Joe Manganiello

Joe Manganiello
Manganiello at the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con International
Born	Joseph Michael Manganiello (1976-12-28) December 28, 1976 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Occupation	Actor, Director, Producer, Author
Years active	1999–present

Joseph Michael "Joe" Manganiello (/ˌmæŋɡəˈnɛloʊ/ MANG-gə-NEL-oh; born December 28, 1976) is an American author, director, producer, film and theatre actor. He holds a BFA in acting from the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama. He played Flash Thompson in the original Spider-Man film series, and had various recurring roles in television on ER, How I Met Your Mother and One Tree Hill, before landing his breakout role as werewolf Alcide Herveaux on the HBO television series True Blood for which he has garnered both popular and critical praise. In 2011, Manganiello was voted "Favorite Pop-Culture Werewolf of All Time" by the readers of Entertainment Weekly, and one of Men's Health Magazine's "100 Fittest Men of All Time," alongside Michael Jordan, Bo Jackson, Michael Phelps, and Arnold Schwarzenegger.^[1]

He has since split his time between acting on True Blood and in feature films such as the Steven Soderbergh-directed Magic Mike, the film adaptation of What to Expect When You're Expecting, and the David Ayer directed Sabotage. In late 2013 Manganiello became a published author. His first book "Evolution" was released by Simon & Schuster's Gallery Books.^[2] Aside from his work life, Manganiello is active with several charities including Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC and he serves on the committee of the Los Angeles-based "The Art of Elysium."

Early life

Manganiello was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and raised in Mt. Lebanon, a suburb south of the city. His parents are Susan (née Brachanow), and Charles John Manganiello.^[3][4][5] His father's family is Italian, from Avellino and Messina (Sicily), while his mother is of Dalmatian (Croatian), German, and Armenian descent.^[6][7][8][9] He has a younger brother, Nicholas. He was a student at St. Bernard School, a Roman Catholic elementary school in Mt. Lebanon,^[10] and then attended Mt. Lebanon High School,^[11] where he graduated with honors in 1995 and won the school's Great Alumni Award in 2011. Growing up, he was the captain of his football, basketball, and volleyball teams and went on to play at the varsity level in all three sports.^[10] Manganiello won the role of Jud Fry in his school's senior year production of Oklahoma!, and was involved with the school's TV studio. On weekends, he would borrow equipment to make movies with his friends, and became interested in acting to become a better amateur filmmaker.^[12]

After a series of sports injuries including a torn MCL returning a kickoff in a varsity football game against Ringgold High School (former high school of NFL Hall of Famer Joe Montana), Manganiello auditioned for the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama as a senior in high school. He was not accepted, so enrolled at the University of Pittsburgh and worked at doing theatre. Manganiello re-applied to Carnegie Mellon a year later, and was one of 17 students accepted into the acting program.^[10] He performed in theatre productions and wrote, produced and acted in the student film Out of Courage 2: Out for Vengeance.^[13] Manganiello graduated in 2000 with a BFA in acting.^[12] Manganiello studied all styles of classical theatre while he was there. Manganiello traveled to New York and Los Angeles through his university to participate in group auditions, which provided him contacts in the entertainment business.^[14]

Career

Film and television

Manganiello moved to Los Angeles, California after graduating from Carnegie Mellon.^[14] He quickly signed with a talent agent, and three days later, auditioned for the role of Peter Parker in the Sam Raimi-directed film, Spider-Man (2002). Manganiello landed the role of Eugene "Flash" Thompson, Peter Parker’s nemesis, playing opposite Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, and Willem Dafoe, as his first acting job out of college.^[13] He reprised the role several years later, making a brief cameo at the end of Spider-Man 3 (2007).

Manganiello began finding work in television, playing Tori Spelling's boyfriend on VH1's So Notorious in 2006, and guest starred on Las Vegas, Jake in Progress and Close to Home. That year he also played John Leguizamo's AA sponsor in the CBS television pilot Edison. In 2007, he appeared in "My No Good Reason", a Zach Braff-directed episode of the NBC series Scrubs, and in the MyNetwork TV nighttime soap opera American Heiress. He also played Officer Litchman, the love interest to Linda Cardellini's character, for a four-episode arc on NBC's ER.

Manganiello played Brad, the law school buddy of Jason Segel's character Marshall Eriksen, on several seasons of the CBS comedy How I Met Your Mother.^[15] In 2008, he joined the cast of The CW drama One Tree Hill for its the fifth season, playing bartender Owen Morello, Sophia Bush’s love interest. Manganiello shot the series in Wilmington, North Carolina, and returned for its sixth and seventh seasons.^[16] He played Stu on the Fox sitcom 'Til Death for two episodes, and starred in the short film "Wounded" that year, written by Gloria Calderon Kellett,^[17] which he first originated on the stage and won Best Short Film at the 2011 Big Island Film Festival.^{[citation needed]}

Manganiello starred in the direct-to-video war film Behind Enemy Lines: Colombia in 2009, alongside WWE professional wrestler Ken Kennedy. Manganiello played Lt. Sean Macklin, a Navy SEALs squad leader. Joe trained for several months with a former Navy SEAL who he flew to the set and put up in the cast's hotel out of his own pocket in order to add authenticity to the production. The Fox Home Entertainment film was shot in Puerto Rico.^[18] Manganiello appeared in a David Arquette directed episode of Medium in 2009, and has guest starred on all three series of CBS's CSI television franchise: CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CSI: Miami, and CSI: NY. He had a role in the independent film Irene in Time, written and directed by Henry Jaglom.

