Chris Pratt

• 1. Introduction

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  Chris Pratt was once homeless in Maui, Hawaii, living out of a van and a tent on the beach. He was working minimal hours, spending his money on gas, food, and fishing supplies. He had no agent, no audition, no plan. Then a restaurant shift at the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company changed everything.

  Today, Pratt's films as a leading actor have grossed over $14.1 billion worldwide. That makes him the fifth-highest-grossing box office film star and the third-highest-grossing male actor of all time. Including voice work and cameos, the total climbs to $15.8 billion. The journey from that Maui beach to the top tier of Hollywood is not a straight line. It runs through a small town in Washington state, a late-night casting call, a grueling physical transformation, and one of the most beloved characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

  How does a kid who dropped out of community college and worked briefly as a daytime stripper become one of the highest-paid actors in the world? And what do critics, fans, and the actor himself make of the public persona that has come with all that success?

• 2. Lake Stevens to Maui

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  Christopher Michael Pratt was born on the 21st of June 1979, in Virginia, Minnesota. His mother, Kathy, worked at a Safeway supermarket; his father, Daniel, cycled through jobs in mining and home remodeling. When Pratt was two or three years old, the family moved to Anchorage, Alaska. Bears, his parents decided, made Alaska too dangerous a place to raise children. What followed was a long period of moving house, roughly twenty homes across the United States as the family chased job opportunities.

  The family eventually settled in Lake Stevens, Washington, a suburb of Seattle, when Pratt was six or seven. He grew up reading comic books, once winning $300 in a bingo tournament and spending it entirely on comics. The walls of his childhood home were covered in comic book-style murals. As a teenager he picked up the guitar, drew inspiration from Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash, and listened to Tupac Shakur and Mos Def.

  At Lake Stevens High School, Pratt finished fifth in a state wrestling tournament and competed in shot put. He told his wrestling coach he was sure he would be famous and make a large amount of money, while admitting he had done nothing to make that happen. He graduated in 1997. Community college lasted half a semester before he dropped out. After a stretch selling discount tickets and a brief stint as a daytime stripper, Pratt ended up in Maui, Hawaii, where he worked minimal hours and lived out of a van and a tent on the beach. He also spent time with the Christian missionary group Jews for Jesus while on the island.

• 3. Discovered at Bubba Gump

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  At nineteen years old, Pratt was waiting tables at the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company in Maui when actress and director Rae Dawn Chong noticed him. Chong was impressed by his charisma and cast him in her directorial debut, a short horror film called Cursed Part 3, released in 2000. He played a character named Devon. Chong later said Pratt arrived on set early and completely prepared, and that his performance blew everyone away. Pratt credits that film with teaching him the fundamentals of acting and says he has no regrets about starting there.

  From that first role, Pratt moved into television. His first regular series role was as Harold Brighton Abbott in the drama Everwood, which ran from 2002 to 2006. He then appeared in the fourth season of The O.C. as an activist named Winchester Cook. A string of supporting film roles followed: an unfaithful best friend in the action thriller Wanted opposite James McAvoy, a fiancé opposite Anne Hathaway in Bride Wars, and a police officer in Jennifer's Body, all released in 2008 and 2009.

  The role that changed everything came in 2009, when Pratt was cast as Andy Dwyer on the NBC comedy Parks and Recreation. The part was originally designed as temporary. His performance impressed the producers enough that they made him a series regular, and he stayed with the show through 2015. Andy Dwyer became the breakthrough that eventually opened the door to Hollywood's largest franchises.

• 4. Physical Transformation as Method

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  For the biographical sports drama Moneyball in 2011, Pratt was initially told he was too heavy for the part of Oakland Athletics catcher Scott Hatteberg. He committed to a strict workout routine and shed 30 pounds within three months, then sent a photo to the casting director and won the role. He then regained the weight for the high school reunion comedy 10 Years that same year, only to lose it again to portray a Navy SEAL in Zero Dark Thirty in 2012.

  The cycle of physical reinvention became a signature of his preparation. For Jurassic World in 2015, he undertook P90X, running, swimming, boxing, and kickboxing, while consuming 4,000 calories daily to build the physical frame required for Owen Grady. Pratt has described using music as a way to get into character, and he pairs that with whatever level of physical change the role demands.

  Critics and observers have noted that these transformations are among the most visible aspects of his craft. The Guardian critic Alex Godfrey wrote that Pratt's mixture of brawn and earthy charm made him increasingly resemble a more contemporary Hollywood star, likening him to Harrison Ford. The physical work, in other words, does not read as mere vanity. It reads as the construction of a particular kind of movie star presence.

• 5. Star-Lord and the MCU

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  In June 2012, casting director Sarah Finn recommended Pratt to director James Gunn for the role of Peter Quill, also known as Star-Lord, in Guardians of the Galaxy. Pratt had initially declined, worried about repeating disappointing audition experiences he associated with roles like Captain Kirk and Avatar. Gunn had been struggling to cast the part and had dismissed the suggestion at first. Finn arranged a meeting, and Gunn became convinced Pratt was the right choice.

