Joseph Gordon-Levitt was born in Los Angeles, California, and was raised in its Sherman Oaks neighborhood. He is Jewish, though his family is "not strictly religious"; his parents were among the founders of the Progressive Jewish Alliance. Joseph Gordon-Levitt mother, Jane Gordon, ran for the United States Congress in California during the 1970s for the Peace and Freedom Party; she met Dennis Levitt while she was working as the program guide editor for KPFK-FM. Joseph Gordon-Levitt's maternal grandfather, Michael Gordon, was a Hollywood film director between the 1940s and 1970s and directed the 1959 Doris Day/Rock Hudson film Pillow Talk.
