Penn Badgley

Penn Dayton Badgley is an American actor, producer, and musician born on November 1, 1986, in Baltimore, Maryland. He gained prominent recognition for playing Dan Humphrey in the CW teen drama series Gossip Girl from 2007 to 2012 and Joe Goldberg in the Netflix psychological thriller series You from 2018 to 2025. Before these breakthrough roles, he gained early recognition on the soap opera The Young and the Restless.

Badgley is the son of Duff and Lynne Badgley. His father worked as a newspaper reporter, carpenter, and home builder, and was the Green Party candidate for governor of Washington State in 2008. Badgley grew up as an only child and attended several schools before taking a proficiency exam at age 14 to attend Santa Monica College. He later attended Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon. During his childhood, he participated in community theater and recorded an unreleased pop single at age 12.

After moving to California with his mother at age 11 to pursue acting, Badgley began doing voice work for children's radio stations and video games, including Mario Golf 64 and Mario Tennis 64. His early television work included a guest appearance on Will & Grace and a recurring role as Phillip Chancellor IV on The Young and the Restless from 2000 to 2001, which earned him a Young Artist Award nomination. He subsequently starred in the television series Do Over, The Mountain, and The Bedford Diaries, and made his major feature film debut in John Tucker Must Die in 2006.

In 2007, Badgley was cast in Gossip Girl, earning six Teen Choice Award nominations during the show's run. He continued his film career with roles in the thriller The Stepfather, the romantic comedy Easy A, and the financial drama Margin Call, winning a Robert Altman Award as part of the ensemble cast. He went on to portray musician Jeff Buckley in the 2012 biographical film Greetings from Tim Buckley, for which he took guitar and vocal lessons, and starred in projects including Cymbeline and The Paper Store, winning Best Actor at the Oxford International Film Festival for the latter.

From 2018 to 2025, Badgley starred as Joe Goldberg in You, earning a Saturn Award nomination for his performance. His subsequent film work includes Here Today and The Birthday Cake, and he was cast in the romantic comedy film You Deserve Each Other. Beyond acting, Badgley served as the frontman for the indie band MOTHXR, which released its debut album Centerfold in 2016. In May 2022, he co-founded and launched the podcast Podcrushed.

Badgley married singer Domino Kirke in 2017. He is a stepfather to Kirke's son, and the couple welcomed a son in 2020 and twin sons in 2025. Badgley has been a member of the Baháʼí Faith since 2015. Over his career, he has supported political campaigns, the American Red Cross, Occupy Wall Street, and the Black Lives Matter movement.