Chris Pine's Real Name: Christopher Whitelaw Pine

Quick answer: Chris Pine's real name is Christopher Whitelaw Pine. He was born on August 26, 1980, in Los Angeles, California, into a multi-generation acting family.

Birth name and Hollywood family

Christopher Whitelaw Pine is the son of actors Robert Pine (CHiPs) and Gwynne Gilford; his maternal grandparents were also performers. He attended the University of California, Berkeley, studying English, and trained at the American Conservatory Theater (Biography.com; LOC; Encyclopedia.com).

"Chris Pine" is the everyday short form of Christopher; Whitelaw is a documented middle name, not a stage invention.

Breakthrough roles

After early romantic comedies (The Princess Diaries 2, Just My Luck), Pine was cast as James T. Kirk in J.J. Abrams's Star Trek (2009), returning in Star Trek Into Darkness (2013) and Star Trek Beyond (2016). He played Steve Trevor opposite Gal Gadot in Wonder Woman (2017) and Wonder Woman 1984 (2020) (Biography.com; TMDB).

Other leads include Unstoppable (2010), Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014), Hell or High Water (2016), Outlaw King (2018), and musical Into the Woods (2014) as Cinderella's Prince. He made his feature directorial debut with Poolman (2023/24 festival-release cycle) (Biography.com).

Stage and recent work

Pine has returned periodically to theatre and continues film and streaming projects. Industry profiles emphasize the continuity of his birth name across credits—no alias beyond the Chris/Christopher shortening.

Star Trek (2009) Blu-ray Wonder Woman (2017) Blu-ray Hell or High Water Blu-ray/DVD