Penn Badgley is an American actor. He is known for his roles as Dan in teen drama series «Gossip Girl», and as Joe Goldberg in the thriller series «You».
Let’s find out more about the actor!
- His full name is Penn Dayton Badgley.
- He was born on November 1st, 1986.
- the American actor’s zodiac sign is Scorpio.
- He is known for his roles as Dan Humphrey in The CW teen drama series Gossip Girl and as Joe Goldberg in the Netflix thriller series «You».
- For Gossip Girl, he received six Teen Choice Award nominations.
- For You, he earned MTV Movie & TV Award and Saturn Award nominations.
- Penn Badgley first became known for portraying Phillip Chancellor IV on the soap opera The Young and the Restless (2000–2001), which earned him a Young Artist Award nomination
- Penn Badgley went on to appear in a number of films, such as the thriller The Stepfather (2009), the teen comedy-drama Easy A (2010), the financial thriller Margin Call (2011), the biographical film Greetings from Tim Buckley (2012) and the independent drama The Paper Store (2016).
- For Margin Call, he won an Independent Spirit Award.
- In 2017 he married singer Domino Kirke, with whom he has one child.
- He s an only child.
- However he has an older half-sister named Jen from his mother’s second marriage.
- Attended Charles Wright Academy in Tacoma, Washington.
- Upon being asked how his name originated, he says his father was bouncing a Pilot Pen tennis ball in frustration while trying to think of baby names. When his mother got her ultrasound, he referred to the baby looking like the size of the tennis ball. And thus, they named him Penn.
- He was in a relationship with actress and Gossip Girl (2007) co-star and on-screen love interest Blake Lively from 2007 until 2010.
- He was also in an on-again, off-again relationship with singer Zoë Kravitz from 2011 until 2013.
- Cousin of Megan Murphy.
- His parents divorced when he was twelve.
- Has a tattoo of a feather on his right leg.
- Plays guitar, bass and sings.
- During the 2008 United States presidential election, Badgley expressed his support for Barack Obama over John McCain.
- In March 2010, The American Red Cross announced Penn Badgley as a member in National Celebrity Cabinet.
- Did voice-over work for Nintendo games.
- Penn’s mother once drove him 50 miles to appear in a community production of Music Man.
- Penn highly admires TV actresses Tina Fey and Parker Posey.
- Turned down the role of Dan Humphrey in Gossip Girl (2007) several times before finally accepting.
- Good friend of Shawn Pyfrom.
- Penn’s most embarrassing moment was forgetting the words to “The Star-Spangled Banner” while singing at a minor-league baseball game.
- Has known Blake Lively since he was eleven years old but is adamant that they didn’t actually know each other well until Gossip Girl, where they became close.
- Owns many guitars including a Gibson ES-175 and L-5, Collings C-10, two fenders: A sea-foam green Stratocaster and a Telecaster Custom.
- The L-5 and Collings were gifts to himself when he found out he landed the role of Jeff Buckley in ‘Greetings from Tim Buckley’.
- Sings completely live in the film ‘Greetings from Tim Buckley’.
- Penn has traveled to South America and experienced ayahuasca, the legendary vine of the souls, multiple times. Ayahuasca is a brew of psychoactive ingredients that can produce a feeling of enlightenment and spirituality when ingested. Many people say that it made profound positive changes in their lives after consumption.
- In October 2012 Penn took part in the 5th annual Ayahuasca Monologues which took place at Webster Hall in New York City where he described his experiences comically in front of an audience. He described his latest experience as the simplest but most profound moment of his life so far.
- Penn’s ancestry includes Irish, English, smaller amounts of French-Canadian, German, and Scottish, and remote Dutch, Welsh, and French Huguenot.
- Also, one of Penn’s paternal great-grandfathers, Howard Duff, was an emigrant from Jamaica, and was likely of at least part African-Jamaican ancestry. Penn’s patrilineal ancestry can be traced back to George Badgley, who was born, c. 1616, in Bakewell, Derby, England.
- In 2001 he was nominated for a Young Artist Award for his work on “The Young and the Restless” when he was age 15.
- Penn was accepted to the University of Southern California, but deferred admission to pursue his acting career. He has joked that he will attend when he’s age 30.
- Penn’s two passions in life are music and acting.
- Penn, Leighton Meester and Blake Lively are the only Gossip Girl cast members to appear in every single episode of the series.
- His favorite musician of all time is D’Angelo.
- His favorite album is ‘Voodoo’.
- Penn is the frontman of the Brooklyn based band, Mothxr. Originally the band had been called Mother but they found it extremely difficult to promote because it’s impossible for people to google.
- First single, Easy, from his band Mother was released June 3, 2014 on iTunes.
- Penn’s band, Mothxr is composed of transplants from other bands. Jimmy Giannoppulos of Pretty Good Dance Moves, Lolawolf and Reputante. Simon Oscroft of No. Darren Will of Rathbourne and Lakis Pavlou of Drowners.
- While in a relationship with former girlfriend Zoë Kravitz he met band mate Jimmy Giannopolous, who is also in Zoe Kravitz’s band Lolawolf.
- Close friends with fellow Baltimore native and civil rights activist DeRay McKesson.
- When asked who his best and worst on-screen kissing experience was with he said Blake Lively. It was the best because of their relationship and the worst because their characters were still together after they broke up.
- Joked he would rather be named Penn than other tennis brands Dunlop or Wilson.
- For a time Penn’s acting coach was Harold Guskin, author of the acclaimed book “How to Stop Acting” (2003).
- Son-in-law of Simon Kirke, former drummer with British rock bands Free (“All Right Now”) and Bad Company (“Can’t Get Enough”).
- Brother-in-law of Jemima Kirke and Lola Kirke.
- In 2011, he was named one of People’s “25 Beauties (and Hotties) at 25”.
- BuddyTV ranked him number 75 on its “TV’s 100 Sexiest Men of 2011” list.
- He is also the stepfather of Kirke’s first son.
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