In 2010, Manganiello appeared in television commercials for Taco Bell promoting its new product, the Tortada.^[10] He shot television pilots for 100 Questions and the Pittsburgh-set sitcom Livin' on a Prayer, written in part by How I Met Your Mother writer and fellow CMU alum, Kourtney Kang along with HIMYM creators Carter Bays and Craig Thomas.^[19][20]

Manganiello plays the role of werewolf Alcide Herveaux in HBO's True Blood. His character arrived on the third season of the series as a bodyguard, hired by Eric Northman (Alexander Skarsgård) for Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin), when her romantic companion, vampire Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer), goes missing. Manganiello described the four characters' relationship as a "love square". Manganiello's work on the show brought him both popular and critical recognition including 2011 Scream Awards for Breakout Performance – Male and a shared award for Best Ensemble, as well as a Saturn Award for Best Guest Starring Role in Television and a NewNowNext Award.^[12]

True Blood was already Manganiello's favorite television show when he joined the cast. He auditioned to play Coot, another werewolf in the series, but was asked to read for Alcide instead.^[21] Manganiello grew a beard and trained for five months with trainer Ron Mathews, who trained Hugh Jackman for the original X-Men film and Jennifer Garner for the TV series Alias, to add muscle for the role;^[12] author Charlaine Harris had described Alcide as having "arms the size of boulders".^[7] He also got a sun tan to set himself apart from the other characters on the series and spent time studying live wolves. Manganiello has since signed on to be a regular cast member.^[22]

Manganiello at the 2012 San Diego Comic-Con International

In early 2011, Manganiello was asked to screen test for the title role of Superman in Zach Snyder and Christopher Nolan's reboot, Superman: Man of Steel but due to scheduling problems with True Blood he was forced out of the running in the final stage. Manganiello told Access Hollywood in a March 5 interview, "They wanted me to screen test and they actually asked for my measurements for the suit and everything... Their shoot date switched and it would have taken up 11 weeks out of my True Blood schedule. At the end of the day, we couldn't get the schedule to work so that I could go off and screen test. So, regrettably, I never got to screen test, I never got to put the suit on."

Upon completion of filming for season four of True Blood, Manganiello travelled to New York City to reunite with his Carnegie Mellon School of Drama classmate Matthew Bomer to shoot an episode of USA's White Collar, directed by Andrew McCarthy. He then headed to Atlanta, Georgia to shoot the film adaptation of the best selling book What To Expect When You're Expecting, alongside Cameron Diaz, Jennifer Lopez, and Chris Rock. Upon completion of the film, Manganiello returned to Los Angeles to shoot an episode of Two and a Half Men with Ashton Kutcher. He then re-teamed with Bomer, and co-starred with Channing Tatum, Matthew McConaughey, Alex Pettyfer, Adam Rodríguez, and Kevin Nash in the Steven Soderbergh-directed film Magic Mike, which documented the story of Tatum's life as a 19-year-old stripper in Tampa, Florida.

Theatre

While a student at Carnegie Mellon University, Manganiello appeared in numerous productions in Pittsburgh's theatre scene, including Ulfheim in Henrik Ibsen's When We Dead Awaken, Lorenzo in The Merchant of Venice for Quantum Theatre and Joe in the Pittsburgh premiere of The Last Night of Ballyhoo for Starlight Productions'.^[13] He played "The Chick Magnet" in May 2007 at the New York City premiere of Skirts & Flirts, a monologue by Gloria Calderon Kellett, which was a finalist for HBO's Aspen Comedy Festival.^[23] He played Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire for the West Virginia Public Theatre in 2008,^[24] directed by his former Carnegie Mellon professor Geoffrey Hitch.^[23]

Manganiello starred in the west coast premiere of Terrence McNally's Unusual Acts of Devotion in June 2009, alongside Doris Roberts, Richard Thomas, Harriet Harris and Maria Dizzia. He starred as Leo Belraggio, a New York jazz musician. The play was directed by Trip Cullman at the La Jolla Playhouse at the University of California in San Diego. Manganiello worked with the noted playwright and director Leonard Foglia at creating his role in 2008 at the Ojai Playwrights Conference.^[23]

Personal life

Manganiello is a fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers and produced and directed the 2007 short documentary "DieHardz", about Steelers fans that meet at bars in Los Angeles, California.^[10] Manganiello follows the Wests Tigers in the National Rugby League in Australia ^[25]

Manganiello was a roadie for the band Goldfinger. He is friends with lead singer John Feldmann and toured internationally with the group doing security.^[21]

Awards and nominations

Filmography

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Joe Manganiello.

• Joe Manganiello at the Internet Movie Database