The Unspoken Truth Of Jeremy Allen White
He grew up before our eyes as Lip Gallagher over eleven seasons of "Shameless." He became an icon of the grungy and anxiety-filled world of professional line cooks in Hulu's "The Bear." And soon, he will help Zac Efron bring to life the heartbreaking tale of the Von Erich wrestling family in "The Iron Claw." Jeremy Allen White has made a name for himself as an actor who not only resonates with audiences, but makes it easy for them to fall in love with him.
Despite finding himself catapulted to superstar status thanks to the success of "The Bear," fans do not know much about the actor who portrays Carmen "Carmy" Berzatto. White is an actor who generally keeps his personal life private. Apart from an Instagram account that rarely sees any action, he's all but absent from the goings-on of the internet. Still, with a thriving career and a lovably reserved personality, White has lived an interesting life.
Between being classically trained in both dancing and cooking, and being one of the most endearing fathers in celebrity headlines, White has maintained his modesty despite becoming a modern-day sex symbol. Continue reading and discover some of the most interesting facts about the man who made people across the country say "Yes, Chef."
He wanted to drop out of high school
Sure, Jeremy Allen White has become synonymous with Chicago, after centering two popular television shows within the Windy City for well over a decade. But the actor actually hails from Brooklyn, New York, where he was born to two former theater performers. He made the choice to follow in their footsteps when he hit his teenage years. "I thought I'd give acting a try," White said in an interview with College Magazine in 2012. "I was very lucky. I had a wonderful acting teacher at the middle school who would send out kids he felt very passionate about on cattle calls for film, theater, and commercial."
As a teenager, White had a moderately successful career. He found himself in two episodes of "Law & Order" in 2007 and 2008. In 2010, he landed a small role in the Joel Schumacher-directed crime drama "Twelve" alongside stars like 50 Cent and Zoe Kravitz. With fame knocking at his door, White fought with his parents to convince them to let him drop out of high school. "I wasn't a bad kid, I just hated school," the actor reminisced years later while talking with GQ. "I knew it wasn't going to help me." The moment White graduated at 18 years old, he packed up and headed for Hollywood, where he spent the better part of his career in the breakout role of Lip Gallagher on "Shameless."
He hasn't lost his passion for dancing
Interestingly, acting wasn't the first performance art on Jeremy Allen White's radar. The future "Shameless" star aspired to become a dancer when he was a child. Pouring several years into the expressive art, White switched careers at 13 years old when he discovered a love for acting. Fans got to witness his skills when he was dared to attempt the "Single Ladies" dance back in 2012. Still, moving his body has remained a side passion and he has been known to hit the dance floor and pull out his best moves.
"I love to dance. I trained as a dancer when I was young — jazz, ballet, tap," White told Interview Magazine in 2016. "Going out dancing with friends is my favorite thing to do. I break out all my old moves." But not everyone is a fan of what the TV chef cooks up on the dance floor. "All my friends make fun of me because I have a very specific dance I do when the tempo changes. I guess it would be described as a, like, a weird sashay-tap thing. But if I could dance forever, that would be great." Let the petition start now for Carmy to perform his signature dance move in "The Bear" Season 3.
How he got the scar on his cheek
Jeremy Allen White has a distinguishable appearance. Between his tousled curly hair and vibrant blue eyes, the actor sets himself apart from the standard Hollywood hunk. Additionally, the star remains grounded despite his celebrity status, avoiding over-priced clothing and private jets. One more distinct feature reminds us how similar the big-name actor is to the rest of us: A permanent scar on his cheek, located a couple of inches below his right eye.
During an interview with GQ, White recounted the tale of heartbreak that left him with the facial memento. In his 20s and fresh off a breakup with a serious girlfriend, White overreacted in dramatic fashion when he smashed his head on a mirror in a pub's bathroom. "The face, like, bleeds a lot," the actor recalled regarding the shattered glass cutting him open. Nobly, White left a wad of cash at his table, for both the damages and his tab, and proceeded to leave without mentioning anything. And like one of those stories that get told countless times over a pint, the bartender at White's former watering hole knows all about the incident.
His daughter has a famous godmother
Following a path laid out by multiple actresses who had famous parents — like Drew Barrymore, Bryce Dallas Howard, and Angelina Jolie – Ezer Bille White could easily become a future star. Not only is her dad uber-popular thanks to "The Bear," but her mother, Addison Timlin, is also an accomplished actor with credits in "StartUp" and "American Horror Stories." Jeremy Allen White and Timlin were romantically involved for many years before their eventual marriage in 2019, resulting in two children, although the pair separated in the spring of 2023.
