---
name: "Sean Gullette"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/sean-gullette"
fi1m_id: "sean-gullette"
imdb_id: "nm0347797"
tmdb_id: 6432
wikidata_id: "Q1751820"
roles: ["Actor"]
born: "4 June 1968"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 2
average_fi1m_score: 79
average_as: "actor"
average_over: 2
updated: "2026-09-17T22:19:10.577051+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Sean Gullette

## Identity

Sean Gullette

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/sean-gullette
- **Type:** Person
- **Fi1m ID:** sean-gullette
- **IMDb ID:** nm0347797
- **TMDB ID:** 6432
- **Wikidata ID:** Q1751820
- **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sean_Gullette, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1751820, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0347797/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/6432

Actor. Born 4 June 1968 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

## Details

- **Work:** Actor
- **Born:** 4 June 1968, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
- **Active:** 1998–2000
- **Average Fi1m score:** 79, as actor, over 2 titles
- **Fi1m score by decade:** 1990s 78 (1), 2000s 80 (1)
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sean_Gullette, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1751820, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0347797/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/6432

## Streaming the US now

- **The Roku Channel:** [*Pi*](https://film.one/film/pi.md) (78)

For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country.

## Fi1m on Sean Gullette

> Sean Gullette makes intellectual obsession feel painfully human in *Pi*, without softening the man caught up in it. We recommend him there for the loneliness beneath the certainty, though the direction sometimes pushes his distress too hard.

In *Pi* (1998), Sean Gullette's Maximillian Cohen searches for mathematical patterns with a conviction that makes ordinary company seem expendable. Gullette does not make him agreeable, and does not need to: we can understand the desire to be right without enjoying his presence. We felt uneasy watching him because that desire remained recognisable even when the reasoning became difficult to follow. The performance gives a cerebral thriller a person to worry about.

Darren Aronofsky gets a compelling performance from him, though his direction does not always give it enough space. Matthew Libatique's high-contrast black-and-white photography makes bright areas glare and shadows lose their detail, while Matthew Maraffi's production design keeps the surroundings cramped and unwelcoming. Those choices help us share Cohen's discomfort, but Aronofsky presses the distress so relentlessly that there is soon little left to discover about him. The film could have trusted Gullette to convey more of the strain himself.

Gullette also shares the story credit on *Pi*, an unusually substantial start to his professional film work. Parts followed in *Requiem for a Dream* (2000), again with Aronofsky, and Brad Anderson's *Happy Accidents* (2000). The small, unsettling role in *Requiem for a Dream* suits his intensity, though it gives him less room to work. Most later acting parts were supporting or episodic. His subsequent move towards writing and directing included *Traitors* (2013), his first feature as director.

We would like to see more work that gives Gullette the space *Pi* sometimes denies him. He can make Cohen's need to be right intelligible without making him pleasant, and that is enough to sustain our interest when the theories become unpersuasive. The pressure need not be kept at full strength for us to notice him. Start with *Pi*, provided an evening inside an obsessive mind sounds tolerable.

## Biography

Sean Gullette is an American actor, writer, director and producer. He was born on 4 June 1968 in Boston, Massachusetts, and attended Harvard University.

Gullette first gained recognition for co-writing the story and playing the lead role of Maximillian Cohen in Darren Aronofsky's *Pi* (1998). He later appeared as Arnold the Shrink in Aronofsky's *Requiem for a Dream* (2000) and as Mark in *Happy Accidents* (2000). His other acting credits include roles in *Law & Order: Criminal Intent* (2001) and *Couture* (2026).

Gullette made his feature directorial debut with *Traitors* (2013). He has also written and produced short films and series, and maintains a long collaboration with Aronofsky.

*Sources: imdb.com, en.wikipedia.org, encyclopedia.com.*

## On Fi1m (2)

- *Requiem for a Dream* (2000), Fi1m 80, as Arnold the Shrink — [page](https://film.one/film/requiem-for-a-dream.md)
- *Pi* (1998), Fi1m 78, as Maximillian Cohen — [page](https://film.one/film/pi.md)

## Complete filmography (18)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *See Me* (2026), as Seamus
- *Sparks* (2026), Consulting Producer
- *Couture* (2026), as Ray (voice)
- *The Sight Unseen* (2025), as Father Byrnes
- *Sisters on Track* (2021), Story Consultant
- *Zanj Revolution* (2015), Actor
- *Traitors* (2013), Director, Producer, Screenplay
- *Blue Ridge* (2012), as Mr. Johnston
- *Traitors* (2011), Director, Producer
- *Die zwei Leben des Daniel Shore* (2009), as Henry Porter
- *Le bled (Buildings in a Field)* (2009), Producer
- *The Situation* (2007), as Officer Martinez
- *The Undeserved* (2004), as Wayne Hapgood
- *Law & Order: Criminal Intent* (2001), series, as Ken Christopher
- *Requiem for a Dream* (2000), as Arnold the Shrink — Fi1m 80, [page](https://film.one/film/requiem-for-a-dream.md)
- *Happy Accidents* (2000), as Mark
- *Pi* (1998), as Maximillian Cohen · Story — Fi1m 78, [page](https://film.one/film/pi.md)
- *Voodoo Doll*, as Pope

## Gallery

- ![Sean Gullette in Stiletto magazine, 2008, from the feature "SEAN G: AN AMERICAN IN PARIS" Photos: Benoit Peverelli (2007)](https://film.one/media/person/87789/gallery-19534f7cd00a.jpg) Sean Gullette in Stiletto magazine, 2008, from the feature "SEAN G: AN AMERICAN IN PARIS" Photos: Benoit Peverelli (2007) — Photo: Benoit Peverelli, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/53/Sean_Gullette.jpg/1280px-Sean_Gullette.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Sean Gullette (2006)](https://film.one/media/person/87789/gallery-c14722cbe9f9.jpg) Sean Gullette (2006) — Yto and Sean and Vega, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/70/Sean_Gullette_photo.jpg/1280px-Sean_Gullette_photo.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Sean Gullette](https://film.one/media/person/87789/gallery-af985c3827fd.jpg) Sean Gullette — Sean_Gullette_photo.jpg: Yto and Sean and Vega
derivative work: RanZag (talk), CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/84/Sean_Gullette_photo_2.jpg/1280px-Sean_Gullette_photo_2.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Sean Gullette](https://film.one/media/person/87789/gallery-a5885f419224.jpg) Sean Gullette — Image via TMDB

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/sean-gullette
