Josh Radnor

Joshua Thomas Radnor (born July 29, 1974)[1] is an American actor, filmmaker, author and musician. He is best known for portraying Ted Mosby on the popular Emmy Award-winning CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother. He made his writing and directorial debut with the 2010 comedy drama film Happythankyoumoreplease, for which he won the Sundance Film Festival Audience Award and was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize.

Josh Radnor
Radnor at the 2013 Comic-Con
Born	(1974-07-29) July 29, 1974 Columbus, Ohio, U.S.
Education	Kenyon College (BA) New York University (MFA)
Occupation	Actor • musician
Years active	2000–present

In 2012, he wrote, directed and starred in his second film, Liberal Arts, which premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. In 2014, Radnor portrayed Isaac in the Broadway play Disgraced, which was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Play. He then starred as Dr. Jedediah Foster on the PBS American Civil War drama series Mercy Street, Lou Mazzuchelli in the musical series Rise, and as Lonny Flash in Hunters.

Early life and education

Radnor was born in Columbus, Ohio to a Jewish family, the son of Carol Radnor (née Hirsch), a high school guidance counselor, and Alan Radnor, a medical malpractice lawyer.[2] Radnor has two sisters, Melanie Radnor and Joanna Radnor Vilensky.[3]

He grew up in Bexley, Ohio, a suburb of Columbus, and was raised in Conservative Judaism.[4] He attended the Orthodox Jewish day school Columbus Torah Academy before going to Bexley High School[5][6][7] and then Kenyon College, where his school's theater department presented him with the Paul Newman Award and during which he spent a semester (Spring 1995) training at the National Theater Institute at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Waterford, Connecticut. He graduated from Kenyon with a Bachelor of Arts in drama in 1996.[8] Radnor received his Master of Fine Arts degree in acting from New York University's graduate acting program at the Tisch School of the Arts in 1999.[8][9] Radnor participated in an Israel experience program in Tzfat with Livnot U'Lehibanot in 1997.[5]

Career

Radnor and Ben Lee performing

Radnor was cast as the lead in The WB series Off Centre. However, the role was re-cast with Eddie Kaye Thomas before the first episode aired.[10] In 2002, he made his Broadway debut in the stage version of The Graduate, succeeding Jason Biggs, opposite Kathleen Turner and Alicia Silverstone. In 2004, Radnor starred in The Paris Letter alongside his future How I Met Your Mother co-star, Neil Patrick Harris.[11] From 2005 to 2014, Radnor starred in How I Met Your Mother, his biggest role to date.

In July 2008, he starred opposite Jennifer Westfeldt in the premiere of the play Finks,[12] written by Joe Gilford and directed by Charlie Stratton for New York Stage and Film. Radnor made his directorial debut with the film Happythankyoumoreplease, where he was both the writer and star of the 2010 comedy-drama.[13] His second directorial effort, Liberal Arts, starring himself and Elizabeth Olsen, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 22, 2012.[14] Radnor appeared in the Broadway production of Disgraced, which opened October 23, 2014 at the Lyceum Theatre.[15][16] He is set to direct the sci-fi thriller film The Leaves.[17] Radnor is currently starring in the Amazon Prime series, Hunters, as Lonny Flash.

In October of 2016, Radnor also confirmed he is in a band, Radnor and Lee, with Australian musician Ben Lee. Radnor and Lee had known each other for "twelve or thirteen years after meeting on the set of How I Met Your Mother" eventually writing songs together.[18] Their debut album, Radnor & Lee was released on November 10, 2017.[19] On February 19, 2020, Spin announced Radnor and Lee's sophomore album, Golden State would be out May 8, 2020 on Flower Moon Records and premiered the first single "Outside In." [20]

Personal life

In 2008, Radnor told the Los Angeles Times, "I do Transcendental Meditation, and part of the reason I chose my house is that I thought it would be a great place to meditate."[21]

Radnor is an avid Cloud Cult fan. He collaborated with the band to make the film The Seeker in 2016. Radnor explained, "What's true for me about a lot of music, but especially true for Cloud Cult's music, is that it stirs up the thing that's already in you and calls it out. If this film is able to do that, I'll sleep well at night."[22]

Radnor is a registered Democrat.[23]

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2001	Not Another Teen Movie	Tour Guide
2008	The Negotiating Table	WGA Negotiator	Short film
2010	Happythankyoumoreplease	Sam Wexler	Also director and writer
2012	Liberal Arts	Jesse Fisher	Also director and writer
2013	Afternoon Delight	Jeff Boyardee
2013	The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden	John Garth (voice)	Documentary
2016	The Seeker	Father
2018	Social Animals	Paul

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2000	Welcome to New York	Doug	Episode: "The Crier"
2001	Off Centre	Mike Platt	Unaired pilot
2002	Law & Order	Robert Kitson	Episode: "Access Nation"
2002	The Court	Dylan Hirsch	3 episodes
2003	ER	Keith	Episode: "The Advocate"
2003	Six Feet Under	Will Jaffe	Episode: "The Trap"
2003	Miss Match	Andrew Gilbert	Episode: "I Got You Babe"
2005	Judging Amy	Justin Barr	Episode: "Too Little, Too Late"
2005–14	How I Met Your Mother	Ted Mosby	Main role; 208 episodes
2007–09	Family Guy	Ted Mosby (voice)	2 episodes
2013	Malviviendo	Himself/cameo	Episode: "La cosa está muy negra" (The thing is too black)
2016–17	Mercy Street	Dr. Jedediah Foster	Main role; 12 episodes
2018	Rise	Lou Mazzuchelli	Main role; 10 episodes
2018	Grey's Anatomy	John	Episode: "Momma Knows Best"
2020	Hunters	Lonny Flash	Main role; 10 episodes

