David Harbour

David Kenneth Harbour is an American actor born on April 10, 1975. He gained widespread international fame for portraying Jim Hopper in the Netflix science fiction series Stranger Things, a role that earned him two Primetime Emmy nominations. In addition to his prominent television work, he has headlined films such as Hellboy, Violent Night, and Gran Turismo, and he joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe as the character Red Guardian.

Raised in White Plains, New York, Harbour is the son of Kenneth and Nancy Harbour, who both worked in real estate. He attended Byram Hills High School alongside future actors Sean Maher and Eyal Podell. He later studied drama and Italian at Dartmouth College, graduating in 1997. During his time living in New York City as a young adult, Harbour frequented underground poker venues and knew the real-life gangster who inspired the character "Teddy KGB" in the 1998 movie Rounders.

Harbour began his acting career on stage, performing in Shakespearean plays with The Theater at Monmouth between 1994 and 1997. He made his Broadway debut in 1999 in a revival of The Rainmaker and landed his first screen appearance that same year on Law & Order. Over the next decade, he secured guest and recurring television roles, including appearances in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Pan Am, Elementary, and The Newsroom. In 2005, he earned a Tony Award nomination for his performance in a Broadway revival of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?.

Harbour also built a steady film resume during the 2000s and early 2010s. His early film credits include Brokeback Mountain, Quantum of Solace, Revolutionary Road, State of Play, The Green Hornet, End of Watch, and Between Us. In 2014, he played a recurring role as Dr. Reed Akley in the historical drama television series Manhattan.

His major breakthrough arrived in 2015 when he was cast as Chief Jim Hopper in Stranger Things. His performance brought him widespread recognition, including consecutive Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series in 2017 and 2018, a Golden Globe nomination in 2018, and an ensemble award from the Screen Actors Guild in 2017.

Following his breakthrough, Harbour led several high-profile feature films. He starred as the title character in the 2019 reboot of Hellboy, portrayed Alexei Shostakov, also known as Red Guardian, in the Marvel Cinematic Universe films Black Widow and Thunderbolts*, played Santa Claus in the action comedy Violent Night, and appeared in the sports movie Gran Turismo. He also expanded into voice acting, portraying Eric Frankenstein in the animated series Creature Commandos.

In his personal life, Harbour was previously involved in relationships with Alison Sudol and Julia Stiles before marrying English singer-songwriter Lily Allen in Las Vegas in September 2020. The couple shared a home in Brooklyn prior to reports of their separation. Harbour has been open about his personal history, including achieving sobriety at age 24 after struggling with alcoholism, and being diagnosed with bipolar disorder at age 26.