Greg Kinnear was born on June 17, 1963, in Logansport, Indiana, USA, to Edward Kinnear, a career diplomat with the US State Department, and Suzanne (nee Buck) Kinnear, a homemaker.
He has two brothers, James, born in 1957, who is vice-president-investments at Wachovia Securities in Arizona, and Steve, born in 1959, who is a business manager with the Billy Graham Training Center in North Carolina.
Greg's family moved frequently, including to Lebanon and Greece, where he first began his career as a talk show host with his radio show "School Daze With Greg Kinnear".
After returning to the States, he attended the University of Arizona in Tucson, graduating in 1985 with a degree in broadcast journalism.
He then moved to Los Angeles, landing his first job as a marketing assistant with Empire Entertainment, before becoming an on-location reporter for MTV and later having bit parts on L.A. Law and Life Goes On.
Greg would go on to create, co-executive produce, and host the show Best of the Worst, before becoming the host of Talk Soup, and later the host of the NBC late-night talk show, Later.
In 1994, he made his big screen debut as a talk show host in the comedy Blankman, and later won the role of David Larrabee in the remake of Billy Wilder's classic Sabrina.
He then starred in the 1996 comedy Dear God, before being cast in James L. Brooks's blockbuster comedy-drama As Good as It Gets, for which he received an Oscar nomination as best supporting actor.
Greg's next film was the romantic comedy A Smile Like Yours, opposite Lauren Holly, before he starred as Meg Ryan's significant other in the romantic comedy You've Got Mail.
He then played Captain Amazing in the superhero comedy Mystery Men, and appeared in the films Nurse Betty, Loser, and Someone Like You.