  Guardians of the Galaxy opened in 2014 and ranked as the third-highest-grossing film of that year, earning $773.3 million. Critic Bruce Diones of The New Yorker praised Pratt's charisma and his character's love for seventies music, writing that it was so full of goodwill it buoyed the entire film. The role came with a multi-film contract with Marvel Studios. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 earned $869 million on a $200 million budget in 2017. Avengers: Infinity War grossed $2.052 billion in 2018, making it the highest-grossing film of that year.

  Infinity War brought its own complication. Several social media users identified Star-Lord as the character whose decision sabotaged events in the film. Pratt acknowledged the criticism publicly. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, released in 2023, grossed $845.6 million worldwide and became the fourth-highest-grossing film of that year. It was also Pratt's sixth and final appearance as Star-Lord.

• 6. Jurassic World and Beyond

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  Pratt first heard about being cast as Owen Grady in November 2013, after Marvel secured the Guardians deal. He has described Jurassic Park, the 1993 original, as his Star Wars. Jurassic World opened in 2015 and grossed $1.67 billion worldwide, making it the third-highest-grossing film of all time at the point of its release and the second-highest-grossing film of 2015.

  Pratt reprised the role in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom in 2018, directed by J. A. Bayona. Made on a budget of $432 million, it grossed $1.31 billion but received generally negative reviews. Jurassic World Dominion in 2022 crossed just over $1 billion, landing as the third-highest-grossing film of that year.

  Away from those two franchises, Pratt co-starred with Denzel Washington in The Magnificent Seven in 2016 and appeared opposite Jennifer Lawrence in Passengers the same year, a science fiction film that grossed $304 million worldwide. The Tomorrow War in 2021 cast him as a science teacher who travels to the future, and received mixed reviews. In 2025, he starred in The Electric State alongside Millie Bobby Brown, made on a budget of $320 million, making it Netflix's most expensive film of all time; critics panned the result, with some arguing the budget was wasted.

• 7. Voice Work and Indivisible Productions

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  Pratt voiced Emmet Brickowski in The Lego Movie in 2014, a construction worker who must stop a tyrannical businessman from locking the Lego universe into his rigid vision of perfection. The film earned $470.7 million globally. The sequel, The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part, arrived in 2019 with positive but slightly cooler reviews and underperformed at the box office.

  The Super Mario Bros. Movie in 2023 became the highest-grossing film based on a video game of all time, earning over $1.36 billion and landing as the second-highest-grossing film of 2023. Pratt voiced Mario. He voiced the title character in The Garfield Movie in 2024, which overcame poor critical reviews to perform well commercially. He reprised Mario in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie in 2026.

  In February 2020, Pratt established his own production company, Indivisible Productions. Its first project, The Terminal List, which premiered on Amazon Prime Video in July 2022 and starred Pratt as executive producer, made him one of the highest-paid television actors, earning $1.4 million per episode. In May 2021, Parks and Recreation announced a new album tied to his Andy Dwyer character; two singles, The Pit and Two Birds Holding Hands, preceded the release of Mouse Rat: The Awesome Album in August of that year.

• 8. Public Persona and Personal Life

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  Pratt met actress Anna Faris in February 2007 while filming Take Me Home Tonight. They became engaged in late 2008 and married on the 9th of July 2009, in Bali, Indonesia, eloping after a friend's wedding. Their son was born in 2012, nine weeks premature, weighing 3 pounds 12 ounces. Pratt later said the experience had a profound impact on his faith and that he and Faris prayed a great deal during those early weeks. They announced their separation in August 2017; the divorce was finalized on the 31st of October 2018.

  Pratt began dating author Katherine Schwarzenegger in June 2018, introduced by her mother, Maria Shriver. They announced their engagement on the 14th of January 2019, and married on the 8th of June 2019, in Montecito, California. They have three children, born in 2020, 2022, and 2024. In 2023, they acquired the Ellwood Zimmerman House in Brentwood, Los Angeles; the original structure was later demolished to build a larger residence.

  In 2014, People magazine placed him at number two on its list of the Sexiest Men Alive. Variety called him one of the nicest people in the industry in 2017. By 2020, portions of the internet had labeled him the worst of the group of actors collectively known as the Hollywood Chrises, a backlash Pratt linked to a speech at the 2018 MTV Movie and TV Awards in which he said God is real and wants the best for people. In response to criticism of his church, Zoe Church in Los Angeles, he stated he attends a church that opens its doors to absolutely everyone. Director James Gunn publicly defended him in 2022, affirming he was personally familiar with the church Pratt attends. In December 2016, Pratt donated $500,000 to a teen center in his hometown of Lake Stevens, built in memory of his father.