Written By: Nolan Collins

He won your heart in “500 Days of Summer”; he had one of the greatest fight scenes of recent history in the film “Inception”; and he is set to play a huge supporting role in Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight Rises.”  Oh by the way, he has FOUR MORE MOVIES (maybe three, depending on scheduling conflicts) coming out in 2012.

 Joseph Gordon-Levitt (JGL) has become the “it” actor of the moment, but what many don’t know, is that he’s been acting for a very long time.

As a child actor, JGL first appeared in a 1988 TV movie entitled “Stranger on my Land”, when he was just 7 years old. He later became known for his role as Tommy Solomon in the popular TV show “3rd Rock From The Sun.”  He spent 5 years on this show, then started doing several indie films which allowed him to really show his enormous range as an actor.

A mentally unstable youth (“Manic”).  A teenage hustler (“Mysterious Skin”).  A high school loner bent on solving a murder mystery (“Brick”).  An injured athlete with brain damage that gets used in a bank robbery, then tries to foil the criminals’ plan (“The Lookout”).  A wanna-be hitman (“Killshot”).  All of these are just a few of the roles Levitt played in indie films during the early 2000s.

He really was noticed as an adult actor in “500 Days of Summer” (for which he garnered a Golden Globe nomination), his career then took off!  He continued to throw a few indies in the mix, but hit it big with “Inception,” followed by the highly acclaimed “50/50″ for which he was nominated for his second Golden Globe.

Since 2010, Levitt has been pushing his one-of-a-kind production company, HitRECord.  This unique company involves over 200,000 artists from every corner of the world.  Artists have the ability to post any kind of art (music, drawings, photographs, writing, etc.) and others can download that work and add their own art to it… remix it, so-to-speak.  They call these collaborative artistic works “records.”  The great thing about it is that it allows artists from all over the world to collaborate in a huge, creative community…while also making some money.  JGL puts together books, CDs, DVDs, etc. with collections of these “records” and, when those collections make any money, every contributor gets their cut… even if 1,000 people were involved.  It’s a wonderfully unique opportunity and it’s something Levitt is extremely passionate about.

The most recent news in Levitt’s busy career is his feature film directorial debut.  He is set to direct a film tentatively titled “Don Jon’s Addiction” in which he will also play the lead:  a ladies man who tries to become less of a selfish jerk when it comes to women.  JGL also wrote the script.  Very few details are available about this project, but we do know, that Scarlett Johansson is signed on as the female lead.  Be on the lookout for more info on this film that is set to be released in 2013.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt also plays guitar and does a great AC/DC impression (which he proved when he appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live while promoting “50/50″).  The man is talented and will do big things in the upcoming years.