Jim Carrey was born on January 17, 1962, in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada, and grew up in and around Toronto. At age eight he began making faces before a mirror and discovered a natural talent for impressions. When his family fell into financial hardship, Carrey left school in 1978 at age 16 to help support them, working for two years as a janitor in a factory. He made his professional stand-up debut at age 15 in a Toronto club and by 1979 was making a living as a comedian, writing his own material and opening for comics such as Buddy Hackett and Rodney Dangerfield. Known for his frenetic improvisation and visual comedy, he developed a repertoire of more than 100 characterizations.
At age 19 Carrey moved to Hollywood, where he began building his film and television career. A regular role on the sketch comedy series In Living Color brought him wider exposure, and in 1994 he broke through with three back-to-back hits: Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, Dumb and Dumber, and The Mask, the last of which earned him his first Golden Globe nomination. He went on to win Golden Globes for The Truman Show (1998) and Man on the Moon (1999), and earned critical acclaim for his dramatic performance in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004). He obtained dual citizenship to the United States in 2004.
Beyond his film career, Carrey has pursued painting, sculpting, and writing, publishing the semiautobiographical novel Memoirs and Misinformation in 2020. From a factory floor in Toronto to the top of Hollywood, Carrey's journey stands as one of the most remarkable immigrant success stories in American entertainment.
References
Britannica Editors. "Jim Carrey". Encyclopedia Britannica, 24 Jun. 2026, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jim-Carrey.