Emory Cohen Biography

Emory Cohen

Date of Birth: March 13, 1990

Born in New York City, actor Emory Isaac Cohen made his debut in a notable independent feature film called Afterschool (2008). It screened at both the New York and Cannes International Film Festivals that year and turned into a breakout role for him (alongside Ezra Miller, another star on the rise).

Although Emory played a regular role as Leo Houston, the son of Julia Houston (played by Debra Messing) on the short-lived NBC television series Smash from 2012 to 2013, it was his role as AJ in the feature film The Place Beyond the Pines, starring Ryan Gosling and Bradley Cooper, that put him on Hollywood casting agents' radar.

Also adding to his credibility as a rising star was his part as June in the film Four opposite Wendell Pierce. At the Los Angeles Film Festival, he shared the prize for Best Performance with the three other leads in the movie.

He had auditioned via tape for a movie called Brooklyn, but by the time he was about to start work on an indie film called Stealing Cars alongside William H. Macy, he hadn't heard back and assumed he hadn't gotten the role. Then he received a phone called from director John Crowley, who told him he wanted him for a lead role as Tony, the charming young Italian who falls in love with the star, played by Saoirse Ronan.

Although Emory isn't Italian (his family is from Russia), his cousins and uncle are boisterous half-Italians and so he based his audition on them. For his work as Tony in Brooklyn, he won an award for Breakthrough Performer at the Hamptons International Film Festival.

Emory has shot a number of films since, including the Lionsgate film By Way of Helena with Liam Hemsworth and Woody Harrelson.

Filmography:

By Way of Helena
Stealing Cars (2015)
Brooklyn (2015)
The Gambler (2014)
Beneath the Harvest Sky (2013)
The Place Beyond the Pines (2012)
Four (2012)
Afterschool (2008)