The brown eyed, 3 Josh Hartnett was born on July 21, 1978 in St. Paul, Minnesota, contrary to popular belief that he was born in San Francisco, which is, in fact, where his mother lives. Growing up with his younger siblings; Jessica, Jake and Joe (his mother must've had an affinity with "J" names), he attended the grade school, Nativity of Our Lord and continued to Creitin Derham Hall.

He played football until he tore a knee ligament, to which his theatre-going aunt convinced him to try out for a part in the production of Tom Sawyer. At 18, he graduated from South High School. Prompted by his mother, he moved to New York and attended SUNY (State University of New York) to persue a career in theatre. However, he didn't stay long as "I went to theater school and got booted, got kicked out"