Penn Badgley Biography

Penn Dayton Badgley (born November 1, 1986) is an American actor, best known for his role as Dan Humphrey on The CW television series Gossip Girl. Badgley has also starred in a number of films, most notably John Tucker Must Die, The Stepfather, Easy A, and Margin Call.

Early life

Badgley was born in Baltimore, Maryland. His father, Duff Badgley, worked as a newspaper reporter and also a carpenter; Duff was the Green Party candidate for governor of Washington state in 2008. His parents divorced when he was twelve. Badgley split his childhood years between Woodlake, Virginia and Seattle, Washington. He attended Woolridge Elementary, where his mother, Lynne, became PTA president before he transferred to the honors program at Swift Creek Elementary. He enjoyed playing youth soccer, where father coached. He attended Charles Wright Academy in Tacoma, Washington, and was involved with the Seattle Children's Theatre. He soon began doing voice-overs for children's radio stations.

At age eleven, Badgley relocated to Hollywood and began pursuing an acting career. He also pursued a singing career during this time and recorded a pop single in 1998. At the age of fourteen, Badgley completed his California High School Proficiency Exam and began attending Santa Monica City College. He was later accepted to the University of Southern California, where he deferred admission due to contractual obligations.

Career

Early work

Badgley's first credit was voice work for the video game Mario Golf 64 in 1999, though he claims to have never played it himself. He followed this up in 2000 with voice work on Mario Tennis 64. His first screen acting credit was on an episode of Will & Grace and subsequently appearing on shows such as Daddio, The Brothers García and What I Like About You. Badgley's first major film credit was 2006's John Tucker Must Die, playing the role of Scott Tucker. In its opening weekend, the film grossed a total of $14.3 million, ranking third in the U.S. box office results for that weekend. As of November 2, the film has grossed $41 million domestically.

Badgley's first notice came with his role as Phillip Chancellor IV on the soap opera The Young and the Restless, holding that role from 2000 to 2001. He was nominated for a 2001 Young Artist Award for Best Performance in a Daytime Series for his work.

In 2002, he starred in the WB half-hour series Do Over as Joel Larsen, a 34-year-old man who gets a second chance to get his life right, thanks to a freakish accident that catapults him back to 1980, as a 14-year-old. He appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno as this show opened. The series was canceled short of a full season. Badgley later appeared in Drive-Thru playing Van co-starring future castmate Leighton Meester.

Wider audiences may recognize him from his next starring role as Sam Tunney in The Mountain (2004"2005), but was canceled after the first season. The same thing happened to The Bedford Diaries, another series where Badgely had a lead role. While the show was popular, it was canceled in its first season.

Breakthrough

In 2007, Badgley was cast in The CW's teen drama series Gossip Girl, based on the book series of the same name by Cecily von Ziegesar, which revolves around the lives of socialite young adults growing up on New York City's Upper East Side who attend elite academic institutions while dealing with sex, drugs, and other teenage issues. Badgley portrays Dan Humphrey, the son of 1990s former rock star Rufus Humphrey (Matthew Settle) and brother of Jenny Humphrey (Taylor Momsen), who becomes the love interest of Upper East Side's "it" girl, Serena van der Woodsen (Blake Lively).

He starred in the 2009 remake of the 1987 American thriller film The Stepfather, in which he is the stepson of the killer and plays an important role in the movie. Badgley also appeared in the 2011 financial thriller drama Margin Call.

In 2011, he was named one of People magazine's "25 Beauties (and Hotties) at 25". BuddyTV ranked him #75 on its "TV's 100 Sexiest Men of 2011" list.

In late June 2011, it was reported Badgley would portray Jeff Buckley in Greetings from Tim Buckley. The movie follows the journey Jeff Buckley took in grappling with the legacy of his late musician father, Tim, leading up to and culminating with his legendary 1991 performance of his father's songs. For the role, Badgley said he took guitar and vocal lessons.

