The story of transitioning from a tough and bumpy life to a successful comedian: Who is Jim Carrey?

His full name is James Eugene Jim Carrey, he was born on January 17, 1962 in Ontario, Canada. He was born to his mother, housewife Kathleen Oram, and father, musician and father, Percy Carrey, an accountant. Raised as a Roman Catholic, Carrey has three older siblings named John, Patricia and Rita. His mother is of French, Irish and Scottish descent; his father is of French-Canadian descent. His family's original surname was Carré.

Carrey, who started making different faces in front of the mirror at the age of eight, also discovered his ability to make gestures. Carrey spent his early years in Scarborough, Ontario. His family later moved to Burlington, Ontario. There, Carrey was educated at Aldershot High. Some time later, with his family homeless and living together in a van, Carrey and his brother spent months in a tent in a park on the shore of Lake Ontario in Lincoln, Ontario. The financial situation of his family began to improve when his father got a job in the accounting department of a tire factory.

When Carrey was 15, his first stand-up comedy experience was when his father took him for a job to debut at The 519's basement comedy club, a one-night-a-week comedy club on Church Street, Toronto. But his family's financial troubles made it difficult for them to support Carrey's show business ambitions.

Carrey returned to the scene in a more flamboyant move in 1979 and landed his first paid job as well. At the age of seventeen, he moved on to regular paid shows at the club, building his reputation in the process. In line with his growing popularity, Carrey sought to break into sketch comedy by auditioning to be a cast member of NBC's Saturday Night Live. However, it was not chosen by its producer.

He appeared in an episode of the televised stand-up show "An Evening at the Improv" in April 1981. That summer, he landed the lead role in "Introducing... Janet," a made-for-TV movie that premiered on CBC and drew more than one million viewers for its Canadian premiere, making it Carrey's first acting role. The film further cemented the youth comedy status in the country with its high viewership across the country. The title of the movie was changed to "Rubberface" a few years later. Carrey was spotted by comedian Rodney Dangerfield, with whom he was contracted to start touring performances. In early 1982, he was advised to further develop his role, so he returned home to the Toronto area.

Starting to perform regularly at The Comedy Store in early 1983, Carrey decided to move to Hollywood. Attending The Tonight Show became his first career goal, and he would have accomplished it in the spring of 1983 after he had booked the show, which he wanted was not booked.

Returning to Los Angeles, he got the lead role in "The Duck Factory," an American sitcom that aired on NBC. The channel had already canceled Carrey's sitcom, which made its debut on NBC's "Late Night with David Letterman" talk show in late July 1984. The following year, Carrey auditioned for the lead role in "Once Bitten," a teen horror sex comedy film developed by The Samuel Goldwyn Company. Carrey continued to receive film roles. He then had a supporting role in the fantasy comedy-drama film "Peggy Sue Got Married" directed by Francis Ford Coppola. "Once Bitten" enjoyed moderate success at the box office, despite receiving poor reviews from critics.

Returning to the comedy club tour with pretend, Carrey auditioned for the next season of Saturday Night Live in the fall of 1986. This was his third attempt at getting into the ensemble sketch comedy show. Carrey, who eventually managed to perform in the studio for the show's executive producer, Lorne Michaels, was again turned down. Feeling that mere screenings had turned his career into a dead end, Carrey set his sights on developing a new live comedy play. From 1990 to 1994, he starred in the regular cast of the sketch comedy television series "In Living Color". Thanks to the popularity of the series, he was able to act in the first few big movies.

Carrey played the lead role in the comedy film "Ace Ventura: Pet Detective" in February 1994, which grossed $72 million in the United States and Canada. Following his success, he had a lead role in the next superhero comedy movie "The Mask", which is expected to be another hit. The film was released in July 1994 and grossed $351 million worldwide. He then co-starred with Jeff Daniels in Peter Farrelly's fellow comedy "Dumb and Dumber", released in December 1994. The film was another commercial success, grossing over $270 million worldwide. Carrey earned his first Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actor for his performance in The Mask. He was subsequently named runner-up in Quigley's 'Top Ten Monetizing Stars' poll.

Carrey played the villain Riddler in the superhero movie "Batman Forever" (1995), directed by Joel Schumacher. The film was a box office success, receiving mixed reviews from critics. Also that year, he reprized his role in its sequel, "Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls." While the film was well received by the public, it was found unsatisfactory by the critics. In addition, the film was a huge box office success and broke records with its weekend opening.

He became the first actor to be paid $20 million for his next film, "The Cable Guy" (1996), a psychological thriller comedy directed by Ben Stiller. Although his role was different from other roles he's known, it didn't go too well, as many of the critics had to change the tone. Carrey also appeared in the music video for the movie's closing song, Jerry Cantrell's "Leave Me Alone". Despite all the reviews, the movie grossed $102 million worldwide.

The following year, he returned with the lead role of Fletcher Reede in the critically acclaimed comedy "Liar Liar" (1997). Carrey garnered critical acclaim for his performance and earned a second Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actor. In 1998, he played the serious-comic role of Truman Burbank in the satirical science fiction psychological comedy-drama film "The Truman Show" (1998). The film was highly praised and was a commercial success. It also brought Carrey more international fame. The film earned a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama.

