John Magaro

John Robert Magaro is an American actor born on February 16, 1983, in Akron, Ohio. He grew up in nearby Munroe Falls and attended school within the Stow-Munroe Falls City School District, where he began performing in local theater productions at venues including the Cleveland Play House, the Kent State Porthouse Theatre at Blossom Music Center, and Weathervane Playhouse in Akron. During his youth he also appeared in television commercials and had a role in an episode of Rescue 911. His parents, Wendy and James Magaro, were both teachers; his father is of Italian descent and his mother is Jewish. After graduating from Stow-Munroe Falls High School in 2001, Magaro studied theater at Point Park University in Pittsburgh.

His early screen work included an uncredited appearance as an extra in Steven Spielberg's 2005 film Munich, a role in The Brave One, the HBO film Taking Chance, and a lead part in the horror film My Soul to Take. In 2008 he starred in a Walmart and Coca-Cola holiday commercial that screened in movie theaters across the country. Magaro's profile rose with the 2012 film Not Fade Away, in which he played the lead role, earning him the HFF Spotlight Award. He subsequently appeared in the films Carol and The Big Short, both released in 2015, and went on to play eleven episodes across seasons three through seven of the Netflix series Orange Is the New Black from 2015 to 2019. He also appeared in the 2016 series Crisis in Six Scenes and the 2019 series The Umbrella Academy.

In 2019, Magaro starred as "Cookie" in Kelly Reichardt's film First Cow, a performance that earned him a Gotham Award nomination for Best Actor in 2020. Additional film credits include Overlord (2018), Showing Up (2022), The Mistress (2022), and Past Lives (2023). He revisited the subject of the 1972 Summer Olympics on screen in the 2024 film September 5.

Magaro made his Broadway debut in 2016 in the revival of The Front Page, where he played the escaped convict Earl Williams. In his personal life, Magaro is married to fashion designer Janice Hong; the couple welcomed their first child in 2020. Magaro has also spoken publicly about living with an anxiety disorder.