Auditioned for Anakin Skywalker in "Phantom Menace", but didn't get a callback.
Son of Eugene Osment
Is the youngest winner ever of an individual MTV Movie Award.
Became the eighth-youngest nominee for a competitive Academy Award in 2000.
He's a big lover of lizards. He owns two leopard geckos from Pakistan as pets, an as a favorite past-time likes to catch and release lizards in his backyard or on vacations.
He is a straight-A student
Hopes to go to Yale University.
His favorite food is Chinese food and he eats it constantly.
Started acting at age 4.
Runs Cross Country for Flintridge Prep
Favorite authors: Tolkien and Edgar Allan Poe
Favorite music / bands: R.E.M., Coldplay, Radiohead, Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin.
His father, Eugene Osment, frequently makes cameo appearances in his movies.
Was wanted by Steven Spielberg to play Harry Potter when Spielberg was considered to direct Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001).
Though he is now a well-known actor, what many people don't know is that "Forest Gump (1994)", a very popular contemporary classic, is one of his first films. It is not surprising, since his screentime was only about 2 minutes, despite playing the son of the title character. It was another 5 years before he became famous with "The Sixth Sense (1999)", another popular contemporary classic.
Though he took a 2 years break from filming after "A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)", before making a brief comeback with "Secondhand Lions (2003)", he had plenty of commitments during those 2 years of absence from the screen. His works include making promotional tours for "A.I. Artificial Intelligence" during the summer holiday in 2001, making TV appearences, and doing voice-overing works.
Although tipped as Steven Spielberg's favourite to play Harry Potter in _Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone_ had Spielberg directed the film as once planned, Osment himself denied this and was vehemently against the series even being made into films lest the 'magic' of the novels be ruined.
For audiences around the world whose ears ring with the haunting and fateful revelation of a child tortured by terrifying visions of the afterlife, Haley Joel Osment may forever be linked to his role in what would rank among the most popular supernatural thrillers ever made, The Sixth Sense (1999). An Oscar nominee at the age of 11, Haley Joel Osment quickly became one of the most recognized and versatile young actors working in film, proving to audiences that his talents exceeded typecasting by constantly tackling new and challenging roles and characterizations.
Born in Los Angeles, CA, on April 10, 1988, Haley Joel Osment set his acting career into motion, as many actors do, by appearing in commercials and taking small roles on television. Accompanied by his father to an audition for a Pizza Hut commercial and initially discouraged by the overwhelming amount of children vying for the role, Haley Joel Osment eventually stuck out the wait at his father's request and landed the role that would launch his career. Soon making Haley Joel Osment's feature debut as the youthful counterpart of the titular character in the phenomenally successful Forrest Gump in 1994, Haley Joel Osment alternated between television (Murphy Brown and The Jeff Foxworthy Show) and film (Mixed Nuts and Bogus) while frequently appearing in such made-for-TV movies as The Ransom of Red Chief before making his breakthrough in director M. Night Shayamalan's The Sixth Sense.
Following the success of The Sixth Sense with the well-intended but fatally flawed feel-good failure Pay It Forward, Haley Joel Osment escaped relatively unscathed as critics recognized the young actor's exceptional performance in what was otherwise a flop with critics and audiences alike. Imagination was the key to Haley Joel Osment's next project: director Steven Spielberg's long-anticipated, much-hyped A.I. An elaborately futuristic tale of an android that aspires to experience human emotion, A.I. was the first and only collaboration of two of the most influential filmmakers of the 20th century, the late Stanley Kubrick (who conceived the story based on Brian Aldiss' short story Supertoys Last All Summer Long) and Spielberg. In addition to appearing onscreen, Haley Joel Osment lent his voice to a number of animated films in 2000 and 2001, including the Disney sequels The Hunchback of Notre Dame II and The Jungle Book II. After once again providing voice work for the comedy musical The Country Bears, Haley Joel Osment returned to the screen body intact with Secondhand Lions in 2003. Cast as an intorverted youngster whose irresponsible mother sends him off to spend his summer with his eccentric uncles in Texas, Haley Joel Osment's onscreen abilities were key in making his character's transformation from withdrawn child to responsible young man believable.
