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Joshua Aaron Charles (born September 15, 1971) is an American film, television, and theater actor. He is best known for the roles of Dan Rydell on Sports Night, Will Gardner on The Good Wife, which earned him two Primetime Emmy Award nominations, and his early work as Knox Overstreet in Dead Poets Society and Bryan from Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead.
On television, Charles played sports anchor Dan Rydell in Aaron Sorkin's Sports Night, which ran for two years (1998–2000) and earned Charles a Screen Actors Guild nomination. In 2008, Charles played the role of Jake in season one of HBO's In Treatment. In 2009, he returned to network television in the drama The Good Wife. For his work on the series, he was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series in 2011 and 2014.
Also in 2011, Charles narrated the debut episode for NFL Network's A Football Life on New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick.
In 2022, Charles starred in We Own This City, an HBO limited series. The series was noteworthy because it was set in Baltimore, Charles' hometown. His first film, Hairspray, was set in Baltimore and over three decades later, We Own This City was his only other role to-date with ties to the city.
In theater, Charles headlined a production of Jonathan Marc Sherman's Confrontation in 1986. In 2004, he appeared on stage in New York in a revival of Neil LaBute's The Distance from Here, which received a Drama Desk Award for Best Ensemble Cast. In January 2006, he appeared in the world premiere of Richard Greenberg's The Well-Appointed Room for the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago, and he followed this with a run at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, portraying the cloned brothers in Caryl Churchill's A Number. In 2007, he appeared in Adam Bock's The Receptionist at the Manhattan Theatre Club.
He appeared off-Broadway in Annie Baker's The Antipodes at the Signature Theatre in 2017. He made his Broadway debut in Straight White Men by Young Jean Lee at the Hayes Theater in 2018.
He appeared in Taylor Swift's music video for Fortnight in 2024.
In May 2025, it was announced that he was set to star in an American remake of the British series Doc Martin on Fox network titled Best Medicine in the 2025-2026 TV season.
Charles was born, raised and educated in Baltimore, he got his first big acting break in a John Waters film, and his family still lives in the city. As a result, Charles is known for his deep ties to Baltimore and he returns frequently for visits. Charles is famously a big fan of the Ravens and Orioles, and follows city politics closely.
He supported Hillary Clinton presidential campaign in 2016. In 1999, the campaign of then-U.S. Senate candidate Hillary Clinton had requested a copy of a Sports Night episode in which Charles' character Dan Rydell talks about his admiration for Clinton and recounts attending a fundraiser for her off-screen.
In August 2014, he signed an open letter from members of the Hollywood community condemning Hamas rocket attacks on Israel during the 2014 Gaza War. In October 2023, he was one of many Hollywood signatories of a letter calling on President Biden to work toward the release of all Israeli hostages after the October 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel.
| uncredited |
| Damian Jennings |
| Television film |
| Television film |
| Television film |
| Television film |
| 45 episodes |
| Television film |
| episode: "Meeting Girls" |
| 4 episodes |
| 8 episodes |
| episode: "Confession" |
| 107 episodes, also director (3 episodes) |
| 4 episodes |
| 10 episodes |
| 6 episodes |
| 5 episodes |
| 3 episodes |
| 6 episodes |
| 7 episodes |
| episode: "Forensic Science" |
| 3 episodes |
| 10 episodes |
| episode: "Forget it, Jake; It's Chinatown" |
| miniseries, main cast |
| recurring role |
| 4 episodes |
| 4 episodes |
| 2024 | "Fortnight" | Taylor Swift ft. Post Malone |
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