Josh Radnor

Joshua Thomas "Josh" Radnor (born July 29, 1974) is an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter. He is best known for portraying Ted Mosby on the popular Emmy Award-winning CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother. He made his writing and directorial debut with the 2010 comedy drama film Happythankyoumoreplease, for which he won the Sundance Film Festival Audience Award and was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize. In 2012, he wrote, directed and starred in his second film, Liberal Arts, which premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. In 2014 he starred as Isaac in the Broadway play Disgraced, which earned a Tony Award for Best Play nomination. In January 2016 he starred as Dr. Jedediah Foster in the PBS American Civil War drama series Mercy Street.

Early life

Radnor was born in Columbus, Ohio, the son of Carol Radnor (née Hirsch), a high school guidance counselor, and Alan Radnor, a medical malpractice lawyer. Radnor has two sisters, Melanie Radnor and Joanna Radnor Vilensky. He grew up in Bexley, Ohio, a small city nested inside Columbus. Radnor attended Orthodox Jewish day schools (including the Columbus Torah Academy) and was raised in Conservative Judaism. Radnor went to Bexley High School and later Kenyon College, where his school's theater department presented him with the Paul Newman Award and during which he spent a semester (Spring 1995) training at the National Theater Institute at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Waterford, CT. He graduated from Kenyon with a B.A. in Drama in 1996. Radnor received his Master of Fine Arts degree in acting from New York University's Graduate Acting Program at the Tisch School of the Arts in 1999. Radnor participated in an Israel experience program in Tzfat with Livnot U'Lehibanot in 1997.