Early life

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

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.

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. The role turned him into a teen idol, with the character having been described by the Los Angeles Times as "TV's sexiest geek" and by Time Magazine as having "redefined" the screen persona of "unapologetic" nerdiness. 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, 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, 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.

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. 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 and that although he was "fortunate" to be on a successful series, he was also glad to "not be on it for 10 years".

After the end of The O.C.'s run, Brody turned to a full-time film career. The same year, Brody also appeared in supporting roles in the independent films, Smiley Face and The Ten. 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, released in April 2011. In 2011, Brody voiced "Woodie" in the MTV animated series Good Vibes. 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. Brody co-starred with Meester again in Life Partners (2014). In 2015, he appeared in Sleeping with Other People and began starring as Billy Jones in Direct TV's sitcom Billy and Billie.

Other works

See also: Big Japan

Aside from acting, Brody is credited as a musician and writer, stating that he "writes screenplays and songs during spare time". In 2003, Brody wrote a short entitled "Home Security". 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. 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. 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.

Personal life

After moving to Hollywood, he said that he embraced his "neurotic side". He is a secular Jew and is non-religious. He has described himself as being a "faux intellectual" and "beach mood" person. In 2010, Brody met and lived with actress Leighton Meester while filming The Oranges in Westchester, New York. They became engaged in November 2013 and married in a private ceremony in February 2014. They have a daughter, Arlo, born on August 4, 2015 in Whittier, California.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2000	Never Land	Jack
2000	The Silencing	Karl
2000	Roadside Assistance	Rusty
2000	American Pie 2	High School Guy	Unrated version
2000	According to Spencer	Tommy
2002	The Ring	Kellen - Teen No. 3
2003	Home Security	Greg
2003	Grind	Dustin Knight
2003	Missing Brendan	Patrick Calden
2005	Mr. & Mrs. Smith	Benjamin Danz
2006	Thank You for Smoking	Jack
2007	In the Land of Women	Carter Webb
2007	The Ten	Stephen Montgomery
2007	Smiley Face	Steve the Dealer
2008	Death in Love	Talent agent
2009	Jennifer's Body	Nikolai Wolf
2010	Cop Out	Barry Mangold
2010	The Romantics	Jake
2011	Scream 4	Deputy Ross Hoss
2011	The Oranges	Toby Walling
2011	Damsels in Distress	Charlie
2012	Seeking a Friend for the End of the World	Owen
2012	Revenge for Jolly!	Danny
2012	Some Girl(s)	Man
2013	Welcome to the Jungle	Chris
2013	Lovelace	Harry Reems
2013	Baggage Claim	Sam
2014	Think Like a Man Too	Isaac
2014	Life Partners	Tim
2015	Sleeping with Other People	Sam
2016	Yoga Hosers	Ichabod
2016	CHiPs		Filming

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1995	Now What	Unknown
1999	The Amanda Show	Greg Brady	Episode: "When Brady's Attack"
2000	Growing Up Brady	Barry Williams	Television film
2000	City Guys	Customer No. 1	Episode: "Makin' Up is Hard to Do"
2000	Undressed	Lucas	3 episodes
2000	Judging Amy	Barry "Romeo" Gilmore	Episode: "Romeo and Juliet Must Die - Well, Maybe Just Juliet"
2000	Go Fish	Billy	Episode: "Go Student Council"
2000	Family Law	Noel Johnson	Episode: "My Brother's Keeper"
2000-01	Once and Again	Coop	3 episodes
2000-02	The Sausage Factory	Zack Altman	13 episodes
2001-04	Grounded for Life	Brian	2 episodes
2002	Smallville	Justin Gaines	Episode: "Crush"
2002	The Andy Dick Show	Himself	Episode: "The Garage Sale"
2002-03	Gilmore Girls	Dave Rygalski	9 episodes
2003-07	The O.C.	Seth Cohen	Main Role 92 episodes
2004	MADtv	Seth Cohen
2006	The Loop	Keith	Episode: "The Rusty Trombone"
2011	Good Vibes	Woodie	Voice 12 episodes
2013	Kroll Show	Joel Faizon
2013	House of Lies	Nate	3 episodes
2013	The League	Ted	4 episodes
2013	Burning Love	Max	Main role 10 episodes
2014	New Girl	Berkley	Episode: "Exes"
2015	Billy and Billie	Billy Jones	Main role 10 episodes

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Nominated work	Result
2004	Teen Choice Awards	Choice TV Actor - Drama/Action Adventure	The O.C	Won
		Choice Breakout TV Star Male		Nominated
2005		Choice TV Chemistry		Won
		Choice TV Actor: Drama		Won
2006		Choice TV Actor: Drama/Action Adventure		Won
2010		Choice Movie Actor: Horror/Thriller	Jennifer's Body	Nominated

[ Source: Wikipedia ]