Hamish Linklater

Hamish Linklater is an American actor and playwright born on July 7, 1976, in New York City. He was raised partly in the Berkshires of Massachusetts, including Great Barrington, by his mother, Kristin Linklater, a Scottish-born professor of theatre and chair of the Acting Division at Columbia University who was also a founder of the Shakespeare & Company drama troupe and a teacher of vocal technique. His father, James Lincoln Cormeny, worked as an actor and stage builder. Linklater began performing small Shakespearean roles at the age of eight. His maternal grandparents were arts campaigner Marjorie Linklater and Scottish novelist Eric Linklater, and his uncles include journalist Magnus Linklater and writer Andro Linklater. He graduated from Commonwealth School in Boston in 1994 and went on to attend Amherst College.

Linklater made his film debut in the 2000 production Groove, followed by a role as CNN correspondent Richard Roth in the HBO film Live from Baghdad. He subsequently appeared in Fantastic Four in 2005 and held recurring television roles on both American Dreams and Gideon's Crossing. In July 2006, he appeared off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons in Keith Bunin's The Busy World Is Hushed opposite Jill Clayburgh. That same year, he joined the main cast of the CBS sitcom The New Adventures of Old Christine, playing Matthew Kimble, the brother of Julia Louis-Dreyfus's character, a role he held from 2006 to 2010. He also played the title role in Hamlet at South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa, California, and at the Long Wharf Theater in New Haven, Connecticut. In 2009, he appeared in The Public Theater's Shakespeare in the Park production of Twelfth Night as Sir Andrew Aguecheek, alongside Anne Hathaway, Audra McDonald, and Raul Esparza.

Linklater made his Broadway debut in October 2011 in Theresa Rebeck's Seminar, appearing opposite Alan Rickman, Jerry O'Connell, Lily Rabe, and Hettienne Park. His work in theatre had previously earned him a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play in 2010. In 2013, he portrayed Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher Ralph Branca in the Jackie Robinson biopic 42. He joined the cast of Aaron Sorkin's The Newsroom in a recurring role as senior producer Jerry Dantana, appearing in six episodes before taking on the role of Andrew Keanelly in the CBS series The Crazy Ones, which ran from 2013 to 2014. Beginning in 2017, he appeared in the FX series Legion as Clark Debussy, a role based on the Marvel Comics character, and was elevated to the main cast for the show's second season. Also in 2017, he had a role in the third season of the FX series Fargo.

In 2021, Linklater starred in Mike Flanagan's Netflix horror miniseries Midnight Mass as Father Paul Hill, a young priest who replaces an elderly monsignor. The series premiered on September 24, 2021, and Linklater received a Critics' Choice nomination for the performance. That same year, he appeared in the Amazon Prime series Tell Me Your Secrets as John Tyler, and began filming the Starz series Gaslit as Jeb Magruder, which premiered in 2022. Also in 2022, Walter Hill's western Dead for a Dollar, in which Linklater played villain Martin Kidd, premiered at the Venice Film Festival. He additionally began work on Downtown Owl, for which he serves as screenwriter, producer, and director. Since 2024, Linklater has voiced Bruce Wayne and Batman in the Prime Video animated series Batman: Caped Crusader.

Linklater was married to playwright Jessica Goldberg from January 2002 until 2012; they have one daughter together. He subsequently entered a relationship with actress Lily Rabe, with whom he has two daughters, born in March 2017 and June 2020, and a son born in 2022.