Jordan Gelber

Jordan Gelber is an American actor and singer born in 1975 in the Riverdale neighborhood of the Bronx, New York City. He grew up in Woodmere, Long Island, the son of Donald and Barbra Gelber, and has a younger sister, Marielle. Gelber is Jewish and graduated from George W. Hewlett High School in Hewlett, Long Island in 1993. He went on to attend the National Theater Institute before enrolling at Stanford University, where he graduated in 1997. During his time at Stanford, he participated in the Stanford Improvisors improvisational theatre troupe and sang with the a cappella group Stanford Mendicants. He subsequently earned a master's degree in acting in 2000 from New York University's Graduate Acting Program at the Tisch School of the Arts.

Gelber's Broadway career spans from 2003 to 2022 and includes several notable credits. He is recognized for originating the role of Brian, a struggling comedian, in the Tony Award-winning musical Avenue Q. He returned to Broadway from 2008 to 2009 to play Frank Lubey in Arthur Miller's All My Sons, and from 2012 to 2013 he portrayed Buddy in Elf the Musical. In 2017, Gelber appeared at the Hudson Theatre in the limited-run Broadway revival of the Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine musical Sunday in the Park with George, playing Louis/Billy alongside Jake Gyllenhaal and Annaleigh Ashford.

Beyond Broadway, Gelber has accumulated extensive stage credits. His off-Broadway work includes two productions with the Exchange Theater, Realism and Jump, as well as The Polish Play with the Katharsis Theater Company, Birth and After Birth at the Atlantic Theater Company, and Elvis People at New World Stages. In 2019, he played Nathan Detroit in The Muny's production of Guys and Dolls.

On television, Gelber holds a recurring role as medical examiner Dr. Eugene Hawes on the CBS series Elementary and previously recurred as CSU Tech Layton on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. He appeared in the first three episodes of the HBO series Boardwalk Empire and has had guest appearances on Law & Order: Criminal Intent, The Sopranos, and Mr. Robot. His film work includes Riding in Cars with Boys opposite Sara Gilbert, the 2007 crime drama Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, The Taking of Pelham 123 in 2009, Todd Solondz's Dark Horse in late 2010, and the 2016 boxing drama Bleed for This. He also provided the voice of Chatterbox, leader of the Hi-Hats gang, in the video game The Warriors.

In November 2009, Gelber married Marsha Loeb, a senior online medical editor at McGraw-Hill. The couple has two sons, Henry and Dashiell.