Daniel Stern

Daniel Jacob Stern was born on August 28, 1957, in Bethesda, Maryland, to Cynthia and Leonard Stern, a social worker and a day care center manager, respectively. Stern is Jewish and grew up alongside his brother David M. Stern, who would later become a television writer. While attending Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School, he performed in several theater productions, taking on roles including Chuck Baxter in Promises, Promises and Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof. He left high school before completing his senior year and relocated to New York, where he studied acting at HB Studio under Austin Pendleton and Herbert Berghof.

Stern's early stage work included Off-Broadway and Broadway productions such as True West with Gary Sinise and How I Got That Story at Second Stage Theatre with Bob Gunton. He also performed at The Public Theater, Ensemble Studio Theater, Cherry Lane Theater, and Manhattan Theater Club. His path to the stage began unexpectedly when he applied for a lighting engineering position with a Shakespeare Festival in Washington, D.C., and was instead hired as a walk-on in a production of The Taming of the Shrew starring Glenn Close. In 2013, Stern appeared on Broadway in The Other Place. He also wrote the Off-Broadway production Barbra's Wedding, produced by The Dodgers and Manhattan Theater Club, which starred John Pankow and Julie White and ran for six months, and he appeared in the play at Garry Marshall's Falcon Theater.

Stern made his feature film debut in 1979 as Cyril in Breaking Away. The following year he appeared in Stardust Memories, the first of two films he made with Woody Allen, the second being Hannah and Her Sisters in 1986. His breakthrough came with Barry Levinson's Diner in 1982, in which he played Laurence "Shrevie" Schreiber. He went on to appear in Blue Thunder in 1983 as novice observer Richard Lymangood, and as Herbie Platt in Robert Redford's The Milagro Beanfield War in 1988. Additional film credits from this period include Stardust Memories (1980), C.H.U.D. (1984), The Boss' Wife (1986), Born in East L.A. (1987), D.O.A. (1988), Coupe de Ville (1990), and My Blue Heaven (1990).

Stern became widely recognized for his comedic film roles, most notably as burglar Marv Murchins alongside Joe Pesci in Home Alone (1990) and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992), and as Phil Berquist in City Slickers (1991) and City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly's Gold (1994). He also starred as Phil Brickma in Rookie of the Year (1993), which marked his feature-film directorial debut, as well as Max in Bushwhacked (1995) and Mike in Celtic Pride (1996). In 1998, he appeared in the black comedy Very Bad Things alongside Christian Slater, Cameron Diaz, and Jon Favreau.

From 1988 to 1993, Stern provided the voice of the adult Kevin Arnold, narrating the television series The Wonder Years, which starred Fred Savage. Stern and Savage also appeared together in Little Monsters (1989), in which Stern played the father of Savage's character. He additionally voiced the title character in the animated series Dilbert, based on Scott Adams's comic strip. Stern directed several episodes of The Wonder Years as well as two episodes of the television series Manhattan. He created, wrote, and starred in the CBS television show Danny. In 2023, he joined the cast of the Apple TV+ sci-fi series For All Mankind in the leading role of Eli Hobson. He also appeared in Game Over, Man! (2018) and the Hulu series Shrill, playing the father of Aidy Bryant's character.

Outside of performance, Stern works as an artist specializing in bronze sculpture, with public art installations in San Diego, Pasadena, Palm Desert, Temple City, Monrovia, and Agoura Hills, California. He serves as an artist in residence at Studio Channel Islands Art Centre in Camarillo and has participated in private commissions, gallery exhibitions, and art fairs. Stern is also a cattle and citrus farmer. He married actress Laure Mattos in 1980, and the couple have three children, including California State Senator Henry Stern. In 2024, he published a memoir titled Home and Alone through Simon & Schuster.