Capable to accomplish the same accolade in two contrasting film genres of comedy and drama, Jim Carrey, without doubt, has scored such an excellent attainment that only few thespians can match. Not only skilled in generating people's laughs, he also consistently demonstrates convincing portrayals of the dramatic roles he enacted, proving the rare talent he possesses within which enabled him to be one of the greatest stars in Hollywood film industry. More celebrated as a comedian, he has been lauded for displaying his elastic features, slapstick performances, and zany comedies in such unique ways, so that every character he played has its own quirkiness to linger in the audience's mind. What probably goes unnoticed is that behind all of the kudos and acknowledgement he has received, the road to this point had been indeed rocky also hard to pass through, not to mention his sorrow to deal with poverty in his early life.

The youngest child of four children in the family of some French Canadian roots, Jim was born as James Eugene Carrey on January 17, 1962 in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada to Percy and Kathleen Carrey. His interest in entertaining people has been apparent since he was still a kid, starting from his desire to comfort his mother who at that time was afflicted with hypochondria, an extreme depression of mind or spirits often centered on imaginary physical ailments. "She laid in bed and took a lot of pain pills," he recalled. "I used to go in there and do impressions of praying mantises, and weird things, and whatever. I'd bounce off the walls and throw myself down the stairs to make her feel better." Later extended the funny performance to his classmates at Aldershot School in Burlington, he even obtained the teacher's permission to regularly carry out a stand-up comedy in class few minutes before the end of school day.

Jim's life made a significant turn by the time he entered the 9th grade when Percy lost his job as an accountant, forcing the family to sell their house and relocate to the eastern part of Toronto where all of them conducted the work of either security guard or janitor at Titan Wheels factory in Scarborough. Continued his study at the town's Agincourt Collegiate Institute while also worked in the factory for eight hours every day after school, Jim, who intended to support his family's life, eventually left both routine activities to look for an opportunity in Toronto's comedy clubs. An initial performance at Yuk Yuk's sadly did not result well, but the 15-years-old kid was not discouraged for he thus kept reworking and refining his material to satisfyingly become the club's headliner when he made his comeback two years later.

Aiming to find larger chance in U.S., Jim headed for Los Angeles in 1979 and managed to impress American people through his shows at The Comedy Store, including Rodney Dangerfield who shortly thereafter signed him to be the opening act of his tour. With this early success, he began to venture into screen production which first conducted through an appearance in a 48-minutes Canadian TV-movie entitled "Introducing... Janet" a.k.a. "Rubberface" (1983), followed by the release of two other film features, "Copper Mountain" a.k.a. "Club Med" and "All In Good Taste" in the same year. A hope to encounter his breakthrough in his next two roles quickly vanished when the airing of his comedy series "The Duck Factory" (1984) was cancelled by NBC after 13 episodes while his 1985 movie project, "Once Bitten", in which he acquired a major role, did not result as expected.

Disappointed but not devastated, Jim then took part in Julien Temple's sci-fi comedy, "Earth Girls Are Easy" (1989), to star alongside Geena Davis, Jeff Goldblum, and Damon Wayans who not only became his good friend afterwards, but also suggested his brother Keenen Ivory Wayans to include him in their sketch comedy show, "In Living Color" (1990-1994). Portraying various characters, most notable the psychotic Fire Marshall Bill, Jim successfully garnered attention from TV audience through his wacky comical expressions along with outrageous acts, subsequently led him to have his own show time comedy special, "Jim Carrey's Unnatural Act" in 1991 and the lead role in Tom Shadyac's "Ace Ventura: Pet Detective" (1994). Much to his delight, the picture turned out to be a box-office hit with a great domestic income of over 72 million U.S. dollar, therefore propelled him to wide exposure besides brought him to receive more propitious film offers in Hollywood.

Throughout the rest 1994 up to the year 1995, Jim, with his manic antics, fantastically led his movies to commercial success as seen in "The Mask" (1994), "Dumb & Dumber" (1994), "Batman Forever" (1995), and "Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls" (1995) which all scored above $108 million. Granted various prestigious honors, particularly a nomination in Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Comedy/Musical category at the 1995 Golden Globe Awards for his role in the former one, he gloriously took home four MTV Movie Awards out of nine nominations from 1994 until 1996 through his enactments in these films. Already became a celebrated figure, it was not really shocking then when the media revealed that he got the payment of 20 million U.S. dollars to portray the title character in "The Cable Guy" (1996), a record payday for a comedic actor at that time.

