Željko Ivanek

Željko Ivanek is a Slovenian-American actor born in Ljubljana, in what was then the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia. In 1960, he immigrated to Palo Alto, California, with his mother and younger brother Ivan, where his father, Ferdo Ivanek, was working as a research assistant in the Department of Electrical Engineering at Stanford University; his mother also held a position at Stanford as a project manager. The family returned to Slovenia in 1962 for five years before settling again in Palo Alto in 1967. Ivanek graduated from Ellwood P. Cubberley High School in Palo Alto in 1975, earned a degree in theater from Yale University in 1978, and subsequently trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.

Ivanek's stage career spans several decades and has earned him three Tony Award nominations. His Broadway work includes the original production of Brighton Beach Memoirs, Two Shakespearean Actors, and a revival of The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, in which he appeared alongside David Schwimmer and Tim Daly. He also appeared on Broadway in The Pillowman and The Glass Menagerie, among other productions. His Tony nominations recognized his performances in Brighton Beach Memoirs, which yielded a Best Featured Actor in a Play nomination in 1992, and The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, for which he received a Best Actor in a Play nomination in 2006. Beyond Broadway, Ivanek originated the role of Hally in Athol Fugard's Master Harold...and the Boys in 1982 and appeared in the U.S. premiere of Cloud Nine, a performance that earned him the 1981 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play.

On television, Ivanek is perhaps most widely recognized for his role as Ray Fiske on the FX drama Damages, which he played from 2007 to 2010. That performance brought him the 2008 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. He spent six seasons portraying prosecuting attorney Ed Danvers on Homicide: Life on the Street from 1993 to 1999, a role he also reprised in crossover episodes of Law & Order. Other recurring television roles include Governor James Devlin on Oz, Serbian terrorist Andre Drazen on 24, the Magister on True Blood, Emile Danko on Heroes, J.J. on Big Love, and Russell Jackson on the CBS drama Madam Secretary, where he appeared from 2014 to 2019. He portrayed John Dickinson, the Pennsylvania delegate to the Second Continental Congress, in the miniseries John Adams, and has held recurring roles on Banshee and 12 Monkeys. Since 2023, he has starred as the Croat on AMC's The Walking Dead: Dead City. His first television role was as Sammie Wheaton on the soap opera The Edge of Night.

Ivanek has also built an extensive film career spanning more than twenty features. His credits include Courage Under Fire, Donnie Brasco, Hannibal, Black Hawk Down, Unfaithful, The Manchurian Candidate, Live Free or Die Hard, The Bourne Legacy, Argo, and Seven Psychopaths. He appeared in multiple films directed by Lars von Trier, including Dancer in the Dark, Dogville, and Manderlay. In 2017, he appeared in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, a performance that contributed to a Screen Actors Guild Award. As of 2018, Ivanek resided in New York City with his partner, Greg Pierce, who is the nephew of actor David Hyde Pierce.