Brad Pitt Is Giving Back to Makeup Artist Jean Ann Black on 'Celebrity IOU'

While Brad Pitt is best known for his charm, good looks, and roles in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Fight Club, and Interview with a Vampire, there are a lot of people working behind the scenes to help the actor get camera-ready.

Brad's many romantic relationships have been highly publicized and scrutinized, but the Academy Award winner has been part of one long-term partnership for decades — with makeup artist Jean Ann Black.  

Jean has been doing Brad's makeup since the early '90s, and they've seen each other through their hardest moments — from health scares to breakups to addiction. After three decades of working together, Brad is giving back to Jean on HGTV's Celebrity IOU, a show where celebrities offer their loved ones the gift of a home renovation.

Who is Brad Pitt's makeup artist Jean Black? Read on to find out more about Brad's confidante, including how they first began working together.

The Texas native has been a makeup artist on major Hollywood productions since the '80s, and the film she was first credited on was 1984's Blood Simple. The movie was a crime thriller by the Coen brothers that starred Frances McDormand and John Getz. 

She's also worked as a hairstylist on sets before. Some of her more notable credits include The Big Lebowski, Se7en, Dazed and Confused, and Fight Club.

One of Brad's first major starring roles was in the 1992 cartoonist comedy Cool World, which also starred Kim Basinger and Frank Sinatra. Jean later recalled in a 2017 feature to GQ about how she was hired to work on the movie with Brad, who was then simply described as a "young actor."

"In 1990 I got called to do a movie called Cool World and they told me that there was a young guy in it — a young actor —and his name was Brad Pitt," she said. "It started a long journey for us together."

"To have traveled the world with him… It's a whole life that I would never have thought possible," she continued. "It’s pretty unusual for someone like Brad, or someone in that position, to be so loyal."

After Cool World, Brad continued to work with Jean on many of his subsequent films, though their next collaboration wasn't planned. When he was cast in A River Runs Through It, Jean coincidentally was also hired to work on the film when another makeup artist left. Because Brad wasn't the A-lister he is now, he wasn't able to request his own makeup artist. 

Once he became more known, Brad would continually ask Jean to work with him. While they haven't been together on every film Brad's starred in, they have collaborated on 28 movies. 

As for why they get along so well, Jean said that she and Brad have some fundamental similarities. 

"Brad and I are both loners," she told GQ about how they've stayed friends for so long. She also shared that the two do get together outside of their professional obligations, and that Jean spends more time with Brad than with her own family. 

"I've spent more time with him and all these years than anyone else, including my family. When you're in a relationship like that you have to have it be sort of a family situation and also a professional situation as well. When I’m working with him I try to be as professional as possible, but it’s pretty obvious to people that he and I are quite close," she said to GQ. "He's there for me and I’m there for him...You know, it's beautiful. He's such a fantastic human being."

Now, Brad is showing Jean his appreciation on Celebrity I.O.U. by getting the Property Brothers aka Jonathan and Drew Scott to give her a makeover on her Santa Monica garage. 

While Jean has worked with Brad more than any other actor, she also has a close working relationship with Julia Roberts. Jean served as the makeup artist on Julia's Amazon Prime miniseries Homecoming, and on her films Wonder, Ben is Back, and Money Monster. 

She's also known for working closely with director David Fincher and the Coen brothers on many of their productions.

Celebrity I.O.U. airs on Mondays at 9 p.m. on HGTV.