| Birthname: | Joshua Aaron Charles |
| Birth Date: | 15 September 1971 |
| Birth Place: | Baltimore, Maryland, U.S. |
| Occupation: | Actor |
| Yearsactive: | 1988–present |
| 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.
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, and he attended the Baltimore School for the Arts.
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 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.[6] In 2022, Charles starred in We Own This City, an HBO limited series.[7]
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.
In September 2013, Charles married ballet dancer and author Sophie Flack.[8] [9] On December 9, 2014, Flack gave birth to the couple's first child, a son.[10] On August 23, 2018, Charles revealed on his Instagram that Flack gave birth to their second child, a daughter.
| 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 | ||
| 2023 | Memory | Isaac | ||
| 2024 | Mothers' Instinct | Post-production |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1990 | Murder in Mississippi | 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 | Sean Kelley | episode: "Confession" | ||
| 2009–2016 | The Good Wife | 107 episodes, also director (3 episodes) | ||
| 2014–2016 | Inside Amy Schumer | Various | 4 episodes | |
| 2015 | Masters of Sex | Dan Logan | 10 episodes | |
| 2015 | Blake | 6 episodes | ||
| 2016–2017 | Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt | Duke Snyder | 5 episodes | |
| 2016–2019 | Drunk History | Various | 3 episodes | |
| 2017 | 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 | 3 episodes | ||
| 2020 | Away | Matt Logan | 10 episodes | |
| 2021 | 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 |
| Year | Association | Category | Nominated work | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Sports Night | |||
| 2000 | ||||
| 2010 | The Good Wife | |||
| 2010 | ||||
| 2011 | ||||
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| 2012 | ||||
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| 2014 | ||||
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| 2014 | ||||
| 2015 | Inside Amy Schumer | |||