Music videos

Year	Title	Artist	Notes
2016	"Let Me Be Your Girl"	Rachael Yamagata	Director[24]

Stage

Year	Title	Role	Location
2002	The Graduate	Benjamin Braddock	Plymouth Theatre[25]
2004	The Paris Letter	Sam Arlen / Young Sandy	Kirk Douglas Theater
2011	She Loves Me	Georg Nowack	Roundabout Theatre Company[25]
2014–2015	Disgraced	Isaac	Lyceum Theatre
2016	The Babylon Line	Aaron Port	Lincoln Center
2018	Little Shop of Horrors	Seymour Krelborn	Kennedy Center

Awards and nominations

Year	Work	Award	Result
2010	Happythankyoumoreplease	Sundance Film Festival Audience Award	Won
		Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Award	Nominated

References

1. "Happy birthday, Josh Radnor: See his star sign and read your horoscope". Hello!. July 29, 2014. Retrieved February 21, 2020.
2. "Bexley natives to premiere award-winning film at Drexel". ThisWeek Community News. June 30, 2010. Retrieved February 21, 2020.
3. Weiss, Vered (January 5, 2015). "Josh Radnor May Go on the Road after 'Disgraced' Closes on Broadway". Jewish Business News. Retrieved February 21, 2020.
4. Williams, Halie (September 25, 2013). "Josh Radnor: 'I love being from Columbus'". The Lantern. Retrieved February 21, 2020.
5. Spence, Rebecca (March 12, 2008). "Radnor: Not Your Average TV Star". The Forward. Retrieved March 13, 2008.
6. "Josh Radnor on Talmud and 'Liberal Arts'". The Forward. September 13, 2012. Retrieved November 14, 2012.
7. "Josh Radnor: Heart versus head - 'it's a big theme of my life'". The Jewish Chronicle. October 4, 2012. Retrieved November 14, 2012.
8. "Josh Radnor: How I Met Your Mother on CBS". CBS. Archived from the original on April 3, 2008.
9. "NYU Graduate Acting Alumni". Retrieved December 1, 2011.
10. "Josh Radnor Biography". TV.com. CNET Networks, Inc. Archived from the original on February 17, 2008. Retrieved September 19, 2009.
11. Isherwood, Charles (December 16, 2004). "Theater Review: The Paris Letter". The New York Times. The New York Times Company. p. 5. Archived from the original on June 22, 2013. Retrieved February 12, 2019.
12. Cotter, James (July 26, 2008). "article". Times Herald. Archived from the original on February 2, 2009.
13. Angelo, Megan (February 27, 2011). "How I Met Your City, the Real One". The New York Times. The New York Times Company. p. 12. Retrieved February 12, 2019.
14. Kit, Borys (March 23, 2011). "Josh Radnor, Elizabeth Olsen Teaming for Indie 'Liberal Arts'". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved April 23, 2011.
15. Sobel, Jon (June 10, 2014). "Josh Radnor to Appear in Pulitzer Winner 'Disgraced' on Broadway This Fall". Classicalite.com. Retrieved February 12, 2019.
16. "'Disgraced' Broadway". Playbill. Brightspot. Retrieved July 23, 2016.
17. McNary, Dave (June 21, 2016). "'How I Met Your Mother' Star Josh Radnor Directing Sci-Fi Drama 'The Leaves'". Variety. Penske Business Media, LLC. Retrieved February 12, 2019.
18. D'Souza, Shaad (2018-04-04). "Ben Lee and Ted from 'How I Met Your Mother' Have a Band, Unfortunately". Vice.
19. Murphy, Sam (August 19, 2017). "Josh Radnor From 'How I Met Your Mother' And Ben Lee Continue Bromance With New Song". Music Feeds. Retrieved February 12, 2019.
20. https://www.spin.com/2020/02/radnor-and-lee-tackle-age-and-wisdom-on-new-album-golden-state
21. Sachs, Mark (November 28, 2008). "Plenty of spots to meet". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on March 5, 2016. Retrieved April 24, 2014.
22. Jackson, Josh (April 2016). "Cloud Cult Made a Gorgeous One-Hour Movie with Josh Radnor". Paste. Retrieved January 22, 2017.
23. "Interview: 'How I Met Josh Radnor'". StarPulse. January 15, 2009. Archived from the original on August 31, 2017. Retrieved February 12, 2019.
24. Evatt, Nicole (October 10, 2016). "Allison Janney clowns around in Rachael Yamagata's new video". The Salt Lake Tribune. Retrieved October 12, 2016.
25. "Josh Radnor". Internet Broadway Database. Retrieved January 11, 2012.

External links

• Josh Radnor on IMDb
• Josh Radnor at the Internet Broadway Database
• Josh Radnor at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• Josh Radnor Bio at CBS – How I Met Your Mother