Penn Badgley

Penn Dayton Badgley (born November 1, 1986) is an American actor. He is best known for his role as Dan Humphrey on the CW television series Gossip Girl. He has also starred in the movies John Tucker Must Die, The Stepfather and Easy A. Badgley was born in Baltimore, Maryland and split his childhood years between Richmond, Virginia and Seattle, Washington. He attended Charles Wright Academy in Tacoma, Washington. Also Penn was involved with the Seattle Children's Theatre. He soon began doing voice-overs for children's radio stations. At age 11, Badgley relocated to Hollywood and began pursuing an acting career. Badgley also pursued a singing career during this time and recorded a pop single in 1998. He attended University of Southern California (USC), where he deferred admission due to contractual obligations. Badgley's first credit was voice work for the video game Mario Golf 64 in 1999 although he claims to have never played it himself. He followed this in 2000 with voice work on Mario Tennis 64. His first screen acting credit was on an episode of Will & Grace. He followed this up with appearances on shows such as Daddio, The Brothers García and What I Like About You, among others.