Keanu Reeves is one of the most well-known celebrities across the world. He has starred in movies such as “Point Break,” the “Matrix” series and the “John Wick” series.
However, what a lot of people don’t know is the interesting Third Culture Kid (TCK) upbringing that Reeves lived through.
Reeves was born in Beirut, Lebanon. His mother is English and his father is Hawaiian. What Reeves wouldn’t know is how globally mobile his life would become.
At the age of two, after his parents went through a divorce, Reeves moved with his mother to Sydney, Australia. While his first “taste” of the world was through Lebanese and English traditions, this changed with the introduction of Australian culture.
Reeves remained in Australia for his early childhood before he and his mother moved to New York City, N.Y., and then to Toronto, Canada.
The trigger for his career
The move to Canada was the birthplace of Reeves’ now acclaimed acting career as he found his passion through a local theater production.
Despite the continual cultural shifts in his childhood, Reeves classifies himself as a Canadian, holding Canadian citizenship.
When asked in an interview where he is from, Reeves responded with: “In Toronto, the city where I grew up. I was raised in the Yorkville district…”
Now an Adult TCK, Reeves resides in the Hollywood Hills, Calif., U.S.A. While he continues to travel and live in different places for extended periods for both work and recreation, he still enjoys returning to his home city of Toronto.
A childhood that shaped the man
Reeves also does not fail in recognizing his globally mobile life and attributes a lot of his success in his adult life to his upbringing.
“I think it’s just in my nature,” Reeves said when he discussed where he found his passion for acting. “I had good parents.”
Reeves is another example of a celebrity or successful person who has been able to find themselves and utilize their unique experiences within their childhood as a means of creating something for themselves.
As a globally mobile child Reeves shares no connection with his birth country. However, he has managed to find a place of “home” within Canada. It’s apparent across numerous interviews with him that he does not regret the time moving around as a child. In fact he sees it as a series of events that molded him into the person he is today.
As the world continues to globalize, people with the TCK title are becoming more prominent. Reeves is a great inspiration for people who share this upbringing, and he shows the true potential of someone from a globally mobile childhood.
