Penn Badgley is an American actor who portrays the character Dan Humphrey in the television adaption of the best-selling Gossip Girl series. He has also starred in the movies John Tucker Must Die, The Stepfather, and Easy A.

Contents 1 Early Life 2 Career 2.1 Early Career 2.2 Breakthrough 2.3 Personal Life 3 Filmography 4 Photos 5 Comments

Early LifeEdit

Badgley was born in Maryland and split his childhood years between Richmond, Virginia and Seattle, Washington. He attended Charles Wright Academy in Tacoma, Washington. Also Penn was involved with the Seattle Children's Theatre. He soon began doing voice-overs for children's radio stations.

At age 11, Badgley relocated to Hollywood and began pursuing an acting career. Badgley also pursued a singing career during this time and recorded a pop single in 1998.^[1] At 17, after completing two years of credits at Santa Monica College, he was accepted as a Junior at the University of Southern California (USC), where he deferred admission due to contractual obligations.

CareerEdit

Early CareerEdit

Badgley's first credit was voice work for the video game Mario Golf 64 in 1999 although he claims to have never played it himself. He followed this in 2000 with voice work on Mario Tennis 64. His first screen acting credit was on an episode of Will & Grace. He followed this up with appearances on shows such as Daddio, The Brothers Garcia and What I Like About You, among others. He also appears in John Tucker Must Die playing 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.

BreakthroughEdit

Badgley's first notice came with his role as Phillip Chancellor IV on the soap opera The Young and the Restless (2000 - 2001). He was nominated for a 2001 Young Artist Award for Best Performance in a Daytime Series for his work.^[3]

In 2002, he starred in the WB half-hour series Do Over. Badgley starred 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.The show premiered on The WB Television Network, which is currently known asThe CW. 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 castmateLeighton Meester.^[4]

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.^[2][5][6][7]

In The CW's new drama Gossip Girl, Badgley portrays Dan Humphrey, the son of 1990's former rock starRufus Humphrey (Matthew Settle) and brother of Jenny Humphrey (Taylor Momsen). He plays the love interest of Upper East Side's "it" girl, Serena van der Woodsen (Blake Lively). The show revolves around the lives of socialite young adults growing up on New York's Upper East Side who attend elite academic institutions while dealing with sex, drugs, and other teenage issues. 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.^[2][8]

In April, it was announced that Badgley will appear in a financial thriller drama, the upcoming 2011 movie Margin Call.

Penn Badgley is scheduled to appear at the 2010 MTV VMAs on Sept. 12, 2010. ^[9]

Personal LifeEdit

In late 2007, rumors circulated that Badgley was dating his Gossip Girl co-star and former childhood classmate Blake Lively.^[10] but Badgley and Lively dodged the rumor mill about them dating. In May 2008, after People magazine published photos of the two kissing while on vacation in Mexico,^[11] they have since become more open about their relationship.^[12] They have been dating since December 2007. Him and Blake broke up in September 2010. They still remain friends.

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 Limon, aired during Gossip Girl on CW, MTV and Comedy Central.^[13]

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.^[14]

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.^[15] Badgley has been promoting soccer and heavily involved in soccer events

FilmographyEdit

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1999	Will & Grace	Todd	Episode: "I Never Promised You an Olive Garden"
	Mario Golf 64	Voice Over	Voice Only
2000	The Brothers Garcia	Eddie Bauer	Recurring Role
	Bull	Zack	Episode: "Love's Labor Lost"
	Mario Tennis 64	Voice Over	Voice Only
	Daddio	Todd	Episode: "The Last Temptation of Chris" Episode: "A Confederacy of Daddies"
2001	The Fluffer	Young Sean	Minor Role
2001-2002	The Young and the Restless	Phillip Chancellor IV	4 episodes
2002	What I Like About You	Jake Wood	Episode: "Copy That"
	Do Over	Joel Larsen	15 episodes
2003	The Twilight Zone	Jace Malone	Episode: "Homecoming"
2004 - 2005	The Mountain	Sam Tunney	13 episodes
2006	The Bedford Diaries	Owen Gregory	8 episodes
	John Tucker Must Die	Scott Tucker	Supporting Role
	Drive-Thru	Van	Minor Role
2007 - Present	Gossip Girl	Dan Humphrey	Lead role
2008	Forever Strong	Lars	Lead role
2009	The Stepfather	Michael Harding	Lead role
	The Juggler	The Stud	Pre-production
2010	Easy A	Woodchuck Todd	Supporting Role
2011	Margin Call	Seth Bregman	Lead Role
2012	The Ring 3D	Daniel McCarthy	Lead Role

PhotosEdit

See more photos of Penn Badgley here!