Early life

Manganiello was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the son of Susan (née Brachanow; Bračanov in Croatian) and Charles John Manganiello. He was raised in Mt. Lebanon, Pennsylvania. His father's family is of Italian descent, from Avellino and Messina, while his mother is of Armenian, Austrian, and Croatian descent. He described his great-grandmother's experiences escaping the Armenian genocide to Vanidades, "wimming across the Euphrates River with her last baby on her back. But when she got across the river, she saw that the baby had drowned. She ended up living in a cave until some German soldiers found her and one of them got her pregnant. They went to Germany where she had an Armenian-German baby daughter. This was my grandmother. She lived on the streets of Constantinople for three years, until she gathered enough money to go to the United States, where she eventually married. That's the story of my great-grandmother and grandmother." He has a younger brother, Nicholas. He was a student at St. Bernard School, a Roman Catholic elementary school in Mt. Lebanon, and then attended Mt. Lebanon High School, where he graduated with honors in 1995 and won the school's Great Alumni Award in 2011. Growing up, he was the captain of his football, basketball, and volleyball teams and went on to play at the varsity level in all three sports. He won the role of Jud Fry in his school's senior year production of Oklahoma!, and was involved with the school's TV studio. He would borrow equipment to make films with his friends, and became interested in acting to become a better filmmaker.

After a series of sports injuries, including a torn MCL returning a kickoff in a varsity football game against Ringgold High School, Manganiello auditioned for the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama as a senior in high school. He was not accepted, so he enrolled at the University of Pittsburgh and worked at theater. He reapplied to Carnegie Mellon a year later, and was one of 17 students accepted into the acting program. He performed in theater productions and wrote, produced, and acted in a student film entitled Out of Courage 2: Out for Vengeance. He graduated in 2000 with a BFA in acting. He traveled to New York and Los Angeles through his university to participate in group auditions, which provided him contacts in the entertainment business.

Career

While a student at Carnegie Mellon University, Manganiello appeared in numerous productions in Pittsburgh's theatre scene, including Ulfheim in Henrik Ibsen's When We Dead Awaken, Lorenzo in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice for Quantum Theatre, and Joe in the Pittsburgh premiere of The Last Night of Ballyhoo. He moved to Los Angeles, California after graduating from Carnegie Mellon. He quickly signed with a talent agent, and three days later, he auditioned for the role of Peter Parker in the Sam Raimi-directed film Spider-Man (2002). He landed the role of Eugene "Flash" Thompson, Peter Parker's nemesis, as his first acting job out of college. He reprised the role several years later, making a brief cameo at the end of Spider-Man 3 (2007).

Manganiello began finding work in television, playing Tori Spelling's boyfriend on VH1's So Notorious in 2006, and guest starred on Las Vegas, Jake in Progress, and Close to Home. That year, he also played an Alcoholics Anonymous sponsor in the CBS television pilot Edison. In 2007, he appeared in the Scrubs episode "My No Good Reason" and in the MyNetwork TV nighttime soap opera American Heiress. He also played Officer Litchman, the love interest to Linda Cardellini's character, for a four-episode arc on NBC's ER. He played "The Chick Magnet" in May 2007 at the New York City premiere of Skirts & Flirts, a monologue by Gloria Calderon Kellett, which was a finalist for HBO's Aspen Comedy Festival. He played Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire for the West Virginia Public Theatre in 2008, directed by his former Carnegie Mellon professor Geoffrey Hitch.

He starred as Leo Belraggio, a New York jazz musician, in the west coast premiere of Terrence McNally's Unusual Acts of Devotion in June 2009. The play was staged at the La Jolla Playhouse at the University of California in San Diego. He worked with the noted playwright and director Leonard Foglia while creating his role in 2008 at the Ojai Playwrights Conference. He played Brad on several seasons of the CBS comedy How I Met Your Mother. In 2008, he joined the cast of The CW drama One Tree Hill for its fifth season, playing bartender Owen Morello. He shot the series in Wilmington, North Carolina, and returned for its sixth and seventh seasons.

Manganiello played Stu on the Fox sitcom 'Til Death for two episodes, and starred in the short film Wounded that year, which he originated on the stage and won Best Short Film at the 2011 Big Island Film Festival. He starred in the direct-to-video war film Behind Enemy Lines: Colombia in 2009. He played Lt. Sean Macklin, a Navy SEAL squad leader. In order to add authenticity to the production, he trained for several months with a former Navy SEAL, for whom he paid to come to the set and stay in the cast's hotel. The film was shot in Puerto Rico. He appeared in an episode of Medium in 2009, and has guest starred on all three series of CBS's CSI television franchise (CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CSI: Miami, and CSI: NY). He had a role in the independent film Irene in Time. In 2010, he appeared in television commercials for Taco Bell, promoting its new product. He shot television pilots for 100 Questions and the Pittsburgh-set sitcom Livin' on a Prayer.

