Dan Fogler

Dan Fogler is an American actor, comedian, and writer born on October 20, 1976, in Brooklyn, New York. His father, Richard Fogler, was a surgeon, and his mother, Shari, worked as an English teacher. Fogler is Jewish and received his early education at the Windmill Montessori School in Brooklyn. He went on to graduate from Poly Prep Country Day School in 1994 and subsequently studied at the School of Theatre at Boston University.

Fogler made his Broadway debut in 2005 with The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, playing the role of William Barfée. The production earned him three awards that year: the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical, a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Ensemble Performance, and a Theatre World Award, the last of which recognized his work in the original off-Broadway run. He remained active on Broadway through 2007, with additional credits including The 24 Hour Plays 2004. In 2007, he also wrote and directed the stage play Elephant in the Room, a work inspired by Ionesco's Rhinoceros and produced by the New York International Fringe Festival.

His first television appearance came in 2002 on Fox's 30 Seconds to Fame, where he appeared as a contestant impersonating Al Pacino. Subsequent television work included recurring roles on NBC's Hannibal, CBS's The Good Wife, and ABC's The Goldbergs, as well as voice work on Fox's American Dad. Fogler held main roles as Kenny Hayden on the ABC sitcom Man Up! in 2011 and as Dave Lindsey on the first season of the ABC anthology series Secrets and Lies in 2015. He later portrayed Francis Ford Coppola in the Paramount+ miniseries The Offer in 2022.

Fogler transitioned into film in the late 2000s, appearing in Balls of Fury and Good Luck Chuck, both released in 2007. Further film credits from that period include Fanboys (2009), Taking Woodstock (2009), and Love Happens (2009). He also contributed voice performances to several animated features, among them Kung Fu Panda (2008), Horton Hears a Who! (2008), Mars Needs Moms (2011), and Free Birds (2013). In the early-to-mid 2010s, he appeared in Take Me Home Tonight (2011) and Europa Report (2013).

Beginning in 2016, Fogler took on the starring role of Jacob Kowalski in the Harry Potter spin-off film series Fantastic Beasts, a role he continued through the franchise's final installment in 2022. He portrayed Albert Grossman in the 2024 biographical film A Complete Unknown, a performance that earned him a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination. Additional film credits in the 2020s include Spinning Gold (2023) and Juliet & Romeo (2025).

As a writer and director, Fogler made his feature directorial debut with Hysterical Psycho, a horror comedy that premiered at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival. The film featured actors from Stage 13, a film and theater production company of which Fogler is a founding member. He subsequently wrote, directed, and starred in Don Peyote (2014), which featured supporting performances from Josh Duhamel, Anne Hathaway, and Topher Grace. Fogler has also worked as a graphic novelist: Archaia Entertainment published his horror anthology Moon Lake in 2010, Chapterhouse published Brooklyn Gladiator in 2018, and Heavy Metal published Fishkill in 2020.

In 2009, Fogler married Jodie Capes, co-founder of Capes Coaching, a career coaching company for actors and artists. The couple have two daughters, Edie and Franny.