Bryan Greenberg Biography

Bryan Greenberg (born May 24, 1978) is an American actor and singer, known for his starring role as Ben Epstein in the HBO original series How to Make It in America as well as a recurring role as Jake Jagielski in the WB series One Tree Hill and as Nick Garrett on the short-lived ABC drama October Road. His film work includes The Perfect Score, Prime, Nobel Son, Bride Wars, The Good Guy, Friends with Benefits, and A Short History of Decay.

Early life

Greenberg was born in Omaha, Nebraska, the son of Denise "Denny" and Carl Greenberg. Both of his parents are psychologists. Greenberg was born to Jewish parents; he was raised in Conservative Judaism and attended Beth El Synagogue in Omaha. Greenberg had a Bar Mitzvah ceremony, belonged to Jewish youth groups, went to Jewish summer camps, and traveled to Israel.

At 7 years old, when Greenberg's younger sister Becca was in dance class, he got the opportunity to appear in the lead role in the Omaha Ballet production of The Nutcracker. He toured with the show for two months and joined a children's theater company in Omaha. At age 12, Greenberg and his family moved to St. Louis, Missouri. Shortly after, he got his first national role as the kid in the Cookie Crisp cereal commercial. As time went on, he was offered more acting opportunities.

He graduated from Parkway Central High School in Chesterfield, Missouri in 1996. Greenberg moved to New York City after high school. He attended and worked at a Jewish summer camp located in Webster, Wisconsin, called Herzl Camp. He starred as Joseph in a camp-wide production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat in 1992.

Greenberg received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre at New York University in 2000.

Acting career

While at NYU, Greenberg auditioned and worked as a waiter, bartender, caterer and assistant to a mortgage broker. He was cast as Romeo in NYU's performance of Romeo and Juliet and performed with the Experimental Theater Workshop, the Atlantic Theater Company and the Amsterdam Experimental Workshop.

In 1997, he got a small role on the television series Law & Order. Soon after this appearance, Greenberg got an agent and one year later made his big screen debut in A Civil Action.

After landing small roles on the TV series (Boston Public, The Sopranos, and Third Watch among others), Greenberg was cast as Matty Matthews, a high school student trying to pass the S.A.T, in the film The Perfect Score. After graduating from NYU, Bryan moved to California. While he was still appearing in One Tree Hill, he began shooting another television show produced by George Clooney for HBO called Unscripted.

Greenberg's first starring role was in the Ben Younger film Prime (2005). He played David Bloomberg, a young artist who falls in love with one of his mother Meryl Streep's therapy patients, played by Uma Thurman. Greenberg then starred in October Road on ABC and appeared with Alan Rickman in the film Nobel Son in 2008. In 2009, Greenberg appeared in the film Bride Wars with Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway and starred opposite Alexis Bledel and Scott Porter in the indie film The Good Guy, which was released in February 2010.

His series How to Make It in America premiered on HBO on February 14, 2010. The Washington Post called it "The New Yorkiest thing you could find on television, which is saying something," and praised its "portrayal of a dirty, scrappy, multi-ethnic New York culture." The New York Times said the "series has great music (the theme song is Aloe Blacc"?s 'I Need a Dollar') and there are some snarky asides about hipster New York." Season 2 premiered on October 2, 2011. On December 20, 2011, HBO announced the cancellation of the show.

In 2012, Greenberg co-starred with Laura Prepon in the independent comedy film The Kitchen. That same year, Greenberg starred in the dark comedy film The Normals, which follows a young man who enters a two-week clinical trial of an anti-psychotic treatment at a drug-testing center in Queens.

In 2013, Greenberg began shooting the untitled Lance Armstrong biopic alongside Ben Foster, who will play Armstrong.

In 2015, Greenberg and his wife Jamie Chung co-starred together in the romantic drama Already Tomorrow in Hong Kong.

Music

In 2007, Greenberg released his debut album, Waiting for Now. He has toured with Gavin DeGraw, Michael Tolcher, Ari Hest, and Graham Colton. At his New York City Show at the High Line Ballroom, Greenberg was joined by How to Make it in America co-star Kid Cudi. Greenberg's songs have been featured in many of his film and television work, including One Tree Hill, October Road, and Nobel Son.

In 2011, Greenberg released his second album, We Don't Have Forever, produced by Thom Monahan (Vetiver, Devendra Banhart, Gary Louris), which included the single "Walk Away". The album also included "You Can Run", a collaboration with How to Make It in America co-star and rapper Kid Cudi. Greenberg said he wrote the record over a period of two years when he was going through a lot of changes (friends, personal life, career) and decided to title the record We Don't Have Forever to reflect that.

Personal life

It was reported that Greenberg got engaged to his girlfriend of 18 months, actress Jamie Chung, while on vacation on Turks and Caicos Islands during the December 2013 holiday. They married on October 31, 2015 in Santa Barbara, California.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1998	'	Firecracker kid	Uncredited
2004	'	Matty Matthews
2005	Prime	David Bloomberg
2006	Escape	Bryan	Short film
2006	Love & Debate	Chris
2008	Nobel Son	Barkley Michaelson
2009	Bride Wars	Nathan "Nate" Lerner
2009	'	Daniel Seaver
2011	Friends with Benefits	Parker
2012	'	Paul
2012	'	Billy Schine
2014	'	Nathan Fisher
2015	Vice	Evan
2015	Already Tomorrow in Hong Kong	Josh
2015	'	Floyd's buddy	Uncredited
2015	'	Owen
2016	Flock of Dudes	Barrett
2017	Fourever	Tom	In post-production
2017	Random Tropical Paradise	Harry Fluder	In post-production

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1997	Law & Order	Matt Wheeler	Episode: "Thrill"
2000	'	Peter McClure	Episode: "Guy Walks into a Psychiatrist's Office..."
2000	Third Watch	Francis DeSilva	Episode: "Journey to the Himalayas"
2000, 2003	Boston Public	Mr. Freeman	2 episodes
2001	Three Sisters	Roy	Episode: "A Date with Destiny"
2002	Strong Medicine	Kent	Episode: "Rape Kit"
2002	'	Damon Furberg	Episode: "The Stepford Cheerleaders"
2002	Providence	Neal	Episode: "Great Expectations"
2003-06	One Tree Hill	Jake Jagielski	25 episodes
2004	Life with Bonnie	Timmy	Episode: "Nip, Tuck and Role"
2005-06	Unscripted	Himself	Main cast; 10 episodes
2007-08	October Road	Nicholson "Nick" Garrett	Main cast; 19 episodes
2010-11	How to Make It in America	Ben Epstein	Main cast; 16 episodes
2013	'	Billy Whitley	Television film
2015	Bessie	John Hammond	Television film
2016-present	'	Ben	Recurring role

Discography

Albums

• Waiting for Now (2007)
• We Don't Have Forever (2011)
• Everything Changes (2015)

Other activities

• In 2008, Greenberg appeared in will.i.am's song "Yes We Can."
• In 2010, Greenberg made a public service announcement about the Gulf Oil Spill for Natural Resources Defense Council calling for Clean Energy Legislation. It was released July 20, 2010.