Ehrenreich was born in Los Angeles, California. He is the only child of Sari (née Newmann), an interior designer, and Mark Ehrenreich, an accountant. His father was Steven Spielberg\'s accountant. He is named after the director Phil Alden Robinson, a family friend. His stepfather, Harry Aronowitz, is an orthodontist. Ehrenreich is Jewish; his ancestors were Jewish emigrants from Austria, Hungary, Russia, and Poland, and he was raised in Reconstructionist Judaism.\n', '

Ehrenreich began acting at the Palisades Elementary School in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, and continued doing so at Crossroads School in Santa Monica, California. After graduating from high school, he studied acting at New York University at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting, but never finished his degree. In 2009, he co-founded "The Collectin" with his friend Zoë Worth in New York that consists of actors, writers, producers and directors who collaborate on films and theater performances.\n', '

Ehrenreich was discovered at a friend\'s Bat Mitzvah reception by Steven Spielberg, when Spielberg watched a comedy video created by Ehrenreich and a friend, "which began in the present and eventually cut to 20 or 30 years later, with Mr. Ehrenreich, in a kimono, screaming to stop a wedding." Ehrenreich has described the comedic performance he gave in the movie as, "I ran around as a skinny little punk, trying on girls\' clothes and eating dirt." He was then contacted by DreamWorks, a studio which Spielberg helped found, and met with its casting director. Spielberg said: "[Ehrenreich] was in a bat mitzvah video that my daughter acted with him in for their best friend. They showed me the video and I loved it and I got him an agent. That\'s sort of how it all began." "I thought he had a lot of promise in comedy," the Oscar winner explained. "I didn\'t know he was going to rogue [into] drama. He was so funny in this video, I thought, \'I have found the next really funny comedian.\' But most of his choices have been in drama and people don\'t know how really funny he is."\n', '" \n', '

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