Career

Messina was born in Northport, New York. He studied theater in high school, and attended Marymount Manhattan College, but dropped out after one semester. He studied acting privately with teachers around Manhattan, and started his career as an off-Broadway actor. He has appeared in episodes of the television series Law & Order, Third Watch, and Medium. He had a recurring role in the fifth and final season of the HBO drama series Six Feet Under as Ted Fairwell. His film credits include Rounders, The Siege, You've Got Mail, and Towelhead.

He starred in an HBO pilot Anatomy of Hope, directed by J. J. Abrams. Simon Callow also starred, but the pilot was not picked up to series. In October 2007, Daily Variety named him as one of ten actors to watch. He starred in Devil, under the direction of John Erick Dowdle and Drew Dowdle, for producer M. Night Shyamalan and Universal Pictures. In April 2010, Monogamy, directed by Dana Adam Shapiro and starring Messina and Rashida Jones, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, where the film won the jury prize for Best New York Narrative.

Messina joined the cast of Damages for its fourth and fifth seasons. He played a recurring character on HBO's The Newsroom. Messina is a series regular on the Fox sitcom The Mindy Project, playing Dr. Danny Castellano.

In 2014, Messina played the role of a cheating spouse in the music video for Sam Smith's "I'm Not the Only One". That same year, he directed the independent drama, Alex of Venice, starring Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Don Johnson and Matthew Del Negro.

He will appear in Ben Affleck's crime drama Live by Night, scheduled for release in October 2017.

Personal life

Messina married Rosemarie DeWitt sometime between the late 1990's and the early 2000's but the two split soon after. Messina and producer Jennifer Todd have two sons, Milo and Giovanni, born in 2008 and 2009, respectively. Messina is a Democrat.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1995	When Dating Turns Dangerous	Zach	Educational film
1998	Rounders	Higgins
1998	Siege, TheThe Siege	Corporal
1998	You've Got Mail	Fox salesperson
2000	Turn It Up	Baz
2001	Ordinary Sinner	Silvio
2005	Road	Larry
2005	Bittersweet Place	Seymour
2005	Crooked Corner, TheThe Crooked Corner	Nephew
2006	Ira & Abby	Ira Black
2007	Security	Zelly	Short film
2007	Towelhead	Barry
2008	Humboldt County	Max
2008	Made of Honor	Dennis
2008	Vicky Cristina Barcelona	Doug
2009	Brief Interviews with Hideous Men	Subject #19
2009	Away We Go	Tom Garnett
2009	Julie & Julia	Eric Powell
2010	Greenberg	Philip Greenberg
2010	Monogamy	Theo
2010	Devil	Detective Bowden
2010	Invisible Sign, AnAn Invisible Sign	Ben Smith
2011	Like Crazy	Mike Appletree
2011	Trouble with Bliss, TheThe Trouble with Bliss	NJ
2012	Celeste and Jesse Forever	Paul
2012	28 Hotel Rooms	Man	Also executive producer
2012	Giant Mechanical Man, TheThe Giant Mechanical Man	Tim
2012	Fairhaven	Dave	Also writer and executive producer
2012	Denise	Brad	Short film
2012	Ruby Sparks	Harry Weir-Fields
2012	Argo	Malinov	Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture Nominated - Critics' Choice Award for Best Acting Ensemble Nominated - Detroit Film Critics Society Award for Best Ensemble Nominated - San Diego Film Critics Society Award for Best Performance by an Ensemble Nominated - Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Award for Best Ensemble
2013	Palo Alto	Mitch
2014	Oven, TheThe Oven	Narrator	Short film
2014	Showing Up	Himself	Documentary
2014	Alex of Venice	George	Also director
2014	Manglehorn	Jacob
2014	Cake	Jason
2015	Digging for Fire	Billy T
2015	Geezer	Jake	Filming
2017	Live by Night	Dion Bartolo	Filming

