He was nominated for a Golden Globe and won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture. Night Shyamalan's Lady in the Water, a supernatural thriller, followed by the animated film The Ant Bully, and Neil Burger's drama The Illusionist co-starring Edward Norton.Giamatti had his first major role in an action movie in the 2007 film Shoot 'Em Up, while also starring in The Nanny Diaries and Fred Claus.He portrayed manager Jerry Heller in the biographical drama Straight Outta Compton, released in August 2015.In 2016, Giamatti began appearing in commercials for Prism TV, the IPTV service owned by Century Link; the spots are the first-ever on-camera TV commercial appearances for Giamatti.Giamatti was first educated at The Foote School and later graduated from Choate Rosemary Hall in 1985. He was active in the undergraduate theater scene, working alongside fellow actors and Yale students Ron Livingston and Edward Norton.He graduated in 1989 with a bachelor's degree in English, and went on to earn a Master of Fine Arts degree from the Yale School of Drama, where he studied with Earle R. He performed in numerous theatrical productions, including Broadway and a stint from 1989 to 1992 with Seattle's Annex Theater, In 1997, Giamatti landed in his first high-profile role as Kenny "Pig Vomit" Rushton in the film adaptation of Howard Stern's Private Parts.In the hit musical she was portrayed as Liesl, singing the duet Sixteen Going on Seventeen with Rolf.While liking the film version, she felt her father came over as too strict.
Following the commercial success of Sideways, Giamatti appeared in Cinderella Man, for which he earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.His mother, Toni Marilyn Giamatti (née Smith), was a homemaker and English teacher who taught at Hopkins School and had also previously acted.His brother, Marcus, is also an actor, and his sister, Elena, is a jewelry designer.He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for the film Cinderella Man and is also known for his roles in the films Thunderpants, Private Parts, Sideways, American Splendor, The Illusionist, Cold Souls, Barney's Version, Big Fat Liar, Love & Mercy, Straight Outta Compton, San Andreas, and Win Win, as well as the series Downton Abbey and the miniseries John Adams.He has won two Golden Globe Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, and four Screen Actors Guild Awards.