California native Edward Furlong had never considered a career as an actor until he was discovered by casting director Mali Finn, who was looking for a streetwise teen for a critical role. He eventually impressed James Cameron and was cast as John Connor in Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Released in the summer of 1991, T2 became “the biggest movie of 1991” and “one of the great feel-bad blockbusters of all time”, the role earning Edward an MTV Movie Award for Best Breakthrough Performance and a Saturn Award for Best Performance by a Younger Actor.

Edward’s role in T2 made him a teen heartthrob and a star, and he followed up with appearances alongside Anthony Edwards and Clancy Brown in Pet Sematary Two; Jeff Bridges in American Heart; Kathy Bates in A Home of Our Own; Tim Roth, Maximilian Schell and Vanessa Redgrave in Little Odessa; and Meryl Streep and Liam Neeson in Before and After, as well as featuring in Aerosmith’s music videos for “Livin’ on the Edge” and “Big Ones You Can Look At”. He received another Saturn nomination for Best Performance by a Younger Actor for Pet Sematary 2 and an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Male Supporting Actor for American Heart, and won a Young Artist Award for Best Youth Actor Leading Role in a Motion Picture Drama for A Home of Our Own.

Other starring roles came in Brainscan and the film adaptation of Truman Capote’s The Grass Harp, before he reprised the role of John Connor in a Universal Studios theme park attraction known as T2-3D: Battle Across Time alongside Linda Hamilton, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Robert Patrick. He played the title role in Pecker, a John Waters comedy and starred in American History X alongside Edward Norton and in the cult hit Detroit Rock City, with his future partner Natasha Lyonne.

Moving into the next century, Edward starred opposite Willem Defoe in Steve Buscemi’s Animal Factory, and in the medieval drama The Knights of the Quest, before he appeared in Metallica’s music video for “The Unnamed Feeling” and played the eponymous leads in Jimmy in the acclaimed indie film Jimmy & Judy, and The Crow: Wicked Prayer, with David Boreanaz and Tara Reid. Edward featured in shows such as CSI: NY as villain Shane Casey, Star Trek: Renegades, The Glades, and Perception, and many other films followed, including Attack on Darfur, Kingshighway, This Is Not a Movie, where he starred with Peter Coyote and Edi Gathegi, Tequila, Assault on Wall Street, The Reunion, and Seth Rogen’s The Green Hornet.

Edward returned to the Terminator universe with Terminator: Dark Fate, with his teen likeness recreated via CGI. He performed for facial capture in the opening scene of young John Connor’s death. More recently, Edward appeared in Heart of a Champion with fellow Metro Comic Con guest Casper van Dien, and starred in The Forest Hills and the Lovecraftian horror film Unspeakable: Beyond the Wall of Sleep.