Manganiello plays werewolf Alcide Herveaux in HBO's True Blood, starting from the third season. His work on the show brought him both popular and critical recognition, including the 2011 Scream Award for Breakout Performance - Male and a shared award for Best Ensemble, as well as a Saturn Award for Best Guest Starring Role in Television and a NewNowNext Award. True Blood was his favorite television show before he joined the cast. He had originally auditioned to play Coot, another werewolf in the series, but was asked to read for Alcide instead. He grew a beard and trained for five months to add muscle for the role, as author Charlaine Harris had described Alcide as having "arms the size of boulders". He also got a suntan to set himself apart from the other characters on the series and spent time studying live wolves.

In early 2011, Manganiello was asked to screen test for the title role of Superman in Man of Steel. Due to scheduling problems with True Blood, he was forced out of the running in the final stage. He told Access Hollywood in an interview: "They wanted me to screen test and they actually asked for my measurements for the suit and everything... their shoot date switched and it would have taken up 11 weeks out of my True Blood schedule. At the end of the day, we couldn't get the schedule to work so that I could go off and screen test. So, regrettably, I never got to screen test, I never got to put the suit on." Upon completion of filming for season four of True Blood, he shot an episode of USA's White Collar, and then shot the film adaptation of the best selling book What To Expect When You're Expecting.

Manganiello later returned to Los Angeles to shoot an episode of Two and a Half Men with Ashton Kutcher. He then re-teamed with Bomer, and co-starred in the film Magic Mike, the story of a young stripper in Tampa, Florida, played by actor Channing Tatum.

Personal life

Manganiello is a fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Wests Tigers. He directed and produced the 2007 short documentary DieHardz about Steelers fans who meet up at bars in Los Angeles, California.

Manganiello was once a roadie for the band Goldfinger, and is friends with lead singer John Feldmann; he toured internationally with the group as a member of their security.

In July 2014, it was reported that Manganiello began dating actress Sofia Vergara. They became engaged on Christmas Day 2014 after six months of dating. They married in Palm Beach, Florida on November 21, 2015.

Filmography

Film acting

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2002	Out of Courage 2: Out for Vengeance	Ruslan Zmeyev	Short film
2002	Spider-Man	Flash Thompson
2007	Spider-Man 3	Flash Thompson	Silent cameo
2008	Impact Point	Matt Cooper
2008	Wounded	Patient	Short film
2009	Not Evelyn Cho	Ryan	Short film
2009	Behind Enemy Lines: Colombia	Lt. Sean Macklin	Video
2009	Irene in Time	Charlie
2011	The Girl With the Tramp Stamp Tattoo	Mikael Blomkvist	Short film
2012	What to Expect When You're Expecting	Davis
2012	Magic Mike	Big Dick Richie
2014	Sabotage	Joseph "Grinder" Phillips
2015	Knight of Cups	Joe
2015	Tumbledown	Curtis
2015	Magic Mike XXL	Big Dick Richie
2016	Pee-wee's Big Holiday	Himself
2017	Smurfs: The Lost Village	Hefty Smurf (voice)	Filming

Television acting

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2006	Jake in Progress	Rick Cavanaugh	Episode: "Notting Hell"
2006	CSI: Crime Scene Investigation	Tom Harper	Episode: "Daddy's Little Girl"
2006	Las Vegas	Carson Stuart	Episode: "Urban Legend"
2006	Close to Home	James Miller	Episode: "Escape"
2006	So Notorious	Scott	2 episodes
2006	A.K.A.	Brian	TV movie
2006-12	How I Met Your Mother	Brad Morris	7 episodes
2007	Scrubs	Chad Miller	Episode: "My No Good Reason"
2007	American Heiress	Solomon Cortez	65 episodes
2007	E.R.	Officer Litchman	4 episodes
2008-10	'Til Death	Stu	2 episodes
2008-10	One Tree Hill	Owen Morello	13 episodes
2009	CSI: Miami	Tony Ramirez	Episode: "Target Especific"
2009	Medium	Angelo Filipelli	Episode: "Once in a Lifetime"
2010	CSI: NY	Rob Meyers	Episode: "Criminal Justice"
2010	100 Questions	Rick	Episode: "What Brought You Here?"
2010	Livin' on a Prayer	Doug	Pilot
2010-14	True Blood	Alcide Herveaux	42 episodes
2011	Two and a Half Men	Alex	Episode: "The Squat and the Hover"
2012	White Collar	Ben Ryan	Episode: "Neighborhood Watch"
2013	Talking Dead	Himself	S2 Episode 10
2016	Mom	Julian	Episode: "Cinderella and a Drunk MacGyver"

Directing

• 2014 - La Bare, documentary about the male strip club of same name located in Dallas, Texas; presented by Manganiello

Awards and nominations

Year	Group	Award	Work	Result
2011	NewNowNext Awards	'Cause You're Hot	True Blood	Won
	Saturn Awards	Best Guest Starring Role in Television		Won
	Scream Awards	Breakout Performance - Male		Won
2012	Teen Choice Awards	Choice Movie Breakout: Male	What To Expect When You're Expecting	Nominated
2013	MTV Movie Awards	Best Musical Moment	Magic Mike	Nominated
2014	Maui Film Festival	Triple Threat Award (Directing, Producing, Acting)	La Bare	Won

Charities

Joe Manganiello supports the following charitable cause: Cancer.

[ Source: Wikipedia ]