Aaron Edward Eckhart (born March 12, 1968) is an American film and stage actor. Born in California, he moved to England at the age of 13, when his father relocated the family. Several years later, he began his acting career by performing in school plays, before moving to Sydney, Australia, for his high school senior year. He left high school without graduating, but earned a diploma through an adult education course, and graduated from Brigham Young University (BYU) in 1994 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in film. For much of the mid-1990s he lived in New York City as a struggling, unemployed actor.