Date of Birth

14 December 1988, Los Altos Hills, California, USA

Birth Name

Maximillion Drake Thieriot

Nickname

Maxi

Height

5' 11" (1.8 m)

Mini Biography

Max Thieriot was born in 1988 in Los Altos Hills, California, and has two siblings. He was raised in Occidental, CA, and graduated from Sonoma Country Day School in 2002 and El Molino High School in 2006. He started acting when he took an improvisation class and modeled for GAP. He was also in two short films before making his big-screen debut in Catch That Kid (2004), opposite Kristen Stewart and Corbin Bleu.

Max had a big role as one of the children protected by Vin Diesel's character in the hit comedy The Pacifier (2005), and played the son of the title character in The Astronaut Farmer (2006). In the summer of 2007, he co-starred opposite Emma Roberts in Nancy Drew (2007), as Nancy's friend Ned Nickerson, and in 2008 played the younger version of Hayden Christensen's lead in Jumper (2008), as well as a 1930s hobo, Will Shepherd, in Kit Kittredge: An American Girl (2008).

Max's early 2010s roles included Michael Stewart, the son of Julianne Moore's character, in the dramatic thriller Chloe (2009), and the lead role in Wes Craven's horror thriller My Soul to Take (2010). He also co-starred as the male lead, opposite Jennifer Lawrence, in another horror film, House at the End of the Street (2012).

Max made his television series debut playing Norman Bates (Freddie Highmore)'s brother, Dylan Massett, on the A&E show Bates Motel (2013), which began its run in 2013. Max also plays Jack Hays in the History Channel mini-series Texas Rising (2015).

In 2013, Max married Lexi Murphy, his long-time girlfriend.

Max is the great-great grandson of Michael Henry de Young, who co-founded the San Francisco Chronicle in 1865. His father is from California and his mother is from Minnesota. Max is of German, English, Norwegian, Danish, Irish, Dutch Jewish, French Jewish, Scottish, and Northern Irish ancestry.

Trivia

• Did all of his own singing in The Pacifier (2005).
• Has 19 pets.
• His last name is pronounced "Teer-ee-ut".
• Max is of German, English, Norwegian, Danish, Irish, Dutch Jewish, French Jewish, Scottish, and Northern Irish descent (most "Thieriot" families come from Germany).
• Max's paternal grandmother was born in Manila, in the Philippines, to American parents, from Virginia (who were of English, and some German, descent). Max's paternal grandparents died in the sinking of the SS Andrea Doria, the Italian ocean liner, in 1956.
• Max's paternal great-great-grandfather, Michael Henry "M. H." De Young, co-founded the San Francisco Chronicle, with his brother, Charles De Young, when they were both teenagers (the paper was then called The Daily Dramatic Chronicle). The De Young brothers were the children of Henry De Young, a Dutch Jewish immigrant (from Amsterdam), and of Amelia Morange (a French Jewish immigrant, from Gironde). Amelia's father, Max's great-great-great-great-grandfather Benjamin Morange, had served as the Minister from France to Spain, under Napoleon.
• On his father's side, he is the grandson of Ferdinand Melly Thieriot and Frances Harrison Dade. On his mother's side, he is the grandson of Donald Ross Snyder, Jr. and Nancy Jo Neuhalfen.
• Max, a vintner in his own right, co-owns vineyards in his Sonoma County hometown of Occidental.
• Wine from Thieriot's vineyard, Senses, can be seen in the third season of Bates Motel during a family dinner scene.
• Thieriot modeled for Gap and starred in independent short films prior to being cast in his first feature film, Catch That Kid.
• Thieriot and his wife Lexi have two sons together, Beaux (2015) and Maximus (2018).
• Thieriot's sister Frances is married to former Philadelphia Phillies pitcher, Michael Stutes.
• At one time, Thieriot's family owned The San Francisco Chronicle.

Quotes

• At first, I didn't like coming down to Los Angeles at all. It's like everything's black and white compared to where I live out in the middle of nowhere. There's like 400 people in my town!
• [his hair for the movie The Pacifier (2005)] "They bleached it a ton of times for the movie, I'm surprised I still have hair left!"
• [about seeing himself in the movies] It almost seems like it's not really me. If you screw up, you see the tiniest little mistake that no one else will see. You'll totally be like, 'Wow, that sucks, I hope nobody else notices!'
• I don't like going to dinner by myself, I'll call for delivery before I do that. It's awkward if you're at a table all alone. I'm sure nobody even notices, but there's something about it.