Early life

Charles was born in Baltimore, Maryland, the son of Laura (née Heckscher), a gossip columnist for The Baltimore Sun newspaper, and Allan Charles, an advertising executive. He began his career performing comedy at the age of nine. As a teenager, he spent several summers at Stagedoor Manor Performing Arts Center in New York, and attended the Baltimore School for the Arts. Charles dropped out of high school, never receiving a diploma.

Career

Charles's film debut was in fellow Baltimore native John Waters' Hairspray in 1988. The following year, he starred alongside Robin Williams and Ethan Hawke in the Oscar-winning Dead Poets Society. Subsequent film roles have included Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead, Threesome, Pie in the Sky, Muppets from Space, S.W.A.T, Four Brothers, After.Life, Crossing the Bridge, and Brief Interviews with Hideous Men.

On television, Charles played sports anchor Dan Rydell in Aaron Sorkin's Emmy Award-winning Sports Night, which ran for two years (1998-2000) on ABC and earned Charles a Screen Actors Guild nomination. In 2008, Charles played the role of Jake in Season 1 of HBO's In Treatment. In 2009, he returned to network television in the CBS drama The Good Wife. For his work on the series he was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series in 2011 and 2014.

In 1986, Charles headlined a production of Jonathan Marc Sherman's Confrontation. In 2004, he appeared on stage in New York in a revival of Neil LaBute's The Distance From Here, which received a Drama Desk Award for Best Ensemble Cast. In January 2006 he appeared in the world premiere of Richard Greenberg's The Well-Appointed Room for the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago, and followed this with a run at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, portraying the cloned brothers in Caryl Churchill's A Number. In 2007, he appeared in Adam Bock's The Receptionist at the Manhattan Theatre Club. In 2011, Charles was the narrator for NFL Network's A Football Life's debut episode on New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick.

Personal life

In September 2013, Charles married ballet dancer and author Sophie Flack. On December 9, 2014, Flack gave birth to the couple's first child.

Charles is of Jewish heritage on his father's side, and has described himself as Jewish. He is a fan of the Baltimore Orioles (baseball) and Baltimore Ravens (American football).

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1988	Hairspray	Iggy
1989	Dead Poets Society	Knox Overstreet
1991	Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead	Bryan
1992	Crossing the Bridge	Mort Golden
1994	Threesome	Eddy
1995	Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead	Bruce	Uncredited
1995	Coldblooded	Randy
1996	The Grave	Tyn
1996	Crossworlds	Joe Talbot
1996	Pie in the Sky	Charlie Dunlap
1997	Cyclops, Baby	Brush Brody
1997	Little City	Adam
1999	Muppets from Space	Agent Barker
2000	Meeting Daddy	Peter Silverblatt
2003	S.W.A.T.	T. J. McCabe
2004	Seeing Other People	Lou
2005	Four Brothers	Detective Fowler
2006	The Darwin Awards	Paramedic
2007	The Ex	Forrest Mead
2009	After.Life	Tom Peterson
2009	Brief Interviews with Hideous Men	Subject No. 2
2014	Bird People	Gary Newman
2014	Adult Beginners	Phil
2015	I Smile Back	Bruce
2015	Freeheld	Bryan Kelder
2016	Whiskey Tango Foxtrot	Chris
2016	Oppenheimer Strategies	Taub	Post-production

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1990	Murder in Mississippi	Andrew Goodman	Television movie
1993	Cooperstown	Jody	Television movie
1996	Norma Jean & Marilyn	Eddie Jordan	Television movie
1997	The Underworld	Ehrlich	Television movie
1998-2000	Sports Night	Dan Rydell	45 episodes
2002	Our America	Dave Isay	Television movie
2005	Stella	Jeremy	Episode: "Meeting Girls"
2007	Six Degrees	Ray Jones	4 episodes
2008	In Treatment	Jake	8 episodes
2008	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	Sean Kelley	Episode: "Confession"
2009-2016	The Good Wife	Will Gardner	107 episodes
2014	Inside Amy Schumer	JJ	Episode: "A Chick Who Can Hang"
2014	Inside Amy Schumer	Fleet Weekums	Episode: "Tyler Perry's Episode"
2015	Inside Amy Schumer	Coach	Episode: "Last F... Able Day"
2015	Masters of Sex	Dan Logan	10 episodes
2015	Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp	Blake	6 episodes
2016	Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt	Duke	Episode: "Kimmy Finds Her Mom!"

Awards and nominations

Year	Association	Category	Nominated work	Result
2000	Screen Actors Guild Awards	Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series	Sports Night	Nominated
2000	Viewers for Quality Television	Best Actor in a Quality Comedy Series		Nominated
2010	Satellite Awards	Best Actor - Television Series Drama	The Good Wife	Nominated
2010	Screen Actors Guild Awards	Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series		Nominated
2011	Primetime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series		Nominated
2011	Screen Actors Guild Awards	Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series		Nominated
2012	Monte-Carlo Television Festival	Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series		Nominated
2012	Screen Actors Guild Awards	Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series		Nominated
2014	Critics' Choice Television Awards	Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series		Nominated
2014	Golden Globe Awards	Best Supporting Actor - Series, Miniseries or Television Film		Nominated
2014	People's Choice Awards	Favorite Dramatic Television Actor		Won
2014	Primetime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series		Nominated
2015	Critics' Choice Television Awards	Best Guest Performer in a Comedy Series	Inside Amy Schumer	Nominated

[ Source: Wikipedia ]