American Pie brought the raunchy teen sex comedy to a whole new generation. The tale of four friends (Jason Biggs, Chris Klein, Thomas Ian Nicholas, and Eddie Kaye Thomas) determined to lose their virginity before high school graduation was an unexpected hit with similarly minded, gross-out-ready teenagers. The movie catapulted many of its young leads into stardom, and the vast majority of the cast returned for Pie’s direct sequels, including American Pie 2, American Wedding, and American Reunion.
It’s been over 20 years since the original film made us squirm in our seats, so we thought we’d check in on the American Pie cast to see where they are now. (Who could have predicted that Stifler’s Mom would end up on the cover of TIME?)
Jason Biggs (Jim)
Though as a child he’d had a stint on Broadway and secured a Daytime Emmy nomination for the soap opera As the World Turns, Biggs was relatively unknown before the starring role in American Pie as the sex-obsessed, love-starved Jim made him famous. Keeping in line with the character, he followed Pie with a string of comedies in the 2000s — like Loser, Boys and Girls, Saving Silverman — and, like most of the original cast members, the American Pie sequels.
Following American Reunion’s release in 2012, Biggs told EW about the special bond between the cast. “No matter what kind of paths we’ve taken since, and no matter how long we go without speaking or seeing each other, it’s like we get back and there’s this energy that’s just fantastic,” he said.
Biggs also had a few appearances on The Good Wife (2012-2013), voiced Leonardo in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and got cast in Orange Is the New Black as main character Piper’s fiancé Larry in 2013. Post-OITNB, Biggs briefly starred in the sitcom Outmatched, about a couple whose kids are smarter than they are, while a few of his American Pie castmates guest-starred on the show. He also had a short-lived reality/game show series in 2021 called Jason Biggs’ Cash at Your Door, and has an upcoming holiday movie called Best. Christmas. Ever. with Heather Graham and Brandy.
Biggs is married to writer and actress Jenny Mollen, whom he met on the set of My Best Friend’s Girl in 2007. The couple has two sons, Sid and Lazlo.
Eugene Levy (Jim’s dad)
For our money, Eugene Levy’s well-meaning but awkward birds and the bees talks are the funniest parts of American Pie — especially since Levy was encouraged to improvise in dad scenes, like finding his son violating a pie or offering him a selection of girlie mags.
Before Pie, Levy already had a solid comic history going back decades, starting with the classic Canadian comedy troupe Second City. As various other members, like John Candy and Martin Short, pivoted to film, Levy appeared in their movies Splash (1984) and Father of the Bride (1991). He also had a notable scene-stealing part as a stern sales clerk in the 2001 John Cusack movie Serendipity and has since done voiceover work in movies like Finding Dory (2016) and Over the Hedge (2006).
Undoubtedly, Levy’s most valuable partner from Second City is Catherine O’Hara. The pair not only co-starred in several Christopher Guest mockumentary productions like Waiting for Guffman (1996), Best in Show (2000), and A Mighty Wind (2003), often playing spouses, but they recently wrapped a several-season stint as Johnny and Moira Rose on Schitt’s Creek. The cast swept the 2020 Emmys, with Levy winning Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series 37 years after he won for Second City Television. Schitt’s Creek was a family affair for Levy, as he co-created it with his son Dan Levy, who plays his on-screen son, David, while his daughter Sarah also appeared in the series as Twyla.
Schitt’s is undoubtedly a tough act to follow, but Levy will soon release the movie Summer Camp alongside Oscar winners Kathy Bates and Diane Keaton.
Natasha Lyonne (Jessica)
Natasha Lyonne’s street-smart Jessica, who counsels pals Vicky, Kevin, and Finch on their relationship troubles, was a definite precursor to the weary characters she later portrays on prestige series like Netflix’s Russian Doll and Peacock’s Poker Face.
A former child star, Lyonne starred in many other ’90s films in addition to American Pie, such as Woody Allen’s Everyone Says I Love You (1996), Slums of Beverly Hills (1998), Detroit Rock City (1999), and But I’m a Cheerleader (1999). But she also had some run-ins with the law due to addiction issues.
