Adam Scott

Adam Paul Scott (born April 3, 1973) is an American actor, comedian, and producer.

He is known for his role as Ben Wyatt in the NBC sitcom Parks and Recreation, for which he was twice nominated for the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Actor in a Comedy Series.

He has also appeared as Derek Huff in the film Step Brothers, Johnny Meyer in The Aviator, Henry Pollard in the Starz sitcom Party Down, Ed Mackenzie in the HBO series Big Little Lies, and Trevor in the NBC series The Good Place.

In 2022, he began starring in the Apple TV+ psychological drama series Severance, for which he received numerous award nominations, including for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, as well as best actor nominations from the Screen Actors Guild, Golden Globes, Critics' Choice, and more.

Scott was born on April 3, 1973 in Santa Cruz, California, to Anne ( Quartararo) and Dougald Scott, both of whom are retired teachers.

His parents divorced when he was a child.

His father is of Scottish descent, while his mother is of half Italian (Sicilian) and half Irish descent.

He has two older siblings, Shannon and David.

He graduated from Harbor High School and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Los Angeles, California.

Scott and his wife created and produced four Adult Swim mockumentary specials, The Greatest Event in Television History, about remaking opening credits sequences of 1980s television shows.

Scott continued his streak of comedic roles in several episodes of Ken Marino's The Bachelor parody Burning Love and on David Wain's Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later.

Scott has appeared in several feature films, including Hellraiser: Bloodline (1996), Star Trek: First Contact (1996), The Lesser Evil (1998), High Crimes (2002), The Aviator (2004), Torque (2004), Monster-in-Law (2005), Knocked Up (2007), Step Brothers (2008), The Vicious Kind (2009), Piranha 3D (2010), Friends with Kids (2012), The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013), and Krampus (2015).

His first series regular role was on the controversial and sexually-explicit HBO drama Tell Me You Love Me (2007) as Palek, a husband struggling to conceive with his wife.

In the first two seasons of the HBO baseball comedy series Eastbound & Down, Scott played a cocaine-addicted baseball front office representative.

Scott attributes his pivot from dramatic to comedic roles to landing the part of Derek Huff in Step Brothers (2008), as he learned comedic improvisation from his co-stars, Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly, and Kathryn Hahn.

From 2009 to 2010, he starred as Henry Pollard in the Starz network show Party Down.

For this performance, he earned an Entertainment Weekly Ewwy nomination for Best Actor in a Comedy Series.

He starred as Caleb Sinclaire in the 2010 film The Vicious Kind, for which Scott was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Actor.

The film itself received positive reviews, and he won two individual awards at two separate film festivals.

He starred in two films by Matt Bissonette, Who Loves the Sun (2006) and Passenger Side (2009), released on DVD on October 26, 2010.

In 2010, Scott joined the cast of NBC's acclaimed comedy series Parks and Recreation, in which he played Ben Wyatt, a state auditor who arrives in the fictional town of Pawnee, Indiana, to evaluate the town's funds and eventually becomes the love interest of Leslie Knope.

He appeared in the films Our Idiot Brother (2011) with Paul Rudd and Leslye Hedland's Bachelorette (2012).

He had lead roles in Friends with Kids (2012) and A.C.O.D. (2013).

He played antagonist Ted Hendricks, Walter Mitty's boss, in the 2013 Ben Stiller remake of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.

His other major studio comedies include Hot Tub Time Machine 2 and the Christmas comedy-horror film Krampus, both in 2015.

Scott has appeared in and produced numerous independent films.

In 2015, he executive produced and starred in the comedy film The Overnight.

He appeared as a guest star in the second season before becoming a main character for the remainder of the series, which ended in 2015.

From 2016 to 2018, Scott appeared in five episodes of the acclaimed Michael Schur show The Good Place as Trevor, a demon.

Scott and Paul Rudd teamed up again to act in and produce the indie comedy Fun Mom Dinner (2017).

Scott's early television roles include Griff Hawkins in Boy Meets World, Josh on Party of Five, a law intern on Murder One, as well as David's love interest, Ben Cooper, on Six Feet Under.

In 2017 and 2019, Scott took a turn to dramatic work by appearing in HBO's Big Little Lies as Ed Mackenzie, husband of main character Madeline Mackenzie, played by Reese Witherspoon.

Scott starred with Craig Robinson in the sitcom Ghosted, which premiered on October 1, 2017, on Fox, lasting just one season.

He and his wife executive produced the show.

In 2020, Scott hosted the one-season ABC game show Don't, executive produced by Ryan Reynolds.

In 2022, Scott began starring in and producing the Apple TV+ show Severance, which is produced and directed by Ben Stiller.

His performance was critically acclaimed.

The cult hit Party Down was revived in 2023, with Scott reprising the character of Henry Pollard.

Scott has had numerous guest appearances, including in the Adult Swim comedy Childrens Hospital and HBO's Veep.

He has appeared on CSI: Miami and Law & Order.