Sebastian Stan

Early life

Stan was born in Constanța, Romania. He has stated that his parents divorced when he was 2 years old. At age 8, Stan and his mother, Georgeta Orlovschi, moved to Vienna, Austria following the Romanian Revolution, where Georgeta was employed as a pianist. Four years later, they moved to Rockland County, New York, after his mother married Anthony Fruhauf, the headmaster of Rockland Country Day School, where Stan was educated.

During Stan's years at the Rockland school, he starred in productions including Harvey, Cyrano de Bergerac, Little Shop of Horrors, Over Here!, and West Side Story. He also attended the Stagedoor Manor summer camp where he was cast in many camp productions. It was then that he decided to take acting seriously and began to apply for acting programs at several universities. He was accepted to and attended Rutgers University's Mason Gross School of the Arts, which also gave him the opportunity to spend a year abroad studying acting at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London, England. Stan became a United States citizen in 2002.

Career

After several film and television roles, including The Covenant and Gossip Girl, Stan landed a lead role in the 2009 series Kings as Jack Benjamin. In 2010, he appeared in Darren Aronofsky's ballet thriller, Black Swan. Stan also began filming the supernatural horror film The Apparition in February that year; the film was released on August 24, 2012. Stan played Blaine, the main antagonist of Hot Tub Time Machine in March 2010. In July 2011, he portrayed Bucky Barnes in the film Captain America: The First Avenger, based on the Marvel Comics character. It was his first film in a nine-picture contract he has with Marvel Studios.

In 2012, he starred in the thriller Gone and began a recurring role in Once Upon a Time as the Mad Hatter. The A.V. Club described his work in "Hat Trick", his premiere episode, as "excellent" and placed the episode in their list of the 30 best episodes of 2012 from series which did not make their top list. It was initially reported the role would be recast for Once Upon a Time in Wonderland due to Stan's commitment to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but Edward Kitsis later revealed the next month that due to fan backlash and respect for Stan's performance, the character would not dbe recast and the series would proceed without the character.

The same year, he also appeared in the USA Network miniseries Political Animals as the troubled gay son of the former first lady. This role resulted in a nomination for the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Movie/Miniseries.

In 2013, Stan played the role of Hal Carter in the Roundabout Theater Company's production of William Inge's Picnic, at the American Airlines Theater in New York. In 2014, Stan reprised his role as Bucky Barnes in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. In 2015, Stan played Joshua Brummel in Ricki and the Flash, and co-starred in The Martian, as NASA scientist Dr. Chris Beck. He reprised his role as the Winter Soldier in the third Captain America film, Captain America: Civil War, released in 2016, and will portray the character in Avengers: Infinity War in 2018, and its untitled sequel in 2019.

Stan co-starred as NASCAR driver Dayton White in Steven Soderbergh's comedy film Logan Lucky. He is set to portray Jeff Gillooly, alongside Margot Robbie, in Craig Gillespie's biopic I, Tonya, based on the rivalry between figure skaters Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan. Stan will portray Charles Blackwood in We Have Always Lived in the Castle, an adaptation of Shirley Jackson's novel of the same name, and will also star alongside J. K. Simmons in the drama film I'm Not Here. Stan has been cast in the lead role of Scott Huffman in the Vietnam War drama film The Last Full Measure.

Personal life

In early 2008, Stan and Gossip Girl star Leighton Meester were reported to be in a relationship. Meester and Stan were reported to have broken up in 2010. In summer 2012, Stan and Once Upon a Time star Jennifer Morrison met on the Once Upon A Time set and dated for a year, breaking up in mid-2013. In 2009, Stan and actress Margarita Levieva starred in the film Spread. They had been reported to be good friends leading up to 2014, when they were reported to be dating.