A hyper-intense, stage-trained character player, Piven made a breakthrough as a neurotic comedy writer on HBO's late-night parody "The Larry Sanders Show," but became a household name as the tightly-wound, often offensive Hollywood agent, Ari Gold, on the hit series, "Entourage.” He so epitomized the manic agent role, that people often could not differentiate between the character and the actor, some even asking him to "hug it out, b*tch!" in public.

Born July 26, 1965 in New York, but raised in Chicago, Piven was the son of Byrne and Joyce Piven, founders of the Piven Theatre Workshop – a