John Christopher Depp II born June 9 1963 is an American actor producer and musician He is the recipient of various accolades including a Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award in addition to nominations for three Academy Awards and two British Academy Film Awards Depp made his debut in the horror film A Nightmare on Elm Street 1984 before rising to prominence as a teen idol on the television series 21 Jump Street 19871990 In the 1990s Depp acted mostly in independent films often playing eccentric characters These included Whats Eating Gilbert Grape 1993 Benny and Joon 1993 Dead Man 1995 Donnie Brasco 1997 and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas 1998 Depp also began collaborating with director Tim Burton starring in Edward Scissorhands 1990 Ed Wood 1994 and Sleepy Hollow 1999 In the 2000s Depp became one of the most commercially successful film stars by playing Captain Jack Sparrow in the swashbuckler film series Pirates of the Caribbean 2003present He received critical praise for Finding Neverland 2004 and continued his commercially successful collaboration with Tim Burton with the films Charlie and the Chocolate Factory 2005 Corpse Bride 2005 Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street 2007 and Alice in Wonderland 2010 In 2012 Depp was one of the worlds biggest film stars and was listed by the Guinness World Records as the worlds highestpaid actor with earnings of US75 million During the 2010s Depp began producing films through his company Infinitum Nihil and formed the rock supergroup Hollywood Vampires with Alice Cooper and Joe Perry