Eli Marienthal

Eli David Marienthal (born March 6, 1986) is an American former actor best known for his distinctive voice work and memorable performances in both film and television during the late 1990s and early 2000s. He entered the entertainment world at a young age after years of stage experience in the Bay Area, appearing in productions such as Missing Persons, The Cryptogram, Hecuba, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Every 17 Minutes the Crowd Goes Crazy, and The Life of Galileo, which helped him develop a strong foundation in dramatic arts. His breakthrough came in 1999 when he voiced the curious and courageous boy Hogarth Hughes in the critically acclaimed animated feature The Iron Giant, a role that earned him the prestigious Annie Award for Outstanding Achievement for Voice Acting in a Feature Production and cemented his reputation as a talented voice actor. Beyond his iconic animation work, Marienthal demonstrated versatility by portraying Steve Stifler's younger brother in the American Pie franchise, playing Sam in Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, and starring as the title character in the television series Tucker. He also contributed his voice to the character Robin (Tim Drake) in the Static Shock episode “The Big Leagues” and later reprised the role in Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman. After a steady stream of roles from 1996 through 2004, he stepped back from acting, only returning briefly for projects between 2017 and 2019. Marienthal was born in Santa Monica, California, to parents Penny and Joseph, and grew up in a family of performers; his older brother Harley Cross and younger sister Flora Cross are also actors. He is of Jewish heritage and attended the private East Bay French‑American School in Berkeley. Pursuing academic interests later in life, Marienthal earned a doctorate in geography from the University of California, Berkeley, as of February 2019, illustrating a successful transition from child star to scholar while maintaining a lasting legacy in popular culture.