Having starred in the Oscar-nominated Whiplash and now appearing in the hotly anticipated Fantastic Four, with his YA franchise sequel The Divergent Series: Insurgent in between, 28-year-old Miles Teller has made it to the big time. Let’s see how he got there.

Teller began acting as a teenager, performing in plays and musicals as a member of the Panther Players at Lecanto High School in Central Florida. During this time, he was in productions of Footloose, Damn Yankees, Bye Bye Birdie and You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, in which he played Snoopy, as seen here in 2003:

And here he is portraying a handicapped man in a 2005 production of Tom Griffin’s The Boys Next Door:

In 2004, as a junior, Teller made his on-screen debut starring in the short film Moonlighters, written and directed by his Lecanto classmate Jesse Newman. Teller won his first acting award for the performance at a local film festival. Watch the 18-minute short here:

Three more shorts followed, including another romantic effort by Newman produced when they were both in college and a 2008 film titled The Musicians, where Teller first got to show off his real-life skills on a drum set. Watch that 11-minute work here:

In 2010, Teller made the leap to features with a breakthrough performance in John Cameron Mitchell’s Rabbit Hole, where he held his own in scenes acting opposite Nicole Kidman. Here’s one of those scenes, in which his character shows off a comic book he’s created:

Next came the remake of Footloose, in which Teller got to reprise the role of Willard, whom he played onstage back in high school. Check out a bunch of awesome GIFs of him dancing in the 2011 movie:

Teller’s next big breakthrough arrived with the romantic Sundance hit The Spectacular Now, which paired him with Shailene Woodley for the first time. Together they shared an acting prize at the film festival and later they were paired up for an MTV Movie Award nomination for Best Kiss. Watch that spectacular kiss now:

He and Woodley have reunited for two installments of the Divergent series, in which their relationship is quite different. See one of their many unfriendly scenes below, from this year’s sequel:

Last year’s Sundance-winning sensation Whiplash was a perfect next step for Teller, who is a self-taught drummer. He got to do some of his own playing on-screen while mostly showing off his general physicality as an actor. Here’s his now-iconic scene opposite the Oscar-winning performance by J.K. Simmons:

This summer, we get to see Teller literally stretch for a role as Reed Richards, aka Mr. Fantastic of the Fantastic Four. The actor had previously auditioned for Josh Trank’s previous superhero movie, Chronicle, and while he wasn’t cast for that, the director thought he was perfect for the Marvel comic book adaptation. Watch the trailer:

This fall, Teller will continue his amazing year with Bleed for This, portraying real-life boxing champ Vinny Paz. The actor got in amazing shape for the role, as you can see in these before and after shots:

The next chance you have to check out Miles Teller will be in the superhero film Fantastic Four, in theaters August 7.