Michael Stuhlbarg

Michael Stuhlbarg is an American actor born on July 5, 1968, in Long Beach, California, the son of Susan and Mort Stuhlbarg. His father began as a salesman before becoming a manufacturer of security products. Stuhlbarg was raised as a Reform Jew. He trained at the Juilliard School in New York City as a member of the Drama Division's Group 21, completing the program between 1988 and 1992 and earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. His acting studies extended to the University of California, Los Angeles, the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, the British American Drama Academy at Oxford, and the National Youth Theatre of Great Britain at the University of London. He also studied mime with Marcel Marceau.

Stuhlbarg's Broadway career spans 1993 to 2024. He made his Broadway debut in a 1993 revival of George Bernard Shaw's Saint Joan, in which he portrayed Charles VII of France. He subsequently appeared in Taking Sides, The Invention of Love, and The Inspector General, among other productions. In 2005, he delivered a widely noted performance in Martin McDonagh's The Pillowman, playing Michal, a mentally damaged man who endured years of parental abuse; Stuhlbarg gained fifty pounds for the role. That performance earned him the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play as well as a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actor in a Play. Two decades later, he starred in Peter Morgan's The Patriots, portraying Boris Berezovsky, a role that brought him a Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in a Play in 2024.

Before his Broadway breakthrough, Stuhlbarg built a substantial stage résumé in the 1990s. He played the title role in a 1994 production of Richard II, which drew notice from New York Times critic David Richards. He starred in Old Wicked Songs in late 1995, and in 1996 appeared in a production of Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey into Night, for which he received the Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Actor in a large company production. A 1997 production of Henry VIII saw him take on multiple roles, including Thomas Cranmer. In 1999, he played Ernst Ludwig in the Studio 54 production of Cabaret, and in 2000 he took the dual role of Time and Clown in a production of The Winter's Tale. He also appeared in productions of Cymbeline, Twelfth Night, and The Persians before his Pillowman success.

Stuhlbarg made his film debut in the 1998 drama A Price Above Rubies. His screen profile rose considerably when he was cast as troubled Jewish university professor Larry Gopnik in Joel and Ethan Coen's dark comedy A Serious Man, released in October 2009, a performance that earned him a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. He went on to portray a series of historical figures across multiple films: Democratic Congressman George Yeaman in Steven Spielberg's Lincoln (2012), talent agent Lew Wasserman in the Alfred Hitchcock biopic Hitchcock (2012), Apple engineer Andy Hertzfeld in Steve Jobs (2015), actor Edward G. Robinson in Trumbo (2015), New York Times editor Abe Rosenthal in The Post (2017), and literary critic Stanley Edgar Hyman in Shirley (2020). His other film credits include Hugo (2011), Men in Black 3 (2012), Blue Jasmine (2013), Arrival (2016), Call Me by Your Name (2017), The Shape of Water (2017), and Bones and All (2022). He also joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Nicodemus West in Doctor Strange (2016) and its 2022 sequel.

On television, Stuhlbarg portrayed organized crime boss Arnold Rothstein in HBO's Boardwalk Empire from 2010 to 2013, a character written off after the show's fourth season. He played Richard A. Clarke in The Looming Tower (2018) and Richard Sackler in Dopesick (2021), receiving Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for both performances. Additional television credits include FX's Fargo (2017), Showtime's Your Honor (2020–2023), and HBO's The Staircase (2022). Across his career, Stuhlbarg's accolades include a Drama Desk Award, an Obie Award, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards, alongside nominations for two Tony Awards, two Emmy Awards, and a Golden Globe Award.