Adam Brody

Adam Brody
Brody at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival
Born	Adam Jared Brody (1979-12-15) December 15, 1979 San Diego, California, US
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1995–present
Spouse(s)	Leighton Meester (m. 2014)
Children	1

Adam Jared Brody (born December 15, 1979)^[1] is an American film and television actor and musician. He is best known for his role as Seth Cohen on The O.C.^[2] Brody has appeared in many films, including Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Thank You for Smoking, Jennifer's Body, In the Land of Women, Cop Out, and Scream 4.^[3]

Early life

Brody was born in San Diego, California, to Valerie (Siefman)^[4] and Mark Brody.^[5] He has younger twin brothers, Sean and Matt.^[6] His parents, both Jewish, are originally from Detroit, Michigan, and Brody had a Bar Mitzvah ceremony.^[7][8] Brody attended Wangenheim Middle School and Scripps Ranch High School, receiving "poor grades",^[9] and grew up in suburban San Diego, spending time surfing.^[10] He has said that while he was not a "Casanova", he had "cute girlfriends" and "pretty much lived at the beach".^[9] Brody attended community college for one year and dropped out at the age of nineteen, moving to Hollywood in order to become an actor.^[2] He subsequently hired an acting coach and signed with a manager.^[11]

Acting career

After a year of training and auditioning, Brody landed the role of Barry Williams in the television movie Growing Up Brady (2000). He also appeared in the Canadian comedy television series The Sausage Factory. In 2001, he played a minor role in American Pie 2, named as "high school guy". Brody's major role in a television series came in 2002, when he was cast in a recurring role on Gilmore Girls as Dave Rygalski, Lane's bandmate and love interest.

Brody at the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival

In 2003, he appeared in the feature film Grind and a music video for a song called "Too Bad About Your Girl" by The Donnas. The same year, Brody was cast in his breakout role as Seth Cohen on the television show The O.C.. Brody is reported to have improvised some of the character's comedic dialogue.^[10] The role turned him into a teen idol, with the character having been described by the Los Angeles Times as "TV's sexiest geek"^[10] and by Time Magazine as having "redefined" the screen persona of "unapologetic" nerdiness.^[2] The role also developed Brody a female fan following, and as a result, Brody was ranked No. 17 in Independent Online's "100 Sexiest Men Alive" of 2006,^[12] was twice placed on Teen People's annual list of "25 Sexiest Stars under 25", ranked No. 1 as Elle Girl Magazine Coolest Guy Celeb and Coolest TV Star in 2005, voted No. 1 in UK CosmoGIRL as pin-up sex-symbol beating out Johnny Depp in 2005,^[13] chosen as one of the People Magazine Sexiest Man Alive in 2004–2006 and posed on the cover of mainstream magazines, including GQ, Nylon Guys, Entertainment Weekly, Teen Vogue, and TV Guide. Brody was the first male on the cover of Elle Girl.^[2][14][14]

In 2005, Brody appeared in a supporting role alongside Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt in the film Mr. & Mrs. Smith, and played a Hollywood studio assistant in the film adaptation of Thank You for Smoking (2006). His next film role was in a romantic comedy entitled In the Land of Women (2007), starring Meg Ryan and Kristen Stewart. Brody plays a writer who returns to his mother's Michigan hometown in order to take care of his sick grandmother. Brody did not have to audition for the part, but was almost unable to appear in the film because of scheduling conflicts with the second season of The O.C.; the film's director pushed filming back eight months because he wanted Brody to star.^[10][14] The O.C. ended its run in February 2007 after the network announced its official cancellation. Brody has said that he is "not unhappy" with the show's cancellation^[14] and that although he was "fortunate" to be on a successful series, he was also glad to "not be on it for 10 years".^[2]

Brody with Greta Gerwig and Analeigh Tipton at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival

After the end of The O.C.'s run, Brody turned to a full-time film career.^[10] The same year, Brody also appeared in supporting roles in the independent films, Smiley Face and The Ten.^[10] In 2009, he co-starred with Josh Lucas in Boaz Yakin's drama, Death in Love, and in Diablo Cody's horror film Jennifer's Body, co-starring Megan Fox. In 2010, he appeared in Kevin Smith's film Cop Out, which was shot in NYC and co-starred Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan and then in The Romantics alongside Katie Holmes and Josh Duhamel. It was announced on July 1, 2010 that Brody landed the role of Detective Hoss in Scream 4,^[3] released in April 2011. In 2011, Brody voiced "Woodie" in the MTV animated series Good Vibes.^[15] The same year, Brody appeared in The Oranges alongside Leighton Meester and Hugh Laurie.

In January 2012, it was announced he had joined the cast of Lovelace (2013), a biopic about the late '70s porn star Linda Lovelace which was directed by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman and starred Amanda Seyfried. Brody portrayed Harry Reems.^[16] Brody co-starred with Meester again in Life Partners (2014).^[17] In 2015, he appeared in Sleeping with Other People and began starring as Billy Jones in Direct TV's sitcom Billy and Billie.^[18][19][20]

Other works

Aside from acting, Brody is credited as a musician and writer, stating that he "writes screenplays and songs during spare time".^[21] In 2003, Brody wrote a short entitled "Home Security".^[22] Two years later in 2005, Brody, along with Nathaniel Castro, Bret Harrison and Brad Babinski formed Los Angeles-based rock band Big Japan with Brody as lead drummer.^[22] Big Japan's first release, Music for Dummies, was digitally released through Nightshift Records on August 23, 2005. The four-piece indie band played gigs at pubs and festivals from 2005 to 2007 such as The Knitting Factory, Bamboozle Left, The Roxy, Spaceland and The Viper Room.

In 2006, he returned to writing and by January 2007, he co-wrote along with Danny Bilson and Paul De Meo, a comic book miniseries for DC's Wildstorm Comics called Red Menace.^[23] The limited series had six issues and was collected into a trade paperback, Red Menace (144 pages, October 2007, ISBN 978-1-4012-1383-1). Since 2010, Brody played drums under the project band, The Shortcoats. They released the EP, This Time Last Year in 2011.

His drum equipment includes Sabian cymbals, Zidjidan drumsticks and Pearl SSC drums with custom illustration on the bass.^[24][25][26]

Personal life

After moving to Hollywood, he said that he embraced his "neurotic side".^[27] He is a secular Jew and is non-religious.^[28] He has described himself as being a "faux intellectual" and "beach mood" person.^[29][30][31] In 2010, Brody met and lived with actress Leighton Meester while filming The Oranges in Westchester, New York.^[32][33] They became engaged in November 2013 and married in a private ceremony in February 2014.^[34][35][36] They have a daughter, born in 2015 in Whittier, California.^[37]

Filmography

Film

Television

Awards and nominations

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Adam Brody.

• Adam Brody at the Internet Movie Database