Jeremy Renner was born in Modesto, California, the son of Valerie Cearley and Lee Renner. His parents married as teenagers and divorced when he was only 10 years old. Renner is the eldest of seven siblings, two of whom were from his father's later marriage, and has Irish ancestry on his mother's side and German on his father's side. He graduated from Fred C. Beyer High School in 1989 and studied criminology at Modesto Junior College before deciding to become an actor and enroll at the American Conservatory Theater.

He began his career by participating in various commercials, later taking part in various television films and some TV series including Cinderella in New York, Angel and CSI-Crime Scene Investigation. For a time, in parallel with acting, he finds himself working as a make-up artist to earn a living.

In 2008 he starred in Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker, for which he won a 2009 National Board of Review Awards for Best Male Breakthrough Performance and earned his first Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. In early 2011, he received his second consecutive Oscar nomination, this time for Best Supporting Actor, for his portrayal of him in The Town, in which he starred alongside Ben Affleck.

In 2011 he plays the character of Clint Barton / Hawkeye in a brief appearance in the film Thor, a role which he then resumes, with considerably greater importance, in the following films of the Marvel Cinematic Universe: The Avengers, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Endgame and Hawkeye.