Jason

Jason Bateman has been working as a professional actor for 25 years. Born in Rye, New York on January 14,1969, Jason and his family relocated to Los Angeles when he was very young. Jason has said that his father, Kent Bateman, instead of taking him to the park to play ball, used to take him to the movies as a child; it was during this time that Jason began to think about a career in acting.
When Jason was ten, a neighbor of his was on his way to an audition and stopped to ask Jason if he wanted to go along. Jason’s neighbor convinced him to sneak into the audition and act as if he knew what he was doing, and Jason did so well that he was given the part. Jason’s father decided to take some pictures of him and send them out to agencies, and soon Jason was signed. After doing some work in a few commercials, Jason landed the part of James Cooper Ingalls in “Little House on the Prairie.”
After his run on “Little House,” Jason landed the role of Derek Taylor in “Silver Spoons,” mischievous best friend to Rick Schroeder’s Ricky Stratton. During his two years on “Silver Spoons,” Jason drew such a positive audience response that he was soon given his own sitcom called “It’s your move,” in which he played 14 yr old Matthew Burton, a schemer who is constantly trying to outwit and outprank his single mother’s boyfriend. Apparently the teenagers of America identified with Bateman’s Matthew so much that angry parents were barraging the network with letters complaining that their children were trying to execute Matthew’s pranks; consequently “It’s Your Move” was taken off the air prematurely, after only one season.
After the end of “ It’s Your Move,” Jason was cast as David Hogan in “Valerie,” which became “The Hogan Family” after the departure of Valerie Harper. During the five year run of “The Hogan Family” Jason made his big screen debut in “Teen Wolf Too” and was also featured in “Necessary Roughness.” At the age of 18, Jason directed three episodes of “The Hogan Family,” making him SAG’s youngest director.
With the end of “The Hogan Family” in 1991, Jason went on to continue to make pilots. He starred in four sitcoms which were picked up by the networks, Simon, George and Leo, Chicago Sons, and Some of My Best Friends, but each of these were cancelled after a short time. In 2002, Jason was featured as Roger Donahue in “The Sweetest Thing” and John Farrow in the thriller “One Way Out.”
In 2003, he found the perfect vehicle as Michael Bluth in Fox’s wickedly dark comedy “Arrested Development,” which won five emmy awards in 2004 including Best Comedy. In 2004, he was featured in Starsky and Hutch, as Vince Vaughn’s sidekick Kevin, and in Dodgeball, as the hilarious Pepper Brooks. Jason lives with his wife of three years, Amanda Anka, in Los Angeles.