Haley Joel Osment

Haley Joel Osment Bio

Haley Joel Osment, born April 10, 1988, in Los Angeles, California, is an American actor whose career has stretched from celebrated child performances to mature work in independent film, television, and voice acting. Beginning his career as a child actor, he first drew wide notice for his role in the comedy-drama film Forrest Gump (1994), a performance that earned him a Young Artist Award. His international breakthrough arrived with the psychological thriller The Sixth Sense (1999), where his portrayal of a frightened, psychic child led to an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor and a Saturn Award win. Over the following decades, Osment built a varied résumé that includes live-action dramas, comedies, voice roles in major animated franchises, and a Broadway debut.

Across film, television, video games, and the stage, Osment has worked with directors such as Steven Spielberg and Robert Zemeckis and shared scenes with stars including Bruce Willis, Michael Caine, and Kevin Smith. He is the older brother of actress Emily Osment, and he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts in 2011.

Early Life and Background

Haley Joel Osment was born on April 10, 1988, in Los Angeles, California. He is the son of Theresa (née Seifert), a teacher, and Michael Eugene Osment, a theater and film actor. Both parents are natives of Birmingham, Alabama, and they have described his childhood as a "good old-fashioned Southern upbringing." Osment was raised Roman Catholic, and his father deliberately avoided baby talk when speaking with him as a toddler, encouraging clear communication from an early age. He has a younger sister, Emily Osment, who is also an actress, and the family supported his early interest in performing.

As a child, Osment wrestled and played basketball, football, and golf, with golf becoming a lifelong pursuit. He attended Flintridge Preparatory School in La Cañada Flintridge, California, where he balanced academic studies with auditions and on-set work. Growing up in a household connected to acting, with a father working in theater and film, gave him steady exposure to the craft and helped him feel comfortable in front of cameras and casting rooms.

Osment began his studies at New York University in 2007 and graduated four years later, in 2011, with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Tisch School of the Arts. The decision to complete a college degree reflected both his parents’ emphasis on education and his own desire to refine his training as he moved into adult roles.

Path to Acting

Osment’s entry into acting arrived at age four, when a talent scout signed him during a visit to a store. He won his first paid job, a Pizza Hut television commercial, by describing an IMAX theater screen as the biggest thing he had ever seen, and that audition led to his first series role on the ABC sitcom Thunder Alley later that same year. The early momentum continued with a guest arc on The Jeff Foxworthy Show and his feature film debut as Forrest Gump’s son in the 1994 film Forrest Gump, a small but memorable part that introduced him to a wide audience.

Throughout the mid-1990s, Osment built experience through guest spots on shows such as The Larry Sanders Show, Walker, Texas Ranger, Touched by an Angel, Chicago Hope, The Pretender, and Ally McBeal. He replaced Dyllan Christopher as Murphy’s son, Avery, in the final season of Murphy Brown and appeared in films including Bogus (1996) and the television movie The Lake (1998). These supporting and guest roles, alongside his work alongside future The Sixth Sense co-star Trevor Morgan in I’ll Remember April (1999), helped him develop a steady screen presence before his teen years.

Haley Joel Osment Career

Early Career (1992-1998)

Beginning in 1992, Osment moved from a Pizza Hut commercial into a string of television appearances and small film parts. His role on the ABC sitcom Thunder Alley marked his first series commitment, and he followed it with recurring work on The Jeff Foxworthy Show and a final-season turn on Murphy Brown. On the film side, he played the son of Tom Hanks’s title character in Forrest Gump (1994), appeared in Mixed Nuts (1994), and co-starred with Whoopi Goldberg and Gérard Depardieu in Bogus (1996). His work as a child performer during this period earned him a Young Artist Award tied to Forrest Gump, and it set the stage for the more demanding roles that would follow.

