Almost 25 years ago, Jason Biggs gave viewers an up close and personal encounter with a warm apple pie in the blockbuster comedy American Pie. The film launched Biggs’ acting career into the stratosphere.
Stifler’s ragers, Jim’s awkward lessons from his dad, and Finch’s infatuation with Stifler’s mom provided endless laughs! This classic teen sex comedy still holds up today.
1. American Pie 1 & 2
A lot of actors dream of having a breakout role that defines them and sets them on the path to superstardom. For Jason Biggs that was American Pie. The 1999 comedy film introduced audiences to Jim Levenstein, a sex-starved high school kid who enlists his best friends — Oz, Nick, Finch and the sleazy Stifler — to help him lose his virginity before prom. It also introduced the world to an incredibly hilarious group of characters. The solarmovie film and its sequels raked in more than $989 million at the box office.
The series spawned a number of nutty and raunchy moments that have made for some of the most memorable movie scenes of all time. But it was Biggs’ portrayal of Jim that truly set him on the path to stardom. He brought the character to life in a way that made it clear why the movie is considered a cultural phenomenon.
2. American Reunion
When American Pie premiered in 1999, no one could have imagined that the raunchy teen sex comedy would spawn two theatrical sequels and four direct-to-video spinoffs. But it did, and Biggs was the breakout star of the franchise. He showed his likable, underdog charm and solid comic timing as Jim Levenstein, the man so sexually frustrated that he romanced a baked goods.
Several of the actors who appeared in the first three films returned for American Reunion, and Biggs was no exception. He reunited with the rest of the cast for this fourth theatrical film that follows their high school reunion. This time around, Stifler and his gang are older, but they’re just as immature as ever.
3. Orange Is the New Black
The sprawling cast of Netflix’s hit women’s prison series Orange Is the New Black will look a little different come season three. Jason Biggs, who plays Larry Bloom – Piper’s fiance and one of the few men on the show – won’t be back. That’s because Larry has been sentenced to prison for smuggling cocaine and has a long way to go before he gets his parole. It’s a serious twist that eliminates any chance of the duo ever getting together again, but it’s not surprising considering how close the two were throughout their time at Litchfield.
Biggs’ clumsy demeanor is something he has perfected over the years, and it made audiences laugh consistently in films like American Pie. But he has also played much more serious characters, including his roles in 2002 Broadway production of The Graduate as Benjamin Braddock and the Woody Allen romantic comedy Anything Else in 2003.
4. The Pain Hustlers
While many people love to debate about the greatest Jason Biggs movies, they all have to agree that The Pain Hustlers is one of his best. Biggs plays Phil, a documentary filmmaker who has made a living telling stories about at-risk youth. He is decent, at least outwardly, and lives in a huge house that he has built with money earned from previous films.
After a bit of success, he lands a prestigious gig in the pharmaceutical start-up industry and finds herself at the center of a conspiracy that reveals how greed can destroy even the most seemingly honorable of companies. The film is based on the true story of Insys Therapeutics, a company that was able to rack up enormous profits by making addicts out of people who needed relief from pain. Insys was able to do this by marketing the drug Subsys, which was essentially an extremely potent opioid that was injected into the body.
5. Who We Are Now
After a brief stint on television’s soap opera As the World Turns and a short run on Broadway in Herb Gardner’s Conversations with My Father, Jason Biggs made his film debut as awkward teenager Jim Levenstein in 1999’s American Pie. The movie established him as a teen comedy star, and he went on to play the role three more times in the subsequent sequels. Biggs also appeared in a host of other teen and bro comedies, including Boys and Girls, Loser, Saving Silverman, Jersey Girl and Wedding Daze.
In his late 20s, Biggs took on more dramatic fare, such as the acclaimed dramas The Pain Hustlers and A Chronicle of Racism in America. The latter film delved into the history of anti-black racism in America through personal anecdotes, lectures and interviews with civil rights lawyers. The film won the Best Documentary prize at the Toronto Film Festival.
