Barrett Foa

Barrett Foa (born September 18, 1977) is an American actor, known for his role as Eric Beale on the CBS series NCIS: Los Angeles.

Early life

Foa was born in Manhattan; at the age of three he put together a puzzle in record time, gaining him entry to the Dalton School. He spent all his remaining school years there. While in high school at Dalton, Foa spent all four summers at the Interlochen Arts Camp in northern Michigan, pursuing his interest in live theatre.

He continued his theatrical studies at the University of Michigan, graduating with honors and earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts in musical theatre performance. Foa also spent a semester around the world studying Shakespeare and acting at RADA in London. During the beginning of each summer in college, Foa interned at Johnson-Liff Casting. He also spent time in a number of summer stock theater groups, including the New London Barn Playhouse, Maine State Music Theater, Music Theater of Wichita and the Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera.

Career

After college, Foa landed his first major role, starring as Jesus in the off-Broadway revival of Godspell. He went on to act in many other productions, and made his Broadway debut in 2001 in the original cast of Mamma Mia! After six months with the show, Foa left to accept a three-month job at TheatreWorks in Palo Alto, California, where he created the lead role in a musical called Kept with music by Henry Kreiger and lyrics by Bill Russell.

After playing Matt in The Fantasticks at The Muny in St. Louis, Foa was picked to play Claudio in a dual production of Much Ado About Nothing at Hartford Stage and the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C. He played Mordred in Camelot at Paper Mill Playhouse in New Jersey, and later was cast in the role of Cupid in the four-person off-Broadway production of Cupid and Psyche in New York City.

While still performing as Cupid, Foa began the audition process for Broadway's Avenue Q. After two months, five auditions, and a lot of puppet practice, he became an understudy to the roles of Princeton/Rod in December 2003. After the show had run for about a year, Foa was promoted and began to perform the lead role on February 1, 2005. He continued in the lead role for a year and a half. While performing in Avenue Q, Foa was offered the role of Leaf Coneybear in the Broadway musical The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. For two weeks he rehearsed for Spelling Bee during the day and performed Avenue Q in the evening. His stint as Leaf Coneybear lasted from July 11, 2006 until April 15, 2007.

He played his last performance as Frederic in Pirates! an updated version of The Pirates of Penzance, on July 8, 2007, again, at the Paper Mill Playhouse. He played Karel in The Lady In Question, a play by and starring Charles Busch from August 14 through September 2, 2007.

From March 13 to April 20, 2008, he played Eddie in The Drunken City at Playwrights Horizons. He also played Tu-Ping in a workshop presentation of The Nightingale with music by Duncan Sheik and book and lyrics by Steven Sater at the New York Theatre Workshop directed by James Lapine.

In May 2008, he played Jordy in a workshop of Giant, a new musical with music and lyrics by Michael John LaChiusa and book by Sybille Pearson, based on the Edna Ferber novel and the movie with Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor, and James Dean.

In March 2009, Foa was cast in a recurring role on the CBS series NCIS: Los Angeles as Eric Beale,^[1] a technical operator in the Office of Special Projects. In January 2010, the role was upgraded to series regular.

Foa appeared in the musical revue For the Record: John Hughes at Show at Barre in Los Angeles, which ran from November 2010 to January 2011 and also stars Tracie Thoms, Von Smith, and Ty Taylor.

Filmography

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Barrett Foa.

• Official website
• Barrett Foa on IMDb
• Barrett Foa at the Internet Broadway Database
  
• Barrett Foa at the Internet Off-Broadway Database