Fortunately, after some time in rehab in 2006, Lyonne got cast as the irrepressible Nicky Nichols in the Netflix series Orange Is the New Black beside fellow Pie co-star Jason Biggs, earning her first Emmy nomination in the process. She has since received three more for writing, producing, and acting in Russian Doll. You can also hear her signature vocals in animated projects like Big Mouth and DC League of Super-Pets. As for her personal life, Lyonne began dating Fred Armisen in 2014, though they split in 2022.
Alyson Hannigan (Michelle)
Band geek Michelle, played by Alyson Hannigan, turns out to be much more exciting than Jim could have dreamed of when he asks her to prom. It sounds like Hannigan has nothing but affection for the teen franchise, saying on The Kelly Clarkson Show that it’s “lovely to be associated with a movie people still know.” The former child star was already starring in Buffy the Vampire Slayer as Willow when American Pie was released, and was a central cast member for all seven seasons from 1997 to 2003.
She soon switched from supernatural to sitcom for her next long-running series, How I Met Your Mother, in which she played Lily Aldrin, a wannabe artist and partner to Jason Segel’s Marshall, for nine seasons. Along the way, she appeared in movies like Love, Wedding, Marriage (2011) and did voiceover work for Robot Chicken, American Dad!, and more. Her latest main cast television role was voicing the mom in Disney Junior’s Fancy Nancy.
She married her Buffy and HIMYM costar Alexis Denisof and the pair have two children. She’ll play Cheryl in the upcoming rom-com Dodie & Cheryl Get Hitched, betrothed to Mira Sorvino’s Dodie.
Mena Suvari (Heather)
While Mena Suvari’s role as the virginal choir girl Heather (who eventually wins the heart of Oz) was certainly noteworthy, it was not her biggest screen moment of 1999. That distinction belongs to her star-making turn as the cheerleader object of middle-aged Kevin Spacey’s desires in the Oscar-winning American Beauty. Suvari followed those successes by starring with her American Pie costar Biggs in Loser (2000) and guest-starring in Beauty creator Alan Ball’s HBO series Six Feet Under as Edie.
Throughout the 2000s, she had several more movie roles, like playing another cheerleader in Sugar & Spice (2001), Beauty Shop (2005) with Queen Latifah and Alicia Silverstone, and Domino (2005) with Keira Knightley. Students of the macabre may also recognize Suvari from American Horror Story as the Black Dahlia in seasons Murder House and Apocalypse.
In 2018, Suvari married set designer Michael Hope, and they have one child. The actress also has several upcoming projects, including portraying Ronald Reagan’s first wife Jane Wyman in a Reagan biopic starring Dennis Quaid as the late president.
Chris Klein (Oz)
Director Alexander Payne discovered Chris Klein in Nebraska when he was scouting actors for his high school drama Election (1999). Klein subsequently made his film debut by starring alongside Reese Witherspoon and Matthew Broderick as Tracy Flick’s kind but dim-witted, football-playing rival for student body president. American Pie was only his second movie, but Klein quickly embarked on a solid cinematic career, appearing in We Were Soldiers (2002), Rollerball (2002), and our personal favorite, the former nerd Dusty Dinkleman in the underrated Ryan Reynolds comedy Just Friends (2005). He also entered rehab for alcohol addiction in 2010. “It got to the point where I was a fragile shadow of the young man that came into this business,” he told PEOPLE when he was 19 months sober. “Today, I’m the luckiest guy alive.”
More recently, he appeared in the TV series Wilfred, the 2018 rom-com The Competition with Thora Birch, and in 2019’s Benchwarmers 2: Breaking Balls. After so many years as the good guy, Klein’s latest roles have featured a dark side, like the big bad Cicada in CW’s The Flash and as JoAnna Garcia Swisher’s unfaithful ex-husband in the Netflix series Sweet Magnolias.
Thomas Ian Nicholas (Kevin)
Thomas Ian Nicholas was an experienced child actor before American Pie, starring in films like Rookie of the Year (1993) and A Kid in King Arthur’s Court (1995). Post-Pie, he could be seen as Claudia’s boyfriend Todd on Party of Five, and in 2002, he acted in films like Halloween: Resurrection and The Rules of Attraction. In the 2010s, Nicholas also played Abbie Hoffman in The Chicago 8 (2011), a young Walt Disney in Walt Before Mickey (2015), and Martin Scorcese in James Franco’s Zeroville (2019). He also appeared in the Nicole Holofcener film Please Give (2010), starred in the 2020 film Adverse, and was featured in several episodes of the short-lived hospital drama Red Band Society.