Unfortunately, "The Cable Guy" apparently was not able to follow the trails of its predecessor as this flick failed to exceed the amount of $100 million while also was negatively reviewed by the critics. However, Jim hastily bounced back with an enjoyable performance of a chronically dishonest attorney named Fletcher Reede in "Liar Liar" (1997) for it wonderfully collected more than 181 million U.S. dollars during its run in the domestic theaters to be one of the top grossing films in that year, plus directed him to gain his second Golden Globe nomination in the same category with the previous one by 1998. Looking on this attainment, many surmised that the funnyman would keep sticking to comedy genre in his next projects, but he instead took the risk to star in Peter Weir's drama, "The Truman Show" (1998), a crossing he had not done since his appearance in a TV-movie entitled "Doing Time on Maple Drive" (1992).

His decision to join this feature proved to be the right one indeed as Hollywood Foreign Press Association ultimately gave him a Golden Globe Award in 1999 for the category of Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama. Portrayed American substantial entertainer Andy Kaufman in Milos Forman's biopic, "Man on the Moon" (1999), Jim once again received another honor at the same event in 2000, this time in Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Comedy/Musical category. Successfully proved that he could gain accolades from performing serious roles, this talented actor marked the beginning of 21th century with his return to comedy through "Me, Myself & Irene" and "%How the Grinch Stole Christmas%" before involved himself in Frank Darabont's romantic drama, "The Majestic" (2001) alongside Martin Landau, Ron Rifkin, also Laurie Holden.

Once more exhibited his amazing comedic skills in the box-office hit of "Bruce Almighty" (2003), Jim satisfyingly evoked critics to give him huge accolades for his brilliant enactment in Michel Gondry's thought-provoking feature, "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" (2004), opposite Kate Winslet. Furthermore, it directed him to obtain his fifth Golden Globe Awards nominations in 2005 for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy yet on the other hand failed to serve as an effective vehicle to get a nomination at Academy Awards he has aimed for since the glorious achievement in "The Truman Show." Continued to exhibit his comical talent in playing the wicked Count Olaf in "Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events" (2004), he next was seen teaming up with Tea Leoni in "Fun with Dick and Jane" (2005), a remake of the 1977 movie starred by Jane Fonda, while tried his hand at thriller genre in Joel Schumacher's "The Number 23" (2007).

Sad for Jim, his foray into the latter flick did not fare well as expected for critics mostly were harsh in giving their reviews on the film though commercial result was rather moderate. Going undaunted, he next took time to lend his voice in animated features "Horton Hears a Who" (2008) and "A Christmas Carol (2008/II)" before making his way back into comedies through "Sober Buddies" , "Me Time", and "I Love You Phillip Morris", all slated for 2009 releases. The year, in the meantime, would also find him portraying real-life entrepreneur Robert Ripley in Paramount Pictures' biopic about the man "Ripley's Believe It or Not!", which marked his reunion with "Almighty" scribe Steve Oedekerk.

Concerning his private life, Jim first held his marriage ceremony in March 1987 to a waitress named Melissa Womer and later welcomed their daughter, Jane Erin, on September 6, 1987. Sadly, the togetherness came to its end after six years for the couple decided to separate in November 1993, leaving the custody into his former wife's hand so that he had to provide $10,000 every month for child support which later became a dispute in 2003 when Womer claimed that the amount was insufficient since their daughter needed extra money to fund her burgeoning necessity. Meanwhile, Jim then found a new love in his "Dumb & Dumber" co-star, Lauren Holly whom he married on September 23, 1996, but it only lasted for less than a year as they eventually broke-up on July 29, 1997. Dated Renee Zellweger following their collaboration in "Me, Myself, & Irene" from 1999 to 2000, he afterwards has been romantically linked to Russian Ballerina Anastasiya Volochkova, Danish model Betina Holte, actress January Jones, and Jenny McCarthy.