Happy Anderson

Eric "Happy" Anderson, born November 19, 1976, in High Falls, New York, is an American actor whose work spans film, television, and stage. After graduating from Rondout Valley High School in 1995, Anderson pursued formal training in the performing arts, earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Ithaca College in 1999 and a Master of Fine Arts from Indiana University Bloomington in 2002. He relocated to New York City in 2003.

Anderson's stage career began in regional theater, with engagements at Creede Repertory Theatre from 1999 to 2000, the Kentucky Shakespeare Festival in 2003, the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival in 2004, and the Texas Shakespeare Festival in 2006. In 2008, he appeared in Emancipation at the Classical Theatre of Harlem. His Shakespeare in the Park credits include both The Merchant of Venice and A Winter's Tale in 2010. Anderson made his Broadway debut in 2011 in The Merchant of Venice, directed by Daniel J. Sullivan. Subsequent stage work includes Richard III, As You Like It, and Inherit the Wind at the Old Globe Theatre in 2012, The Twenty-Seventh Man at The Public Theatre in 2013, and As You Like It at the Shakespeare Theatre Company in 2014.

On television, Anderson is recognized for playing Mr. James "Jimmy" Fester on Cinemax's The Knick and for portraying Jerry Brudos in the Netflix series Mindhunter, a role he reprised in the 2025 Netflix series Monster: The Ed Gein Story, produced and directed by David Fincher. His film credits include the Netflix productions Bird Box, in which he plays River Man, and Bright, where he appears as Montehugh, a human working in the FBI's magic division.