden Martell took his first feature credit under this name as a co-star in co-writers and co-directors Veronika Franz’s and Severin Fiala’s stunning horror movie, The Lodge (2019), with the impressive ensemble of Riley Keough, Lia McHugh, Alicia Silverstone, and Richard Armitage, and which premiered at the Sundance film festival before a Neon release with a $3.2 million return. Martell played support opposite Keean Johnson, Alex Neustaedter, Daniel Zolghadri, Kristine Froseth, Shea Whigham, and James Paxton in director/writer Kevin McMullin’s drama, Low Tide (2019), released by A24 after premiering at the Tribeca film festival.
Martell starred as a boy with hypertrichosis (a condition with abnormal bodily hair growth) in The True Adventures of Wolfboy (2019), with Chris Messina, Eve Hewson, Chloë Sevigny, and John Turturro under Martin Krejčí’s direction, and which premiered at the Karlovy Vary film festival before release by Vertical Entertainment. Martell joined the starry ensemble in Rian Johnson’s hit whodunit, Knives Out (2019), starring Daniel Craig, Chris Evans, Ana de Armas, Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Shannon, Don Johnson, Toni Collette, LaKeith Stanfield, and Christopher Plummer, and grossing $312 million for Lionsgate.
Jaeden Martell co-starred opposite Nicolas Cage and Maxwell Jenkins under Ben Brewer’s direction in the dystopian horror movie, Arcadian (2024), which premiered at the South by Southwest Film Festival before a release by RLJE Films. Martell joined former SNL cast member-turned-filmmaker Kyle Mooney as co-star (with Julian Dennison) of the disaster comedy, Y2K (2024), featuring Rachel Zegler, Eduardo Franco, Fred Durst, Mooney, The Kid Laroi, Alicia Silverstone, and Tim Heidecker, and premiering at the South by Southwest film festival before domestic release by A24.
Martell turned to a key role in the school shooting drama, Tunnels (date to be announced), directed by John Krokidas and co-starring Patrick Wilson, Susan Sarandon, Silverstone, and Anna Faris. Martell co-starred with Debi Mazar, Luna Blaise, and Keith William Richards in director/writer Kevin Lombardo’s New York City drama, Dirty Finger Nails (date to be announced).
Jaeden Martell was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and raised in South Philadelphia and Los Angeles. His parents are Wes Lieberher (executive chef) and Angela Martell, whose mother is Korean. Martell’s parents divorced, and he was raised by his mother, Angela. Martell has three half-siblings from his father, Wes. Martell’s height is 5’ 7”. Martell’s estimated net worth is $1 million.
ADD: Winner, Best Cast, The BAM Awards (2019); Winner, Best On-Screen Team, MTV Movie + TV Awards (2018).
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What’s in a Name?: Jaeden Martell was credited under his birthname Jaeden Lieberher until 2019, when he changed his credit to Jaeden Martell, adopting his mother’s name.