Hayden Christensen is a Canadian actor. Hayden Christensen appeared in Canadian television programs when he was young, then diversified into American television in the late 1990s. Hayden Christensen starred as Sam in Life as a House, and was nominated for a Golden Globe Award. He gained international fame portraying the young Anakin Skywalker in the second and third films of the Star Wars prequel trilogy.

Hayden Christensen is the son of Alie and David. His father is of Danish descent and his mother has Swedish and Italian ancestry. Hayden Christensen has an older brother and sister, Tove and Hejsa, and a younger sister, Kaylen. Raised outside Toronto in Thornhill, Ontario, Hayden Christensen attended E.J. Sand Public School, Baythorn Public School and Unionville High School in Unionville, Ontario, Canada.

Hayden Christensen was an athlete in high school, playing hockey competitively and tennis on a provincial level. Hayden Christensen spent summers in Long Island with his maternal grandmother, Rose Schwartz, and attended the Actors Studio in New York as well as the Arts York program for drama at his high school. He was discovered when his older sister Hejsa, a former trampoline champion, was shopping around for an agent after he landed a role in a Pringles potato chips commercial.