Mark Harelik

Mark Harelik, born Marcus Frank Harelik on June 5, 1951, in Hamilton, Texas, is an American actor and playwright whose work spans stage, film, and television. His family history has deep roots in Texas: his Russian Jewish grandfather, Haskell Harelik, immigrated to Galveston, Texas in 1909, a journey that would later serve as the basis for Harelik's 1985 play, The Immigrant.

Harelik's Broadway career extended from 1990 to 2011 and included appearances in The Heidi Chronicles, Mrs. Warren's Profession, The Normal Heart, and the musical The Light in the Piazza. His work on The Normal Heart earned him a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Ensemble Performance in 2011. As a playwright, he received a Drama Desk Award nomination in 2005 for Outstanding Book of a Musical for The Immigrant, which was later adapted into a musical of the same name. In 1997, he published a sequel to that work, titled The Legacy, shifting the narrative from its true-story origins into fiction. He co-wrote Hank Williams: Lost Highway with Randal Myler, a production that received a Lucille Lortel Award nomination for Outstanding Musical in 2003. In 1987, Harelik relocated to Los Angeles, and his stage work outside Broadway has included productions of Temptation, Elmer Gantry, Tartuffe, Old Money, The Hollow Lands, The Beard of Avon, and Cyrano de Bergerac, among others.

His film credits include Election, Jurassic Park III, Eulogy, For Your Consideration, 42, and Battle of the Sexes, in which he portrayed baseball player Hank Greenberg. He also provided the voice of Lord Rogers in the animated feature The Swan Princess and appeared in This Isn't Funny in 2015. In 2024, he was cast as Dr. Hiruluk in One Piece.

On television, Harelik has accumulated an extensive list of credits across decades. He appeared in five episodes of the first season of The Big Bang Theory as Dr. Eric Gablehauser, and played Dr. Paul Stickley in HBO's Getting On, an American adaptation of the British sitcom. His other television appearances include Seinfeld, Wings, Grace Under Fire, Will & Grace, Boy Meets World, Six Feet Under, Grey's Anatomy, NCIS, Numbers, Breaking Bad, Bones, Prison Break, Awake, and the series finale of Cheers. He appeared in a 2002 episode of Angel as Count Kurushu and in the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Counterpoint." In 2015, he appeared in the television series Preacher, playing an actor hired to portray God and subsequently God himself. Harelik is married to actress Spencer Kayden, and the couple has one child. He was named a Lunt-Fontanne Fellow at the Ten Chimneys Foundation in 2011.