Keanu Charles Reeves was born in Beirut, Lebanon, on September 2, 1964, the son of Patricia (née Taylor), a costume designer and performer, and Samuel Nowlin Reeves Jr. His mother is English, originating from Essex.[13] His American father is from Hawaii, and is of Native Hawaiian, Chinese, English, and Portuguese descent.[14][5][15] Reeves’s paternal grandmother is of Hawaiian and Chinese descent.[16] His mother was working in Beirut when she met his father.[17] They divorced in 1966 when Reeves was a toddler. Reeves last met his father on the Hawaiian island of Kaua’i when he was thirteen.[18]
After his parents divorced in 1966, his mother moved the family to Sydney, Australia,[18][19] and then to New York City, where she married Paul Aaron, a Broadway and Hollywood director, in 1970.[18] The couple moved to Toronto and divorced in 1971. When Reeves was nine, he took part in a theatre production of Damn Yankees.[20] Aaron remained close to Reeves, offering him advice and recommending him a job at the Hedgerow Theatre in Pennsylvania.[18] Reeves’s mother married Robert Miller, a rock music promoter, in 1976; the couple divorced in 1980. Reeves and his sisters grew up primarily in the Yorkville neighborhood of Toronto, where they were cared for, in large part, by a nanny.[18][21] Reeves watched British comedy shows such as The Two Ronnies, and his mother imparted English manners that he has maintained into adulthood.[22] Because of his grandmother’s Chinese ethnicity, Reeves grew up with Chinese art, furniture, and cuisine.[23]
