Liam Aiken

About Liam Aiken

Liam Padraic Aiken (born January 7, 1990) is an American actor who has starred in a number of films, such as Stepmom and Good Boy!. He more recently starred as Klaus Baudelaire in Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, based on the series of books.

Liam Aiken was born in Manhattan, New York, the only child of Bill Aiken, an MTV producer, and an Irish immigrant mother, Moya Aiken. He made his professional acting debut in a Ford Motor Company Wind star commercial. Liam made his stage debut in the Broadway play A Doll's House at the age of seven and his film debut playing Parker Posey's son in Henry Fool in the same year. It was because of his need of a college fund, that his mother encouraged him to become an actor. When Liam found that he enjoyed acting, he decided to continue.

Aiken's first major film role was playing Susan Sarandon's young son in Stepmom in 1998, which also starred Julia Roberts and Jena Malone. He appeared as Tom Hanks' younger son in the 2002 film Road to Perdition. He starred in the family film about dogs from space,Good Boy! playing the lead, Owen Baker, in 2003. He turned down the role of Cole Sear in The Sixth Sense (1999) because his mother felt he was too young for the death-fixated role; the role went instead to Haley Joel Osment. Liam was also considered for the role of Harry Potter, as he had previously worked with director Chris Columbus on Stepmom. Unfortunately, he was unable to take the part as he was not British, so a young British actor named Daniel Radcliffe took the part. Liam then went on to play the intelligent, 12-year-old orphan, Klaus Baudelaire in Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events in 2004. He has also been considered for the role of Matt Cruse in Kenneth Oppel's novel Airborn.