The actor added a music career to his résumé in 2008 with his own Thomas Nicholas Band. Coming up: Underdeveloped, a new series about a group of failed producers working together at a production company, which he will also be executive-producing. He is divorced from DJ Colette, and the pair have two children, one of whom, Nolan River, has appeared in the TV series New Girl and the 2021 M. Night Shyamalan movie Old.
Tara Reid (Vicky)
Like most of the female characters in American Pie, Tara Reid’s Vicki is wiser than her male counterpart, in this case, her boyfriend Kevin (Nicholas). She realizes that even though the two finally lost their virginity to each other, they likely aren’t headed for a long-term, long-distance relationship (although the pair continue to gravitate toward each other in the sequels).
Just before Pie, former child actor Reid made a name for herself as Bunny in the Coen brothers’ classic The Big Lebowski (1998), plus more appearances in Urban Legend (also 1998) and Cruel Intentions (1999).
Like so many of her costars, American Pie shot Reid straight into stardom, notably going on to star in the action-horror flick Alone in the Dark (2005). In the 2000s, she also became known as a party girl, famous for being famous, dating MTV host Carson Daly, and hanging with Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan. She even had her own reality show, Taradise, on E!, though it was promptly canceled. Reid told Variety in 2022, “There was a part of me that kind of got circled in that circle… [But] I never got arrested, never did a sex tape, never did anything really wrong except have a good time.”
Reid has worked steadily since American Pie, though her most notable recent projects are the seven Sharknado movies as well as a multi-episode arc on Scrubs. She has a slew of roles coming up, including Hollywood Heist with Alec Baldwin. Reid also has been producing more works herself, telling Variety, “I finally decided, I’m not going to wait for people to cast me, I’m going to start casting myself… I’m going to make my own destiny, my own future.”
Seann William Scott (Stifler)
Seann William Scott was also a relative newbie to the movie industry when he was cast as the incessantly annoying but compelling Stifler, the guy that somehow manages to make every situation more painful and awkward. Scott quickly capitalized on his American Pie success with movies like the horror film Final Destination (2000), horror comedy Evolution (2001), and similar guy-focused hangout comedies like Road Trip and Dude, Where’s My Car? in 2000.
After playing Bo in The Dukes of Hazzard (2005) with Johnny Knoxville and Jessica Simpson, as well as being Billy Bob Thornton’s foil in Mr. Woodcock and voicing Crash in the Ice Age movies, Scott eventually found his way to TV, stepping in after Clayne Crawford was ousted from the Lethal Weapon series. More recently, Scott is acting against type as a priest in the current Fox small-town mockumentary series Welcome to Flatch. He’ll also appear in the upcoming Paul Feig comedy Grand Death Lotto, with Awkwafina and John Cena.
Jennifer Coolidge (Stifler’s Mom)
Stifler’s mom only shows up at the end of the movie, and even then is just around long enough to have quick pool-table sex with Finch — but her effect as a seductive Mrs. Robinson-type is undeniable. At the time, we had no idea the heights that the then-little-known Jennifer Coolidge would eventually reach.
Not only did she quickly carve out iconic roles as Paulette in Legally Blonde (2001) and as the wicked but hilarious stepmother in Hilary Duff’s A Cinderella Story (2004), she also become a solid member of Christopher Guest’s stable of actors for his mockumentary films — like A Mighty Wind and Best in Show — alongside Eugene Levy. She was later a series regular on 2 Broke Girls and The Secret Life of the American Teenager while also making guest appearances in a myriad of shows like Friends, Party Down, and Sex and the City, as well as doing voiceover roles in everything from Gravity Falls and Fish Hooks to the Alvin and the Chipmunks franchise.
But of course, nothing imprinted Coolidge onto our collective consciousness like her role as Tanya in Mike White’s smash-hit HBO series The White Lotus. She won a slew of awards, including an Emmy and being one of EW’s Entertainers of the Year, for playing the ill-fated heiress. Coolidge also recently starred in the Jennifer Lopez action comedy Shotgun Wedding (2022) and the Netflix series The Watcher. And good news, Paulette fans: She will return in the upcoming Legally Blonde 3.