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1995	Law & Order	Tommy Bell	Episode: "Rebels"
1996	Law & Order	Kevin Turner	Episode: "Homesick"
2000	Third Watch	Charlie	Episode: "History"
2001	Big Apple	Ricky	Episode: "A Ministering Angel"
2003	Law & Order	Don Cushman	Episode: "Suicide Box"
2005	Six Feet Under	Ted Fairwell	6 episodes
2007	Medium	Casey Edward Frank	Episode: "The Whole Truth"
2011-12	Damages	Chris Sanchez	16 episodes
2012-14	Newsroom, TheThe Newsroom	Reese Lansing	12 episodes
2012-present	Mindy Project, TheThe Mindy Project	Dr. Danny Castellano	Main cast

Stage

Year	Title	Role	Run	Theater and production	Notes
1997	American Clock, TheThe American Clock	Sidney Margolies/ Charley/ Ralph/ Walter	October 19, 1997 - unknown	Signature Theatre Company at The Peter Norton Space
1999	Group, TheThe Group	Director	August 9-20, 1999	All Seasons Theatre Group at The Ensemble Studio Theatre
1999	Refuge	Nat	November 18 - December 12, 1999	Playwright's Horizon Studio Theater
2000	Hologram Theory, TheThe Hologram Theory	Joe Buck	March 27 - April 9, 2000	McGinn/Cazale Theater
2000	Light Outside, TheThe Light Outside	Frankie	November 5 - December 16, 2000	The Flea Theater
2001	Tamicanfly	C.J.	January 17 - February 4, 2001	McGinn/Cazale Theater
2001	Blur	Joey D'Amico	May 17 - June 24, 2001	Manhattan Theater Club at New York City Center Stage II
2001-02	Good Thing	Bobby	December 16, 2001 - January 6, 2002	The New Group at The Theater at St. Clements Church
2002	This Thing of Darkness	Abbey/ Reef	May 30 - June 16, 2002	Atlantic Theater Company at Linda Gross Theater
2002	Faster	Skram	September 8 - October 13, 2002	Rattlestick Theater
2002-03	Far Away	Todd	November 11, 2002 - January 18, 2003	New York Theater Workshop
2003	Salome by Oscar Wilde: The Reading	The Young Syrian (Captain of the Guard)	April 30 - June 12, 2003	Ethel Barrymore Theater	Broadway debut for Messina
2003	St. Scarlet	Director	June 13 - July 12, 2003	Ontological Theater at St. Mark's Church
2004	Motel Blues: Management	Mike	March 25 - April 11, 2004	Apartment 929 at Greenwich Street Theatre
2004	Seagull, TheThe Seagull	Treplev	May 24-29, 2004	White Heron Theater company at Second Stage Theatre
2004	Cherry Orchard, TheThe Cherry Orchard	Trofimov	August 11-22, 2004	Williamstown Theatre Festival at Adams Memorial Theater
2004	Late Night, Early Morning		October 21-31, 2004	2004 Tribeca Theatre Festival

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Work	Result
2011	CinEuphoria Award	Best Supporting Actor - International Competition	Away We Go	Won
2012	Awards Circuit Community Award	Best Cast Ensemble	Argo	Nominated
	San Diego Film Critics Society Award	Best Ensemble Performance		Nominated
	Phoenix Film Critics Society Award	Best Ensemble Acting		Nominated
2013	Central Ohio Film Critics Association Award	Best Ensemble		Nominated
	Palm Springs International Film Festival	Best Ensemble		Won
	Screen Actors Guild Award	Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture		Won
2014	Critics' Choice Television Award	Best Actor in a Comedy Series	The Mindy Project	Nominated
	Seattle International Film Festival	New American Cinema Award	Alex of Venice	Nominated
2015	Critics' Choice Television Award	Best Actor in a Comedy Series	The Mindy Project	Nominated

[ Source: Wikipedia ]