Barrett Foa

Barrett Conrad Foa, born September 18, 1977, in Manhattan, New York, is an American actor, singer, and dancer whose career spans Broadway, Off-Broadway, regional theatre, and television. He is the son of Conrad Foa, an international insurance broker, former musician, and Army veteran, and Linda Rimanich, an executive, editor, and author. Both of his parents are Manhattan natives and are active as community organizers, civic activists, and philanthropists within the Democratic Party.

Foa completed his secondary education at The Dalton School, a K-12 college preparatory institution in New York City, where he developed an early interest in musical theatre as an extracurricular pursuit. During each of his four high school summers in the 1990s, he attended the Interlochen Center for the Arts in northern Michigan, a school encompassing music, dance, theatre, film, writing, and visual arts. There he performed in plays, musicals, and operettas, including learning to sing in an operatic style for a production of Lend Me a Tenor. He has since established the Barrett Foa Musical Theatre Scholarship, awarded annually to a high school camper at Interlochen studying musical theatre. His first paid theatrical work came in 1995 following an audition at StrawHat Auditions, which placed him at the New London Barn Playhouse, a summer stock theatre in New Hampshire, where he played an effeminate version of Mordred in Camelot.

Foa earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Musical Theatre from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor in 1999, having accumulated his Equity card through summer stock work during his college years. During his junior year, he spent a semester studying acting and Shakespeare at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London. After graduating, he returned to New York City to pursue a professional career.

His early Off-Broadway work included playing Jesus in the 2000 revival of Godspell, produced to mark the musical's 30th anniversary, and he appears on that production's cast album. His Broadway debut followed in 2001 as a cast member in the original production of Mamma Mia!, the musical built around 22 songs by ABBA. After several months with that production, he departed to take a three-month engagement at TheatreWorks in Palo Alto, California, where he originated the lead role in a new musical called Kept, with music by Henry Kreiger and lyrics by Bill Russell. His Broadway credits between 2001 and 2006 also include The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas and Chess, in addition to his later work in Avenue Q and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.

In the mid-2000s, Foa took on the roles of Princeton and Rod in Avenue Q on Broadway. He was notably the first actor cast in that production who had not previously worked as a puppeteer, and he completed an intensive two-day puppetry course before assuming the roles. He served as understudy for a year before taking over a lead role in 2005. In 2006, he moved to a lead role in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, playing Leaf Coneybear.

Foa's regional theatre credits include productions of Sweet Charity, The Music Man, Camelot, Pirates! The Musical, The Lady in Question, Much Ado About Nothing, and The Fantasticks. He played Matt in The Fantasticks at The Muny in St. Louis and was subsequently cast as Claudio in a dual production of Much Ado About Nothing at Hartford Stage and the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C. In July 2013, he played Harold Hill in The Music Man for the Connecticut Repertory Theatre. His Off-Broadway credits include Buyer & Cellar, The Drunken City, Godspell, and Tio Pepe. From March to April 2008, he played Eddie in The Drunken City at Playwrights Horizons, and from May to August 2014 he played the lead in Jonathan Tolins' one-man comedy Buyer & Cellar Off-Broadway.

Acting on advice from friends, Foa relocated to Los Angeles in the late 2000s to pursue television opportunities. He appeared in supporting and cameo roles in Numb3rs, The Closer, and HBO's Entourage before landing the recurring role of Eric Beale, a computer and technology specialist, on the military police procedural NCIS: Los Angeles in 2009. He had originally auditioned for the role of operational psychologist Nate Getz, but the producers created the Beale character specifically for him. His recurring role was elevated to series regular midway through the first season, after twelve episodes. In April 2011, his character transitioned from the operations center to field work for the first time in the series. Foa remained with NCIS: Los Angeles for twelve seasons, departing after the twelfth season finale in May 2021.

Alongside his television career, Foa continued performing live. In January 2011, he headlined Sincerely, John Hughes, a stage musical tribute to the films and soundtracks of director John Hughes. He also co-wrote, produced, and starred in For the Record: John Hughes, a live musical event drawing on films from the 1980s, which played multiple sold-out engagements in both Los Angeles and New York City.