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.
Early life
Badgley was born in
Baltimore, Maryland and split his childhood years between
Richmond, Virginia and
Seattle, Washington. In Seattle, he attended Charles Wright Academy (in
Tacoma, WA), and was involved with the
Seattle Children's Theatre. He soon began doing
voice-overs for a children's radio stations.
At age 11, Badgley relocated with his mother to
Hollywood and began pursuing an acting career. According to Badgley's former homeschool classmate
Blake Lively,
Badgley also pursued a singing career, and recorded a pop single in 1998.
At the age of 14, Badgley took the
California High School Proficiency Exam and began attending
Santa Monica College. 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.
Career
Early career
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.
Breakthrough
Badgley's first notice came with his role as Phillip Chancellor IV #8 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.
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 as
The CW. He appeared on the
Tonight Show with Jay Leno as this show opened. The series was cancelled short of a full season. Badgley later apppeared 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 cancelled 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 cancelled in its first season.
In The
CW's new drama
Gossip Girl, Badgley portrays Dan Humphrey, the son of 1990's former rock star Rufus Humphrey (
Matthew Settle). 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 is set to star in the announced
2008 remake of the 1987 American thriller film
The Stepfather.
Personal life
In late 2007, it was reported that Badgley was dating his
Gossip Girl co-star and former childhood classmate
Blake Lively.
In May 2008,
People magazine published photos of Lively and Badgley kissing while on vacation in
Mexico.
The two have since become more open about their relationship.
In October 2008, Badgley appeared alongside Lively in a
MoveOn.org campaign ad in support of Presidential candidate
Barack Obama.
Filmography
