Penn Dayton Badgley (born November 1, 1986) is an
American actor. He is best known for his role as
Dan Humphrey on the
CW television series
Gossip Girl. He has also starred in the movies
John Tucker Must Die,
The Stepfather, and
Easy A.
Early life
Badgley was born in
Baltimore, Maryland and split his childhood years between
Richmond, Virginia and
Seattle, Washington. He attended Charles Wright Academy in
Tacoma, Washington. Also Penn was involved with the
Seattle Children's Theatre. He soon began doing
voice-overs for children's radio stations.
At age 11, Badgley relocated to
Hollywood and began pursuing an acting career. Badgley also pursued a singing career during this time and recorded a pop single in 1998. At the age of 14, Penn completed his California High School Proficiency Exam and began attending Santa Monica City College. He was later accepted at
University of Southern California (USC), where he deferred admission due to contractual obligations.
Career
Early work
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 GarcĂa and
What I Like......
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