Compared to James Dean in terms of sensitivity and savvy, Mike Pitt looks set to make the move from indie-film favourite to mainstream movie star this year. A one-time street urchin, Pitt proved well able to shuck off the ill-fitting teen-idol straightjacket he inherited from the TV series Dawson’s Creek and moved on to work for directors like Gus Van Sant (Finding Forrester), Larry Clarke (Bully) and his most talked about role to date, in James Cameron Mitchell’s Sundance Festival winner Hedwig And The Angry Inch.

Pitt began acting when he was ten, and soon became obsessed with the craft to the point of leaving his parents’ home five years later in order to pursue it. He studied at weekends at the American Academy under Bill Bartlett, who encouraged him to get his hands dirty with casting calls and interviews, doing small time ad work. Dawson’s Creek followed, plus an Off Broadway debut in the New York Theatre Workshop’s production of Naomi Wallace’s The Trestle, then the movies.

A moody, broody presence, Pitt is also currently editing his own movie “about street kids and stuff.” He’s just completed principal photography in Faye Dunaway’s directorial debut The Yellow Bird and 2002 will see the release of Barbet Schroeder’s Foolproof in which he stars opposite Sandra Bullock.