Aaron Edward Eckhart 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 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, gaining 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.