Shannon Elizabeth (Nadia)
Shannon Elizabeth was unforgettable as the sexy foreign exchange student who gets unknowingly broadcast naked online thanks to Jim’s computer camera. (Obviously, such a “comedic” setup would not fly nowadays.)
Before Pie, Elizabeth was a model who had only enjoyed a few guest spots on shows like Step by Step and Pacific Blue, but she quickly used her newfound fame to get cast in the spoof Scary Movie (2000), the sex comedy Tomcats (2001), and in the Kevin Smith movies Jay and Silent Bob Strike (also 2001) and Jay and Silent Bob Reboot (2019). Elizabeth was also one of the American “hot girls” in Love Actually, in the main cast of Cuts, and had a multi-episode arc on That ’70s Show.
In addition to acting, Elizabeth is a gifted dancer, securing sixth place on Dancing with the Stars in season 6, and is a professional poker player with multiple World Series plays under her belt. Alongside her TV and film work, Elizabeth, a vegan, started an animal rights organization in 2001 called Animal Avengers (now the Shannon Elizabeth Foundation), which focuses on animal cruelty and conservation. She was previously married to actor and fellow poker player Joseph D. Reitman.
Eddie Kaye Thomas (Finch)
Wise beyond his years, Finch was the most sophisticated of the four American Pie friends, charming Stifler’s Mom with his knowledge of single malt scotch. Afterward, actor Eddie Kaye Thomas stayed in the gross-out comedy vein with other movies like Tom Green’s Freddy Got Fingered (2001), playing the title character, and appearing in the Harold & Kumar movies with his American Pie co-star John Cho (a.k.a. “MILF guy #2”).
Thomas was on the CBS series Scorpion for several seasons as one of the super geniuses hired by the U.S. government to help prevent computer crimes, and has been in 99 American Dad! episodes since 2005, voicing Barry Robinson. Most recently, he can be spotted in season 5 of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel alongside Midge as one of the writers for The Gordon Ford Show.
Chris Owen (Sherman)
The Sherminator’s success with the ladies kicks off the boys’ quest to lose their virginities — until it’s revealed at prom that Sherman is also a virgin. Even though he was pretty young at the time, actor Chris Owen had already built up a résumé, appearing in movies like Angus (1995), Major Payne (1995), and Black Sheep (1996). Around the same time that American Pie was released, Owen could also be spotted in fellow teen movies Can’t Hardly Wait (1998) and She’s All That (1999), as well as playing one of the “rocket boys” in October Sky (1999) and appearing in many of the National Lampoon movies.
Following Pie, Owen guest starred in series like Monk and The Mentalist. He also appeared in the 2007 Stephen King movie The Mist, as well as the final installment of the Sharknado series, The Last Sharknado: It’s About Time, with Pie co-star Tara Reid in 2018.
When American Pie first hit theaters in 1999, the coming-of-age film was quickly crowned a cult classic.
Following the story of four high school seniors who make a pact to lose their virginity by prom night, the raunchy teen comedy spawned three sequels, five direct-to-video spinoffs and many cultural references.
Not only that, American Pie also catapulted the careers of budding actors Jason Biggs, Seann William Scott, Alyson Hannigan and Natasha Lyonne and saw a resurgence for beloved stars and future Emmy winners Eugene Levy and Jennifer Coolidge.
Ahead of the 25th anniversary, Biggs shared his perspective on the pop culture phenomenon and its fans.
“What that time has given me is perspective and real appreciation for the impact that the movie has had around the world. Wherever I travel, people want to talk to me about it,” Biggs told PEOPLE on June 16, 2024. “There’s now another one or two generations of people that have seen the movie, identified with the movie, liked the movie. It’s been a really, really special thing for me.”
The actor also noted the “special” relationship he has with American Pie fans, who always offer a “positive interaction” and “nothing but good things to say.”
Biggs added that he enjoys how people talk about American Pie “with such nostalgia.”
“Now, of course, there are new fans of the movie, which is really cool and special, but there are people of a certain age, meaning my age, that have grown up with this movie and with me,” Biggs continued. “And so there’s a real special connection that I have with them, and it’s very cool to be here 25 years later and still talking about it
