D. W. Moffett

Donald Warren Moffett, known professionally as D. W. Moffett, is an American actor born on October 26, 1954, in Highland Park, Illinois, who was raised in nearby Wilmette. Between 1969 and 1974, he attended a private secondary school in Germany, where he became fluent in the language. He later enrolled at Stanford University, majoring in international relations, and after graduating returned to Chicago to work as an investment banker. Dissatisfied with that career, he enrolled in an acting class at the St. Nicholas Theater Company, where he studied under William H. Macy. He subsequently co-founded Remains Theater and began appearing in stage productions throughout Chicago. He adopted the stage name D. W. to distinguish himself from British actor Donald Moffat.

Moffett's stage work in Chicago led to a New York City production of Balm in Gilead, in which he appeared opposite John Malkovich. His Broadway career spans 1984 to 2000 and includes three productions: The Real Thing, in which he appeared in 1984; The Boys of Winter in 1985, where he played opposite Matt Dillon; and Contact, which ran through 2000. Also in 1985, he starred in the original New York City production of Larry Kramer's The Normal Heart, playing a gay man dying of AIDS opposite Brad Davis. That same year he appeared in the NBC television film An Early Frost, alongside Aidan Quinn and Gena Rowlands, which also centered on the HIV/AIDS crisis. In 2005, Moffett performed at the Old Vic in London opposite Kevin Spacey in The Philadelphia Story.

Moffett made his feature film debut in Bob Rafelson's thriller Black Widow in 1987. He followed that with the 1990 thriller Lisa, in which he portrayed a serial killer, and also appeared that year in the psychological horror film Pacific Heights and in an NBC television adaptation of Danielle Steel's Fine Things alongside Tracy Pollan. He had a supporting role in Bernardo Bertolucci's Stealing Beauty in 1996, a film that also starred Liv Tyler, Jeremy Irons, and Rachel Weisz, and a supporting part in the drama Molly in 1999. Beginning in 1998, he was a main cast member on the sitcom For Your Love, which aired on NBC and later the WB until 2002.

In 2000, Moffett appeared in Steven Soderbergh's ensemble crime thriller Traffic, a role that earned him a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. He played the absent father of a troubled teenager in the 2003 drama Thirteen, with the daughter portrayed by Evan Rachel Wood, and co-starred in the 2004 thriller Twisted as a serial killer's attorney. He appeared in the CW series Hidden Palms as Bob Hardy and starred in the 2007 CW series Life Is Wild as Dr. Danny Clarke. From 2008 to 2010, he had a recurring role on the NBC drama Friday Night Lights. From 2011 to 2012, he starred in the comedy series Happily Divorced as Elliot, a recurring love interest of the character played by Fran Drescher. He also starred as John Kennish in the ABC Family series Switched at Birth, a role he held from the show's premiere in 2011 through its conclusion in 2017. In 2017, Moffett was named chair of the film and television program at the Savannah College of Art and Design.