Justin Bartha

Early life

Bartha was born in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and moved to West Bloomfield, Michigan, when he was eight. His father, Stephen, is a real estate developer, while his mother, Betty, is a school teacher. He has one older brother, Jeffrey. Bartha was raised in a Reform Jewish family. After he graduated from West Bloomfield High School in 1996, he moved to New York City and studied filmmaking and theatre at New York University's Tisch School of Arts.

Career

Bartha began his film career behind the camera as a production assistant on the film Analyze This. His acting debut came with his first film, 54, as a clubgoer. He wrote and directed a short film, Highs and Lows with Darrell M. Smith as co-producer, which was shown at the South by Southwest Film Festival in 2003. Additionally, he wrote, produced, and starred in an MTV pilot called The Dustin and Justin Show.

Bartha had major roles in the critically bashed Gigli and Carnival Sun in 2003 before his co-starring role in National Treasure (2004) as Riley Poole, which launched him into the mainstream.

In 2006, Bartha had roles in Failure to Launch and NBC's Teachers which only aired six episodes.

In November 2007, Bartha was cast in an indie comic-drama, Holy Rollers. His character lures a young Hasidic Jew (Jesse Eisenberg) into becoming an ecstasy dealer. Filming began in New York in the spring of 2008, and the film was released in 2010. Bartha re-teamed with Eisenberg for Eisenberg's critically acclaimed play, Asuncion. Bartha also starred alongside Catherine Zeta-Jones in the Bart Freundlich film, The Rebound which is about a 25-year-old man who starts a romance with his older single mother neighbor, the film began shooting in April 2008 in New York and finished in June. In The Hangover comedy film series, he played Doug Billings, one of the "Wolfpack" members who goes on weekend trips with the trio. After a wild nights of partying, he goes missing and his friends frantically search everywhere for him.

Bartha starred as Max in the Broadway revival of the play Lend Me a Tenor by Ken Ludwig. He performed alongside Tony Shalhoub, Anthony LaPaglia, Brooke Adams, and Jan Maxwell. A farcical comedy, it was directed by Stanley Tucci and started previews at the Music Box Theatre on March 11, 2010, with the official opening date on April 4, 2010. In 2011, Bartha signed on to star in the premiere of Zach Braff's play All New People at Second Stage Theatre. All New People began June 28 and ran through mid-August. Anna Camp, David Wilson Barnes and Krysten Ritter co-starred in this production under the direction of Peter DuBois. In February 2012, Bartha signed on to co-star on the NBC comedy pilot The New Normal. On May 7, 2012, NBC ordered the project to series. The show was centered around a gay couple (played by Bartha and Andrew Rannells) and the surrogate mother (Georgia King) they selected to bear their child. It premiered on September 11, 2012, but was officially cancelled the next year on May 10, 2013.

In 2014, Bartha starred in another of Jesse Eisenberg's plays, A Little Part of All Of Us, alongside Eisenberg, for Playing On Air, a non-profit organization that "records short plays [for public radio and podcast] written by top playwrights and performed by outstanding actors."

Personal life

Bartha married fitness instructor Lia Smith in Oahu, Hawaii, on January 4, 2014. On April 13, 2014, Smith gave birth to their daughter, Asa Charlotte. Bartha has worked with the Matrix Theatre Company, guest directing their Teen Company in "Are You Passing?", a play on the state of education in Detroit.