Date of Birth

17 December 1988, New York City, New York, USA

Mini Biography

Jonathan Lippert Keltz was born in New York City, to Karin Lippert, who worked in public relations, and Martin Keltz, the co-founder and President of Scholastic Productions. He remained in the city through pre-school before moving upstate to Woodstock, New York, where he attended Poughkeepsie Day School through 8th grade. He moved with his family to Toronto, Canada to attend high school at Northern Secondary School and although he had done various theater productions prior to this, his professional career began shortly after his 16th birthday after signing with his agent.

Keltz was inspired to pursue acting by his first drama teacher, Victoria Silvestri, Kenneth Branagh's performance in Hamlet, and a Master Class Workshop with Alan Arkin. He got his start in films in Toronto appearing opposite Heather Graham in "Cake" and playing Chris Cooper's son in "Breach" for Universal. Jonathan co-starred in Disney's "Prom" and he reprised his role on the final season of "Entourage" as Ari Gold's loyal assistant, 'Jake Steinberg.' He had lead roles in two independent features: "Playback", with Christian Slater, and "Transgression", opposite Michael Ironside. In addition to "Entourage," Keltz's television credits include lead roles in the MOW's "Dadnapped" for The Disney Channel and "Acceptance" for Lifetime. Guest star roles include: "Leverage," "Breakout Kings," "CSI: Miami," "Cold Case," and a recurring role on "Degrassi: The Next Generation."

Keltz resides in Los Angeles. He is of German (mother) and Polish Jewish (father) heritage. His mother was born in Hamburg.

Trivia

• His father is of Polish Jewish heritage and his mother is German, born in Hamburg.

Quotes

• I certainly have the problem of focusing on doing everything now to get where I want to be, and not actually seeing and taking in and appreciating what's right in front of me or who's right in front of me.
• The girls in kindergarten would chase us boys around trying to kiss us. I'm proud to say I was the first to stop running.
• My 21st birthday was awesome. I was in L.A., and it was great. I had a bunch of friends that came out. The night ended up in a completely different direction than we thought it was going to go.
• I had a fun high school experience. We had a big old prom, we had 400 kids in the graduating class and everything. It was a fun night. I enjoyed the limo ride there the most. Me and a couple friends riding with their dates, everyone was all dressed up, and I was into it, the energy and the anticipation of that entire experience.
• I have an amazing and supportive family. I'm fortunate to have a close relationship with everyone.
• Working with Robert Redford would be an unbelievable dream come true.
• I'm a trailer junkie. I love watching movie trailers as soon as they go up.
• As an actor, you get to sort of bounce back and forth in terms of the age range you play and the life experience that your characters have.
• Every show is different. There are hundreds of people involved in production and development so each show is a chemistry experiment as to how these elements will collide. I love being able to bounce all over the place to different shows, different worlds and in effect different cities. Travel is a great part of the gig. Newfoundland is a fun island town practically in the middle of the ocean. The people are warm and wonderful. It's a bit windy though...
• On Queer as Folk (2000): Well, my character was a pretty hateful gay-basher and very far from myself so it was interesting exploring that kind of prejudice and anger. The most fun part of the job was that he was a very competitive swimmer so I had a lot of training to do for the shoot. I was working non-stop to perfect my stroke and my stamina to be able to do the shoot. In the end it all worked out well.