In early 2012, Penn Badgley collaborated with the music project known as Dress - contributing obscure vocals to the track "dark alli."

Personal life

In late 2007, rumors circulated that Badgley was dating his Gossip Girl co-star Blake Lively. In May 2008, after People magazine published photos of the two kissing while on vacation in Mexico, they became more open about their relationship. Badgley and Lively ended their three-year relationship in mid-September 2010. In October 2011, Penn Badgley began dating Zoë Kravitz but they were already linked together since July. It was announced in June 2013 that Badgley and Kravitz had split after two years of dating.

During the 2008 United States presidential election Badgley expressed his support for Barack Obama over John McCain. Badgley and Lively appeared in a pro-Barack Obama commercial, as part of MoveOn's Youth Vote program. The commercial, directed by Doug Liman, aired during Gossip Girl on The CW, MTV and Comedy Central.

In March 2010, The American Red Cross announced Penn Badgley as a member in National Celebrity Cabinet, a group of celebrity supporters who promote Red Cross services by donating their time, helping neighbors prepare for emergencies, responding to disasters and lending a helping hand to those in need " down the street, across the country and around the world.

In April 2010, Badgley joined forces with Brad Pitt in the USA bid committee to bring the FIFA World Cup to the United States in 2018 or 2022.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2000	'	Young Sean
2003	Debating Robert Lee	Debator
2006	John Tucker Must Die	Scott Tucker
2007	Drive-Thru	Van
2008	Forever Strong	Lars
2009	'	The stud	Short film
2009	'	Michael Harding
2010	Easy A	"Woodchuck" Todd
2011	Margin Call	Seth Bregman
2013	Greetings from Tim Buckley	Jeff Buckley
2014	Parts per Billion	Erik	Post-production
2014	Cymbeline	Posthumus

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1999	Will & Grace	Todd	Episode: "I Never Promised You an Olive Garden"
2000	'	Phillip Chancellor IV	6 episodes
2000, 2002	'	Eddie Bauer	2 episodes
2000	Daddio	Todd	2 episodes
2000	Bull	Zack	Episode: "Love's Labor Lost" (unaired)
2002	'	Mike (uncredited)	Episode: "My Name Is Evil"
2002	Do Over	Joel Larsen	Main cast
2002	What I Like About You	Jake Wood	Episode: "Copy That"
2003	'	Trace Malone	Episode: "Homecoming"
2004"2005	'	Sam Tunney	Main cast
2006	'	Owen Gregory	Main cast
2007"2012	Gossip Girl	Daniel "Dan" Humphrey	Main cast

Video games

Year	Title	Role
1999	Mario Golf 64	Kid (voice)
2000	Mario Tennis 64	Alex (voice)

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Nominated work	Result
2001	Young Artist Award	Best Performance in a Daytime TV Series: Young Actor	'
2008	Teen Choice Award	Choice TV Actor: Drama	Gossip Girl
2009	Teen Choice Award	Choice TV Actor: Drama	Gossip Girl
2010	Teen Choice Award	Choice Movie Actor: Horror/Thriller	'
2010	Teen Choice Award	Choice TV Actor: Drama	Gossip Girl
2011	Teen Choice Award	Choice Movie Actor: Romantic Comedy	Easy A
2011	Teen Choice Award	Choice TV Actor: Drama	Gossip Girl
2011	Gotham Independent Film Award	Best Ensemble Performance	Margin Call
2011	Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Award	Best Cast	Margin Call
2011	San Diego Film Critics Society Award	Best Performance by an Ensemble	Margin Call
2011	Phoenix Film Critics Society Award	Best Ensemble Acting	Margin Call
2012	Independent Spirit Award	Robert Altman Award	Margin Call
2012	Teen Choice Award	Choice TV Actor: Drama	Gossip Girl
2013	Teen Choice Award	Choice TV Actor: Drama	Gossip Girl