Breakthrough (1999-2003)

Osment first achieved stardom in 1999, when he co-starred with Bruce Willis in The Sixth Sense, playing the psychic child Cole Sear. For the role, he won the Saturn Award for Best Performance by a Younger Actor and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor, and the Screen Actors Guild Award, becoming the second-youngest performer ever nominated for a supporting Academy Award. He lost the final Oscar vote to Michael Caine, with whom he would later appear in Secondhand Lions. Cole Sear’s line "I see dead people" became a popular catchphrase and was ranked #44 on the American Film Institute’s list of 100 Movie Quotes.

In 2000, Osment took a leading role as Trevor McKinney in Pay It Forward, and the following year he appeared in Steven Spielberg’s A.I. Artificial Intelligence, a performance that won him a second Saturn Award for Best Younger Actor. Critic Roger Ebert wrote that "Osment, who is onscreen in almost every scene, is one of the best actors now working." He also starred as Romek in the Polish film Edges of the Lord (2001) and provided voice work for the Walt Disney Pictures films The Country Bears, The Hunchback of Notre Dame II, and The Jungle Book 2 between 2002 and 2003, before returning to live action with Secondhand Lions (2003), a role that brought him a Critics Choice Award. He also began voicing Sora in the Kingdom Hearts video game series in 2002.

Notable Works and Milestones

Osment’s signature works include Forrest Gump, The Sixth Sense, Pay It Forward, A.I. Artificial Intelligence, Secondhand Lions, and The Jungle Book 2, along with his long-running voice of Sora in the Kingdom Hearts series. Among his most dramatic moments is the climactic confession scene in The Sixth Sense, the physical and emotional demands of A.I. Artificial Intelligence under Steven Spielberg’s direction, and his return to the stage in the 2008 Broadway revival of David Mamet’s American Buffalo, a role that signaled his transition to adult parts.

Haley Joel Osment Award Nominations

Haley Joel Osment has earned major nominations for his work in film, including the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor, and the Screen Actors Guild Award, all for The Sixth Sense (1999). These nominations placed him among the youngest performers ever recognized in the supporting categories and helped establish him as one of the most-admired young actors of his generation.

Haley Joel Osment Awards Won

Haley Joel Osment has collected several major awards across film and animation, including the Saturn Award for Best Performance by a Younger Actor for The Sixth Sense (1999), a second Saturn Award for Best Younger Actor for A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), a Young Artist Award tied to Forrest Gump (1994), and a Critics Choice Award for Secondhand Lions (2003). He and his Montana Amazon team also won Best Feature Film at the Big Apple Film Festival in November 2010, an honor he shared as the film’s star and executive producer.

Haley Joel Osment Family

Osment was born to Theresa (née Seifert), a teacher, and Michael Eugene Osment, a theater and film actor, both originally from Birmingham, Alabama. He has a younger sister, Emily Osment, who is also an actress known for her work in television and music. The family’s roots in Alabama, and his parents’ connection to theater and education, shaped a home environment that valued both performance and learning.

Personal Life

Osment is an accomplished guitarist and pianist, and he has been an avid golfer since the age of seven, representing the U.S. team in the All-Star Cup 2005 under team leader Mark O’Meara and participating in the annual Michael Douglas & Friends Celebrity Golf Tournament. In 2006, he was injured in an automobile accident, suffering a broken rib and fractured shoulder blade, and later pleaded no contest to driving under the influence and misdemeanor drug possession, receiving three years’ probation, 60 hours in an alcohol rehabilitation and education program, a fine, and required attendance at Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. In 2025, Osment’s Altadena home was destroyed during the Eaton Fire, part of the January 2025 Southern California wildfires, and in April 2025 he was arrested at a Mammoth Lakes ski resort for public intoxication and possession of a controlled substance, later confirmed to be cocaine, an incident for which he apologized; in June 2025, he was sentenced to attend three Alcoholics Anonymous meetings a week for six months and to have twice-weekly sessions with his therapist during the same period.