Career
Ehrenreich was discovered at a friend's bat mitzvah reception by Steven Spielberg, who watched a comedy video created by Ehrenreich and a friend, "which began in the present and eventually cut to 20 or 30 years later, with Mr. Ehrenreich, in a kimono, screaming to stop a wedding." Ehrenreich has described the comedic performance he gave in the movie as, "I ran around as a skinny little punk, trying on girls' clothes and eating dirt." He was then contacted by DreamWorks, a studio which Spielberg helped found, and met with its casting director. Spielberg said of Ehrenreich:
[He] was in a bat mitzvah video that my daughter acted with him in for their best friend. They showed me the video and I loved it and I got him an agent. That's sort of how it all began ... I thought he had a lot of promise in comedy ... I didn't know he was going to rogue [into] drama. He was so funny in this video, I thought, "I have found the next really funny comedian." But most of his choices have been in drama and people don't know how really funny he is.
The meeting with Spielberg led to acting roles on television shows such as Supernatural and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.
In 2007, Ehrenreich won the role of Bennie Tetrocini in Francis Ford Coppola's Tetro. Coppola asked Ehrenreich to read a passage from The Catcher in the Rye for his main audition. The film was released in limited release in 2009 and received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised Ehrenreich's performance. In 2011, he played a minor role in Coppola's subsequent film Twixt and appeared alongside Natalie Portman in the Sofia Coppola-directed Miss Dior Cherie commercial.
In 2013, he starred as Ethan Wate in the film adaptation of the novel Beautiful Creatures, and appeared as Whip Taylor in Park Chan-wook's thriller film Stoker. He then played the stepson of Cate Blanchett in the Woody Allen-directed drama film Blue Jasmine. In 2016, Ehrenreich became more widely known for his co-leading role as Hobie Doyle in the Coen brothers film Hail, Caesar!, alongside a cast that included Josh Brolin and George Clooney. Many critics praised Ehrenreich's performance in particular. That same year, Ehrenreich starred in the leading role of Frank Forbes in Warren Beatty's romantic comedy-drama Rules Don't Apply. He then starred in The Yellow Birds with Tye Sheridan, Jack Huston, and Jennifer Aniston, which premiered at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival.
Ehrenreich starred as Han Solo in the Star Wars anthology film Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018), following Solo's early life before the events of the original 1977 Star Wars. He headlined the Brave New World series on NBC, based on the 1932 novel of the same name by Aldous Huxley.
Ehrenreich's recent projects include the thriller Fair Play co-starring Phoebe Dynevor, Cocaine Bear, directed by Elizabeth Banks, Oppenheimer, directed by Christopher Nolan, and played Ezekiel Stane in the Marvel Cinematic Universe miniseries Ironheart.
In 2024, he joined Zach Cregger's horror thriller film Weapons (2025). He also joined Anton Corbijn's Switzerland, alongside Helen Mirren, and The Last Resort with Daisy Ridley.
In 2026, he was cast as Max Garrett in the 2026 Broadway revival of Gina Gionfriddo's play, Becky Shaw. The production opened on April 6, 2026 at the Helen Hayes Theatre and Ehrenreich won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Performance in a Play for his performance, while also being nominated for the Drama League Award for Distinguished Performance.
