Justin Bartha Biography

Justin Lee Bartha (born July 21, 1978) is an American actor who is well known for his co-starring roles as Riley Poole in the National Treasure films and as Doug Billings in The Hangover trilogy. He starred in the NBC comedy The New Normal, as David Sawyer.

Personal 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. Bartha attended Camp Walden in Cheboygan, Michigan, for 5 years as a child. After he graduated from West Bloomfield High School in 1996, he moved to New York City and studied acting at New York University. Bartha dated actress Ashley Olsen from 2008 to 2011. He is currently engaged to Lia Smith, a personal trainer.

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 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 the television'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 also starred alongside Catherine Zeta-Jones in the Bart Freundlich film, The Rebound. The romantic comedy 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 in the 2009 Golden Globe-winning film, The Hangover, he played Doug Billings, one of Phil's mild-mannered groom-to-be friend who goes on a weekend trip to Vegas with his three best friends. After a wild night of partying, he goes missing and his friends frantically search the town to find him. He reprised the role in 2011's The Hangover Part II, and again in 2013's The Hangover Part III.

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 (Bartha & 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.

Filmography

Films

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1998	54	Clubgoer	Uncredited
2003	Gigli	Brian
2004	National Treasure	Riley Poole
2005	Trust the Man	Jasper Bernard
2006	Failure to Launch	Ace
2007	National Treasure: Book of Secrets	Riley Poole
2009	The Rebound	Aram Finklestein
	The Hangover	Doug Billings
	New York, I Love You	Sean Baker
2010	Holy Rollers	Yosef Zimmerman
2011	The Hangover Part II	Doug Billings
	Dark Horse	Richard
2013	The Hangover Part III	Doug Billings
	CBGB	Stiv Bators

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2004	Strip Search		TV film
2006	Teachers	Jeff Cahil	6 episodes, main cast
2009	Nyhetsmorgon	Baksmällan	1 episode, Swedish television show
	WWII in HD	Jack Werner
2012"2013	The New Normal	David Sawyer	Main Role