Biography
Penn Badgley was born on November 1, 1986 in Baltimore, Maryland. He split his childhood years between Richmond, VA and Seattle, WA. In Seattle, where he attended Charles Wright Academy (in Tacoma, WA), he was involved with the Seattle Children's Theatre and did voice-overs for a children's radio station. He has known his Gossip Girl co-star Blake Lively ever since the age of 11. Badgley was named after a Tennis ball brand called Penn due to the fact that his father would grip on Penn tennis balls, and when first seen in the womb was said to be as small as a tennis ball.Around 1999, he relocated with his mother to Hollywood. At the age of 14, Badgley took the California High School Proficiency Exam and began attending Santa Monica College. At 17, after completing two years of credits at Santa Monica College, he was accepted as a Junior at the University of Southern California (USC), where he deferred admission due to contractual obligations.
Early career
Badgley's first credit was voice work for the video game Mario Golf 64 in 1999 although he claims to have never played it himself. He followed this in 2000 with voice work on Mario Tennis 64. His first screen acting credit was on an episode of Will & Grace. He followed this up with appearances on shows such as Daddio, The Brothers Garcia and What I Like About You, among others.He also appears in John Tucker Must Die playing Scott Tucker.In its opening weekend, the film grossed a total of $14.3 million, ranking third in the U.S. box office results for that weekend.
Breakthrough
Badgley's first notice came with his role as Phillip Chancellor IV on the soap opera The Young and the Restless (2000 - 2001). He was nominated for a 2001 Young Artist Award for Best Performance in a Daytime Series for his work.
In 2002, he starred in the WB 1/2 hour series Do Over. Badgley starred as Joel Larsen, a 34 year old man, gets a second chance to get his life right, thanks to a freakish accident that catapults him back to 1980, as a 14 year old.The show premiered on The WB Television Network, which is currently know as The CW.
He appeared on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno as this show opened. The series was cancelled short of a full season.
Wider audiences may recognize him from his next starring role as Sam Tunney in The Mountain (2004 - 2005), but was cancelled after the first season the same happened to another series called The Bedford Diaries where he landed the lead role.The show premiered on The WB Television Network. Even though the show was popular, it got cancelled for unknown reasons.
He currently plays Dan Humphrey in the CW's Gossip Girl.
Personal life
Badgley has one older half-sister and currently splits his time between Los Angeles and New York City. In his spare time, he loves to surf, go skiing and snowboarding. He enjoys singing, writing, and playing the guitar. Badgley used to compete in national surfing competitions.
- Wikipedia.
Filmography
This is just a quick run through of Penn's major roles:
"Gossip Girl" - Dan Humphrey (2007-)
John Tucker Must Die (2006) - Scott
"The Bedford Diaries" - Owen Gregory (2006, 8 episodes)
"The Mountain" - Sam Tunney (2004-2005, 13 episodes)
"Do Over" - Joel Larsen (2002-2003, 15 episodes)
"The Young and the Restless" - Phillip Chancellor IV (2000-2001, unknown number of episodes)
For a more detailed look at Penn's filmography, please refer to his IMDB page.