Bio
Jon Heder is an American actor and filmmaker best known for his starring role as the title character in the 2004 feature film Napoleon Dynamite and its subsequent animated television series, in 2012.
Heder became an overnight sensation and gained an instant cult following with his feature film debut in the title role of the offbeat comedy Napoleon Dynamite.
Heder's portrayal of the somewhat nerdy high schooler who helps his friend Pedro get elected class president was a huge financial success and brought him two MTV Movie Awards, one in the category of Breakthrough Male and the other for Best Musical Performance for his crowd-pleasing election-night dance.
Heder met Napoleon Dynamite director Jared Hess while both were studying film at Brigham Young University; the director first cast him in a short film, Peluca.
In spring 2007, Heder starred opposite Will Ferrell in the hit comedy Blades of Glory, which has taken in close to $120-million at the domestic box office. That same year, Heder also starred in Mama's Boy, opposite Diane Keaton and Jeff Daniels.
Heder returned to animation that year in Columbia Pictures' Surf's Up, after previously voicing a role in Columbia Pictures' Monster House.
Additionally, Heder has starred in the feature films The Benchwarmers, School for Scoundrels and Just Like Heaven, with Reese Witherspoon and Mark Ruffalo.
Heder also works with his twin brother, Dan, and older brother, Doug, to put projects of their own into development. Both of his brothers studied film at BYU, and the trio is focused on developing feature film properties, whether live-action or animation (Heder and his twin brother also studied computer animation in college).