Haley Joel Osment will soon open for his Broadway debut in “American Buffalo.” One of David Mamet’s signature works, it tells the story of a bungled heist by three low-lifes based out of a Chicago Pawn Shop. Haley also recently completed work on “Montana Amazon,” a dark adventure about three oddballs that is funny, scary, touching … and painful - a film that speaks to the tragedy of the American Family.
Haley simply enjoys stretching his acting experience. In his last film, “Home of the Giants,” Haley played a budding writer who’s friendship is tested against the backdrop of classic Indiana basketball. He has squared off with Robert Duvall and Michael Caine in New Line Cinema’s “Secondhand Lions.” He gave an award winning performance in legendary director Steven Spielberg’s, “A.I.” He co-starred with Kevin Spacey and Helen Hunt in the adaptation of Catherine Ryan Hyde’s novel “Pay it Forward,” and squeezed in a trip to Poland to shoot “Edges of the Lord,” where he portrayed a Jewish boy sent away by his parents to hide with a Catholic family during WWII Nazi occupation.
Osment made an unforgettable impression on moviegoers with his devastating portrayal of the haunted Cole Sear. In the record breaking and internationally acclaimed film, “The Sixth Sense,” Haley co-starred with Bruce Willis and Toni Colette for director M. Night Shyamalan. For his performance, Osment was nominated for an Academy Award at age eleven. He received numerous film critics’ awards and was also nominated for a Golden Globe and a Screen Actors Guild Award.
An award-winning actor who began his television and film career at age five, Osment won his first honor, the Youth in Film Award, for his role as Forrest, Jr. in the Oscar-winning feature film, “Forrest Gump.”
Other feature film credits include Nora Ephron’s “Mixed Nuts,” Jason Alexander’s directorial debut, “For Better or Worse,” and Norman Jewison’s film, “Bogus,” co-starring Oscar winner Whoopi Goldberg and Gerard Depardieu.
In the voice-over arena, Osment is heard as Chip in Walt Disney’s animated release “Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas,” as Zephyr in “The Hunchback of Notre Dame Deux,” and as Beary in “The Country Bears.” Additionally, he was honored to be the voice of Mowgli in Disney’s “The Jungle Book 2.”
He made his acting debut starring opposite multi-Emmy winner Edward Asner in the television series “Thunder Alley.” He went on to co-star as Matt Foxworthy on “The Jeff Foxworthy Show,” and then appeared as Avery Brown on the long-running series, “Murphy Brown.”
Osment’s guest starring television credits begin with a two-part special of “The Pretender,” playing a kidnapped prodigy whose genius is exploited through mind control. On “Chicago Hope,” he found himself stuck in an elevator with a corpse. As guest star on “Touched By An Angel,” he explored the true-life story of Lou Gehrig’s disease. And on a two-part special of “Walker Texas Ranger,” he played Lucas, an orphaned boy dying of AIDS. Osment then captured audiences on a heartfelt episode of “Ally McBeal” playing a dying boy who wants to sue God.
In television films, Osment’s credits include the Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation of “The Ransom of Red Chief,” an NBC science fiction thriller, “The Lake,” and the World War II feature, “I’ll Remember April.”
His honors include three Young Star Awards for performances in TNT’s “Last Stand at Saber River” with Tom Selleck, the Hallmark presentation of the CBS drama “Cab to Canada,” with Maureen O’Hara, and “The Sixth Sense.” He is a recipient of the Broadcast Film Critics Award, the ShoWest Award and two-time recipient of the Saturn Award.