In 1999, Carrey starred in the biographical comedy-drama film "Man in the Moon," portraying comedian Andy Kaufman. He received his second consecutive Golden Globe Award. Additionally, he earned his first Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for Best Actor. The following year, he co-starred with Renée Zellweger in the Farrelly brothers' black comedy "Me, Myself & Irene", which received mixed reviews. The movie was a box office success. That same year, he had the lead role in "How the Grinch Stole Christmas", the second highest-grossing Christmas fantasy comedy movie of all time. The film received both praise and criticism from critics, as well as a Golden Globe nomination.

Carrey next starred in the fantasy comedy movie "Bruce Almighty" (2003), directed by Tom Shadyac, with Jennifer Aniston and Morgan Freeman. While the film received mixed reviews upon its release, it was a financial success and grossed over $484 million worldwide. Thus, it became the seventeenth highest-grossing live-action comedy film of all time.

In 2004, Carrey co-starred with Kate Winslet in the science fiction romantic drama film "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind." The movie received great acclaim after its release and the performance of the leading roles was praised. Additionally, for his performance, he received a Golden Globe nomination and his first BAFTA Award nomination for Best Actor. In the same year, he appeared in the black comedy fantasy film "Lemony Snicket's Series of Unfortunate Events" based on the children's novels of the same name. This film was received positively from critics. In 2005, Carrey appeared in a remake of the black comedy film "Fun with Dick and Jane" with Tea Leoni. While the film grossed $200 million, it made a profit of $100 million.

Carrey co-starred with Virginia Madsen and Danny Huston in the psychological thriller "The Number 23" directed by Joel Schumacher. In the movie, Carrey played a man who became obsessed with the number 23. The movie was criticized by critics.  The following year, Carrey voiced Horton the Elephant in  Dr. Seuss' film "Horton Hears Whom!" (2008).  The movie was a box office success, grossing over $290 million worldwide. That same year, he returned with the live romantic action comedy "Yes Man" (2008), in which he co-starred with Zooey Deschanel and Bradley Cooper. Despite mixed reviews for the film, Carrey's performance was well received and performed well at the box office.

Carrey's credits include co-starring with Ewan McGregor in the black comedy "I Love You Phillip Morris", which was widely released in February 2010. For the first time in his career, Carrey portrayed multiple characters in 3D animation based on Disney's animated feature film "A Christmas Carol" (2009) from the classic Charles Dickens tale. Directed by Robert Zemeckis, he starred alongside Robin Wright Penn, Bob Hoskins, Colin Firth, Gary Oldman and Cary Elwes. The film received both good reviews and was a financial success. Carrey starred in the family comedy "Mr. Popper's Penguins" (2011) as real estate agent Tom Popper Jr., the caretaker of a penguin family, to mixed reviews.

Later, he co-starred with Steve Carell in the comedy film "The Incredible Burt Wonderstone" (2013), directed by Don Scardino. The film was released to mixed reviews and underperformed significantly at the box office. Around the same time, he appeared in the black comedy superhero movie "Kick-Ass 2" (2013) as Colonel Stars and Stripes. He announced that he had withdrawn his support for the film two months before its release. The black comedy "Dumb and Dumber To", a sequel starring Carrey and Jeff Daniels, was released in November 2014. Carrey gave his introductory speech at the Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield, Iowa, in May 2014. He received an honorary doctorate for his achievements and support as a comedian, artist, writer and philanthropist.

Carrey was the subject of two documentaries in 2017. The first was a short story titled "I Needed Color" about a lifelong passion for art and was published online in the summer. Later that year, he appeared in the documentary "Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond—Feauring a Very Special, Contractually Obligated Honorable Mention of Tony Clifton".

In June 2018, Carrey took on the role of Dr. Robotnik, the main antagonist of the "Sonic the Hedgehog" video game franchise, in a film adaptation of the series. The film received critical acclaim and Carrey's portrayal was praised. Considered by some to be one of their best performances in recent years. He then returned for the sequel "Sonic the Hedgehog 2", which was released in April 2022. The film grossed $72 million at the US box office on its opening weekend, giving Carrey the best opening of his career to date.

Carrey appeared as the narrator of The Weeknd's album "Dawn FM," released on January 7, 2022. Announcing that he was considering retiring from the film industry in the same year, Carrey said that he had been in the industry enough. When asked if he would return, he added that he could continue according to the letter brought to his, but that he was taking a break for now.

Private life

In 1983, Carrey began a relationship with singer Linda Ronstadt, and the couple's relationship lasted eight months. Carrey had his first marriage to former actress and waitress Melissa Womer on March 28, 1987. The couple had a daughter, Jane Erin Carrey, born on September 6, 1987. And, the couple divorced in 1995. Then, on September 23, 1996, Carrey got married to co-star Lauren Holly. The couple's marriage lasted less than a year and they divorced.

From 1999 to 2000, Carrey was engaged to co-star Renée Zellweger, but broke up with him as well. Later, Jan was in a relationship with Kristen Jones in 2002. Carrey, who met model and actress Jenny McCarthy in 2005, made their relationship public in June 2006. The couple ended their relationship in April 2010.

Carrey met Cathriona White, a makeup artist from Ireland, in 2012. The couple was in a relationship from 2012 to 2015. On September 28, 2015, White was found dead from a prescription drug overdose, and the coroner's office ruled the death to be a suicide. Carrey was the coffin bearer at White's funeral. Carrey attended the Golden Globes Party with his girlfriend, actress Ginger Gonzaga, in January 2019 and however, the couple broke up shortly after.

He was featured on the Canadian Walk of Fame in 2004. Carrey published his memoir, Memories and Misinformation, in 2020. Carrey holds dual citizenship, both US and Canadian. He also has a passion for wrestling.