Thankfully for Ezer, she is surrounded by love, not only by her parents but also by her equally famous godmother, "Fifty Shades of Grey" star Dakota Johnson. Another actress with famous parents, Johnson has been the long-time best friend of Timlin and reportedly takes her godmother duties seriously. She helped Ezer Billie White one-up her father when she accompanied Johnson to "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon." "I think you always want your children to outshine you, I just didn't know it was going to happen this early," said Jeremy Allen White during his appearance on the talk show. The actor even sounded a bit jealous when he discovered that his three-year-old got to meet yet another superstar. "Man, she's met Adam Sandler too. She's really shining."
He lost himself while filming Shameless
Astoundingly, Jeremy Allen White was one of the few characters who appeared in every episode of "Shameless." With Showtime's chaos-fueled family drama series airing for 11 seasons and 134 episodes, the actor had his work cut out for him. An adaptation of a British series of the same name, White started with the show in 2011 and spent the following decade depicting the intensely intelligent yet troubled Lip Gallagher. Unsurprisingly, the actor has conceded that the long-running performance became cumbersome down the stretch.
"There was a period where I stopped feeling like an actor, and I started feeling like I was just here to do this show," White said to GQ. "It was an upsetting head space to be in. When it was going to end, I was questioning: 'Maybe I do just exist on this show. What else is there? Am I an actor?'" Despite the weight of carrying the character, White says he drastically matured during those years. "I was learning a lot about how to behave as a person outside of an actor. We learned how to be, I think, decent people on that show," he said. "I love 'Shameless' so much. I love everybody that was a part of it, and the experience was incredible."
He almost turned down The Bear
Good luck attempting to differentiate Jeremy Allen White's character Lip from "Shameless" and his new, more popular role as Carmy Berzatto in "The Bear." Both Chicago-based television shows feature the same gritty underside of the urban working-class lifestyle through relatably damaged characters. Carmy and Lip equally represent genius-level prospects wasting away in dysfunctional families and relationships.
Undoubtedly, the comparisons crossed White's mind when the script for "The Bear" first landed on his desk. Concerns about being typecast for the remainder of his career were nearly enough for him to say "pass." Thankfully, White saw something in the writing that gave him second thoughts. "I think I was too concerned with what other people might think," he told GQ. "I also knew that if I said no to this, that whoever ended up doing it, I would hate them forever. So, there was some spiteful stuff going on, too." White ultimately made the right choice as "The Bear," has earned him a Golden Globe and Critics Choice Award for his profound performance –- one that may owe some credit to him already spending 10 years pretending to be from Chicago.
He learned how to cook but would rather eat out
There are some people who are seemingly born with a natural aptitude for stepping into the kitchen and whipping up a delicious masterpiece; there are others who have perfected the art of burning water. Jeremy Allen White likely landed somewhere in the middle when he first took the role of Carmy in "The Bear." Before, the actor had limited knowledge regarding knife skills, broiling vs baking, or how to create a hollandaise sauce. However, over two seasons in the kitchen, a culinary school crash course, and stints at prestigious eateries like Michelin star-level restaurant Pasjoli, White has certainly picked up a trick or two.
Still, White admits his cooking skills are nothing to get excited about. "A year ago, my brother-in-law had a birthday, and my wife and I wanted to host," White recalled one nightmare scenario while talking with Esquire. "My brother-in-law just assumed that I was an amazing chef and I could prepare a dinner for 15 people. And so I tried, and I did okay, but I'm not that nice with it. People think that I can really move, and the truth is that I'm so-so. I've got a long way to go." White's fame as Chef Carmy has earned him inside access to almost every restaurant in town, making it far easier to eat out. "Yeah, we can get a table pretty easy. It's cool," the actor told The Wrap. "It doesn't work everywhere. Not everybody's seen 'The Bear,' you know?"
He too thinks Carmy Berzatto is attractive
Some Jeremy Allen White fans need to calm down a little bit with their thirst. There has been a lot of obscene discussion surrounding the actor's performance in "The Bear," regarding a primordial attraction to the greasy-haired, foul-mouthed line cook archetype. Many of the comments dare not be repeated in this article, but the appeal can be encapsulated by one X, formerly known as Twitter, user: "I saw this show being advertised on my TV and the strong animalistic attraction this man rises in me I do not understand."
White has become the face of the grungy line cook every woman has seemingly had an explosive relationship with as a young adult. There is even a New York Post article detailing how White's chef portrayal resulted in cooks having sexual encounters in record numbers across the country. "Happy to help," White joked while appearing on the "Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!" podcast. "It's weird, you know, we made a show that I think was about family and grief and food. But no, Carmy does not have sex. Nobody has sex." Still, White understands the interest that his character has drawn. "What I find attractive in people is a determination," he told GQ. "If you're truly good at something, that's incredibly attractive. I understand people having a crush on Carmy. I think I have a bit of a crush on Carmy."
