He subsequently appeared in episodes for television shows during the late 1980s and played his first major role in the slasher film Cutting Class (1989).

[4] Pitt starred in the David Fincher-directed, commercially successful thriller Seven (1995), in which he played a detective on the trail of a serial killer who murders people he believes are guilty of the Seven Deadly Sins.

[8] Pitt reteamed with Fincher to star in the apocalyptic film Fight Club (1999) as anti-consumerist cult leader Tyler Durden, a role that required him to learn boxing, taekwondo, and grappling.

[12] In 2002, he earned a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for his guest appearance in the sitcom Friends alongside his then-wife Jennifer Aniston.

Pitt's portrayal of the eponymous man who ages in reverse in the drama The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) earned him an Academy Award for Best Actor nomination.