Chris Messina

Life and 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 was a series regular on the Hulu 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 co-starred in friend Ben Affleck's crime drama Live by Night, which was released in December 2016.

Personal life

Messina was married to actress Rosemarie DeWitt from 1995 to 2006. Messina and producer Jennifer Todd have two sons, Milo and Giovanni, born in 2008 and 2009, respectively. Messina is a Democrat.