He is a sucker for reality television
Portraying a chef who has devoted his entire life to the kitchen must be exhausting work. So what is Jeremy Allen White's drink of choice for winding down after a long day? A tall glass of reality television. "So embarrassing and wrong, but we're always watching," the actor admitted to InStyle. "We have a big TV in our bedroom, and we fall asleep watching TV. But we have to stop, and I know that." Despite being a movie buff himself, White prefers to shut down with some of the simplest television available. "Everything that we are into now is pure escape, like 'Million Dollar Listing,' 'The [Real] Housewives,' all that stuff."
White thinks that his stressed-out character Carmy could do with a bit of 'Housewives' as well. "He needs to turn his brain off, too," the actor said while on the "Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!" podcast. Shockingly, White did confirm that Carmy does have one reality vice — "Pasta Grannies," a YouTube series that teaches family recipes directly from the source: grandmothers. His next goal is to have the internet cooking show cameo on "The Bear." "I'd love to have 'Pasta Grannies' come and be in an actual dream sequence with me rather than have me fall asleep watching them on TV," he told the Cherry Bombe podcast. "I think that that would be really something."
He tries to give his characters unique tattoos
One of the most fascinating tidbits about Jeremy Allen White is his dedication to completely falling into character. Aside from becoming well-versed in the kitchen, the actor has developed a habit of giving his characters unique tattoos each with personal background information. The tradition started while filming "Shameless" and the make-up team struggled to cover up his latest ink. "I went to shoot the pilot for 'Shameless,' and it was pretty much just a pain to cover," he said to Fox. "So, Lip ended up with the tattoo as well as myself."
White later tried to give another character his own tattoo for the film "The Rental." He got the go-ahead from director Dave Franco and designed the ink with the help of a friend. "Unfortunately, I showed the tattoos to Dave, and he was like, 'I think it's a little bit too much.'" Thankfully, when White landed his leading role in "The Bear," there was an inescapable opportunity for Carmy to have unique tattoos. The actor collaborated with tattoo artist Ben Shields in designing the chef's skin art. "In the beginning, I sent maybe 75 different things," Shields said to Popsugar. "Jeremy really knew in the end which ones he liked and what he wanted to do, so I think we got it down to 10 that he actually used." Some of the tattoos they landed on include crossing chef knives and Chicago area code, 773.
He is not a fan of bulking up
The next time fans will see Jeremy Allen White will be in the upcoming wrestling drama "The Iron Claw." Based on a true story about one of the saddest family legacies in sports entertainment, White inevitably had to beef up for the role. The actor quickly transitioned from serving food to consuming as much as humanly possible. "Eating all the time. Like, never stopping," White calculated while talking with Esquire. "In the morning, I would have waffles, almond butter. In the middle of the day, I was eating turkey patties and avocado all the time."
Unfortunately, the rigid lifestyle is not how White prefers things. "It's really just gross. You're trying to consume as much as you possibly can, and to be honest, you don't feel great. I was training as well, but I don't know, trying to get that big, it's no way to live." While fans will be excited to see White's new look, the actor acknowledges that he couldn't bulk up nearly as well as his "Iron Claw" co-star Zac Efron. "Zac's a maniac. He's so focused and knowledgeable on training, diet, all that. In terms of a physical transformation, I think he kind of blew us all out of the water."
He is afraid of loneliness
The last time audiences saw Jeremy Allen White's "The Bear" character Chef Carmy, he was locked in a walk-in cooler at the end of Season 2. Delivering one of television's most heart-shattering monologues, the Michelin-starred cook spoke about being unworthy of love, joy, and success. Sadly, the actor delivering the lines may have been speaking from an honest place.
While talking with Fault Magazine, White was poised with a question about his greatest fear, and his answer was extremely candid. "Loneliness, it is scary for everybody. But much like Carmy, like myself, it is scary dealing with loneliness," he said. "It's a fear that I've been thinking about a lot because of Carmy." Tragically, the feeling of being alone has hit the actor more than once: after he moved to Los Angeles without his family as a teenager, and again when he divorced his wife in 2023.
Still, the performer does feel like he has a community. While accepting his Screen Actors Guild award in 2023, White delivered a warm and emotional speech about the film industry, saying that it can "make me feel a little less lonely. Make me feel a little more connected, more understood, and a lot more understanding."