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Josh Charles
Josh Charles
	Charles at Toronto International Film Festival 2014
Born	Joshua Aaron Charles; September 15, 1971 (age 53); Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1988–present
Spouse	Sophie Flack (m. 2013)
Children	2

Joshua Aaron Charles (born September 15, 1971) is an American film, television, and theater actor. He is best known for the roles of Dan Rydell on Sports Night, Will Gardner on The Good Wife, which earned him two Primetime Emmy Award nominations, and his early work as Knox Overstreet in Dead Poets Society and Bryan from Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead.

Early life

Charles is the son of Allan Charles, an advertising executive.^[1]^[2]^[3] He is Jewish on his father's side, and he has described himself as Jewish.^[4]^[5] He began his career performing comedy at the age of 9. As a teenager, he spent several summers at Stagedoor Manor Performing Arts Center in New York. He attended the Baltimore School for the Arts, where he was a classmate of Jada Pinkett and Tupac Shakur.^[6]

Career

Charles' film debut was in fellow Baltimore native John Waters' Hairspray in 1988. The following year, he starred alongside Robin Williams and Ethan Hawke in Dead Poets Society. Other film roles have included Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead, Threesome, Pie in the Sky, Muppets from Space, S.W.A.T, Four Brothers, After.Life, Crossing the Bridge and Brief Interviews with Hideous Men.

On television, Charles played sports anchor Dan Rydell in Aaron Sorkin's Sports Night, which ran for two years (1998–2000) and earned Charles a Screen Actors Guild nomination. In 2008, Charles played the role of Jake in season one of HBO's In Treatment. In 2009, he returned to network television in the drama The Good Wife. For his work on the series, he was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series in 2011 and 2014.

Also in 2011, Charles narrated the debut episode for NFL Network's A Football Life on New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick.^[7]

In 2022, Charles starred in We Own This City, an HBO limited series.^[8] The series was noteworthy because it was set in Baltimore, Charles' hometown. His first film, Hairspray, was set in Baltimore and over three decades later, We Own This City was his only other role to-date with ties to the city.^[9]

In theater, Charles headlined a production of Jonathan Marc Sherman's Confrontation in 1986. In 2004, he appeared on stage in New York in a revival of Neil LaBute's The Distance from Here, which received a Drama Desk Award for Best Ensemble Cast. In January 2006, he appeared in the world premiere of Richard Greenberg's The Well-Appointed Room for the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago, and he followed this with a run at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, portraying the cloned brothers in Caryl Churchill's A Number. In 2007, he appeared in Adam Bock's The Receptionist at the Manhattan Theatre Club.

Personal life

In September 2013, Charles married ballet dancer and author Sophie Flack.^[10]^[11] On December 9, 2014, Flack gave birth to the couple's first child, a son.^[12] On August 23, 2018, Charles revealed on his Instagram that Flack gave birth to their second child, a daughter.^[13]

Charles was born, raised and educated in Baltimore, he got his first big acting break in a John Waters film, and his family still lives in the city. As a result, Charles is known for his deep ties to Baltimore and he returns frequently for visits. Charles is famously a big fan of the Ravens and Orioles,^[14] and follows city politics closely.^[15]

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1988	Hairspray	Iggy
1989	Dead Poets Society	Knox Overstreet
1991	Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead	Bryan
1992	Crossing the Bridge	Mort Golden
1994	Threesome	Eddy
1995	Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead	Bruce	uncredited
1995	Coldblooded	Randy
1996	The Grave	Tyn
1996	Crossworlds	Joe Talbot
1996	Pie in the Sky	Charlie Dunlap
1997	Cyclops, Baby	Brush Brody
1997	Little City	Adam
1999	Muppets from Space	Agent Barker
2000	Meeting Daddy	Peter Silverblatt
2003	S.W.A.T.	T. J. McCabe
2004	Seeing Other People	Lou
2005	Four Brothers	Detective Fowler
2006	The Darwin Awards	Paramedic
2006	The Ex	Forrest Mead
2009	After.Life	Tom Peterson
2009	Brief Interviews with Hideous Men	Subject No. 2
2014	Bird People	Gary Newman
2014	Adult Beginners	Phil
2015	I Smile Back	Bruce Brooks
2015	Freeheld	Bryan Kelder
2016	Whiskey Tango Foxtrot	Chris
2016	Norman	Arthur Taub
2016	The Drowning	Tom Seymour
2018	Amateur	Coach Gaines
2019	Framing John DeLorean	Bill Collins	^[16]
2023	Memory	Isaac
2024	Mothers' Instinct	Damian Jennings

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1990	Murder in Mississippi	Andrew Goodman	Television film
1993	Cooperstown	Jody	Television film
1996	Norma Jean & Marilyn	Eddie Jordan	Television film
1997	The Underworld	Ehrlich	Television film
1998–2000	Sports Night	Dan Rydell	45 episodes
2002	Our America	Dave Isay	Television film
2005	Stella	Jeremy	episode: "Meeting Girls"
2007	Six Degrees	Ray Jones	4 episodes
2008	In Treatment	Jake	8 episodes
2008	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	Sean Kelley	episode: "Confession"
2009–2016	The Good Wife	Will Gardner	107 episodes, also director (3 episodes)
2014–2016	Inside Amy Schumer	Various	4 episodes
2015	Masters of Sex	Dan Logan	10 episodes
2015	Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp	Blake	6 episodes
2016–2017	Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt	Duke Snyder	5 episodes
2016–2019	Drunk History	Various	3 episodes
2017	Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later	Blake	6 episodes
2017	Law & Order True Crime	Dr. Jerome Oziel	7 episodes
2017	Last Week Tonight with John Oliver	Forensic Scientist	episode: "Forensic Science"
2019	The Loudest Voice	Casey Close	3 episodes
2020	Away	Matt Logan	10 episodes
2021	Law & Order: Organized Crime	Vince Baldi	episode: "Forget it, Jake; It's Chinatown"
2022	We Own This City	Daniel Hersl	miniseries, main cast
2023	The Power	Daniel Dandon	recurring role
2024	The Veil	Max Peterson	4 episodes

Music videos

Year	Title	Artist	Ref.
2024	"Fortnight"	Taylor Swift ft. Post Malone	^[17]

Awards and nominations

Year	Association	Category	Nominated work	Result
2000	Screen Actors Guild Awards	Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series	Sports Night	Nominated
2000	Viewers for Quality Television	Best Actor in a Quality Comedy Series	Sports Night	Nominated
2010	Satellite Awards	Best Actor – Television Series Drama	The Good Wife	Nominated
2010	Screen Actors Guild Awards	Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series		Nominated
2011	Primetime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series		Nominated
2011	Screen Actors Guild Awards	Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series		Nominated
2012	Monte-Carlo Television Festival	Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series		Nominated
2012	Screen Actors Guild Awards	Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series		Nominated
2014	Critics' Choice Television Awards	Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series		Nominated
2014	Golden Globe Awards	Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film		Nominated
2014	People's Choice Awards	Favorite Dramatic Television Actor		Won
2014	Primetime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series		Nominated
2015	Critics' Choice Television Awards	Best Guest Performer in a Comedy Series	Inside Amy Schumer	Nominated