Early Life
Josh Charles was born Joshua Aaron Charles on September 15, 1971, in Baltimore, Maryland. He is the son of Laura Peyton and advertising executive Allan Charles, and he is Jewish on Allan’s side. Josh started performing comedy when he was just nine years old, and during his teenage years, he spent many summers at New York’s Stagedoor Manor Performing Arts Center. Charles studied at the Baltimore School for the Arts, where Tupac Shakur and Jada Pinkett were his classmates.
Career
Charles made his film debut in 1988’s “Hairspray,” which was directed by John Waters, a fellow Baltimore native. He co-starred with Robin Williams and Ethan Hawke in 1989’s “Dead Poets Society,” which earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture. Next, Josh appeared in the films “Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead” (1991), “Crossing the Bridge” (1992), “Threesome” (1994), “Coldblooded” (1995), “The Grave” (1996), “Crossworlds” (1996), “Pie in the Sky” (1996), “Little City” (1997), and “Muppets from Space” (1999) and the TV movies “Murder in Mississippi” (1990), “Cooperstown” (1993), “Norma Jean & Marilyn” (1996), and “The Underworld” (1997). From 1998 to 2000, he starred as Dan Rydell on ABC’s “Sports Night,” which won a Television Critics Association Award for Outstanding Achievement in Comedy in 1999 and a TV Guide Award for Best Show You’re Not Watching in 2000. After “Sports Night” ended, Charles appeared in the films “S.W.A.T.” (2003), “Seeing Other People” (2004), “Four Brothers” (2005), “The Darwin Awards” (2006), “The Ex” (2006), “After.Life” (2009), and “Brief Interviews with Hideous Men” (2009) and the TV movie “Our America” (2002). He guest-starred on “Stella " (2005) and “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” (2008), and he played Ray Jones on the ABC drama “Six Degrees” (2007) and Jake on the HBO drama “In Treatment” (2008).
Personal Life
Josh married ballet dancer/author Sophie Flack on September 6, 2013, and they welcomed a son in December 2014 and a daughter in August 2018. Charles is a fan of the Baltimore teams the Orioles and the Ravens, and in a 2022 interview with Awards Daily in which he discussed the Baltimore-set miniseries “We Own This City,” he stated, “Born and raised in Baltimore. I’m still very close to the city. I feel very connected to my hometown. All my sports teams are there. My family is there, I go back often, and it’s the kind of town that if you’re from there – maybe more so than the bigger cities – we take a lot of pride in our city, warts and all. Therefore, it’s a story that I knew very well. I follow everything in Baltimore, not just sports, but politics too. I care deeply about the city and I see it struggling, and I’m always trying to enlighten myself and see what’s happening and how we can improve it.”
Awards and Nominations
Charles received numerous award nominations for “The Good Wife,” including two Primetime Emmy nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series (2011 and 2014), a Golden Globe nomination for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for Television (2014), a Satellite Award nomination for Best Actor in a Series, Drama (2010), a Critics Choice Television Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series (2014), an Online Film & Television Association Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series (2014), and two Gold Derby Award nominations for Drama Supporting Actor (2011 and 2014). In 2014, he won a People’s Choice Award for Favorite Dramatic TV Actor and an International Online Cinema Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for “The Good Wife.” Josh and his “The Good Wife” co-stars were nominated for Screen Actors Guild Awards for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series in 2010, 2011, and 2012, and the “Sports Night” cast received a nomination for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series in 2000. “Sports Night” also earned Charles a Viewers for Quality Television Award nomination for Best Actor in a Quality Comedy Series (2000). He has also received a Critics Choice Television Award nomination for Best Guest Performer in a Comedy Series for “Inside Amy Schumer” (2015), an Online Film & Television Association Award nomination for Best Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” (2017), and a Hollywood Critics Association Television Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor in a Broadcast Network or Cable Limited Series, Anthology Series, or Movie for “We Own This City” (2022).
Real Estate
In November 2017, Charles paid $6.3 million for a condo in New York City’s Greenwich Village neighborhood. Located in a 15-story prewar building, the 2,615-square-foot condo includes three bedrooms, four bathrooms, a chef’s kitchen, a formal dining room, and an oversize living room that overlooks the University Place markets.
