Vassar College. Photo: Collin Knopp-Schwyn, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:New_England_Building,_November_2014.jpg)
Career
Gallery of Justin Long
NBC. Photo: CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NBC_Tower,_Chicago.jpg)
Gallery of Justin Long
Apple Inc.. Photo: Arne Müseler, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Apple_park_cupertino_2019.jpg)
Gallery of Justin Long
Williamstown Theatre Festival. Photo: John Phelan, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%2762_Center_for_Theatre_%26_Dance,_Williamstown_MA.jpg)
Vassar College. Photo: Collin Knopp-Schwyn, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:New_England_Building,_November_2014.jpg)
Williamstown Theatre Festival. Photo: John Phelan, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%2762_Center_for_Theatre_%26_Dance,_Williamstown_MA.jpg)
Justin Long is an American actor and comedian known for comedy and horror films, for playing the personified Mac in Apple's Get a Mac advertising campaign, and for the NBC series Ed. Born in Fairfield, Connecticut, in 1978, he studied at Vassar College before building a career in film and television.
Background
Ethnicity:
Biographical profiles describe his ancestry as German, Sicilian, and Polish.
Justin Jacob Long was born on June 2, 1978, in Fairfield, Connecticut, the second of three sons of R. James Long and Wendy Lesniak. Fairfield is a town in Fairfield County in southwestern Connecticut, where the Jesuits established a college and high school during the Second World War.
His father was a professor of philosophy and Latin at Fairfield University, which the Jesuits founded in 1942 when they acquired two adjoining estates; the university held its first commencement in 1951. His mother was a former actress who worked mostly on stage, and some biographical accounts describe her as a former Broadway actress.
Long grew up in a conservative Roman Catholic household, and his family's Jesuit surroundings shaped his early schooling. His childhood in Fairfield, a university town with a Catholic educational setting, preceded his move into comedy and acting.
Education
Long attended Fairfield College Preparatory School, an all-male Jesuit preparatory school founded by the Society of Jesus in 1942 on the Fairfield University campus. The school follows the Jesuit tradition of educating young men for service to others. His yearbook superlative was 'Most Likely Not to Be Seen in Class', according to a biographical profile.
He then enrolled at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York. Matthew Vassar founded the institution in 1861 as a women's college, and it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States. Vassar became coeducational in 1969, so it had been admitting men for roughly three decades when Long studied there.
Long graduated in 2000. At Vassar he was a member of the sketch comedy group Laughingstock and appeared in several plays. A biographical account reports that he delayed full-time acting until after he graduated.
Long's first major television role came with Ed, a comedy-drama that NBC broadcast from 2000 to 2004. He played Warren Cheswick, a socially awkward high-school student, in a series about a fired New York lawyer who returns to his hometown. NBC, the National Broadcasting Company, was one of the three major American television networks of the period.
His film work began with a small role as a fan in the DreamWorks comedy Galaxy Quest in 1999. Further films followed, including Jeepers Creepers (2001), Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (2004), Accepted (2006), in which he played the main character, and Idiocracy (2006), directed by Mike Judge. He voiced Alvin in Alvin and the Chipmunks (2007), co-starred with Bruce Willis as a white-hat hacker in Live Free or Die Hard (2007), and played Brandon Saint Randy in Zack and Miri Make a Porno (2008).
Starring roles followed in He's Just Not That Into You (2009), alongside Ginnifer Goodwin; Going the Distance (2010), with Drew Barrymore; and Robert Redford's The Conspirator (2010), in which he played a one-armed Civil War veteran. He also voiced Humphrey in the animated film Alpha and Omega (2010). In 2014 he starred in and co-produced the independent drama Comet with Emmy Rossum.
From 2006 Long appeared as the personified Mac in Apple's Get a Mac campaign, opposite John Hodgman as the PC. The advertising agency TBWA/Chiat/Day created the campaign, which Apple ended in 2010. Long's role made him widely recognizable, and the campaign is described as award-winning.
His later television work included recurring appearances as Paul Genzlinger on the Fox series New Girl (2011 to 2015), voice work as Kevin Murphy in the Netflix animated sitcom F Is for Family (2015 to 2021), and the role of Nathan Bratt in the Disney+ series Goosebumps (2023). On stage he appeared at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, a summer theatre in Williamstown, Massachusetts, in a production of Samuel J. and K. from July 7 to 18, 2010. He also read the audiobook versions of Judy Blume's Then Again, Maybe I Won't and Stephen King's Everything's Eventual.
In August 2010 he co-hosted an episode of WWE Raw, the weekly program of the professional wrestling company World Wrestling Entertainment, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, with co-stars of Going the Distance.
Long was raised as a Roman Catholic. Biographical accounts describe his upbringing as conservative Catholic, and his schooling took place within the Catholic Jesuit tradition of Fairfield, Connecticut.
Roman Catholicism traces its origins to the early Christian church and is centered on the authority of the pope in Rome and a sacramental life that includes the Eucharist. The Society of Jesus, or Jesuit order, was founded in the sixteenth century and became known for schools and colleges that combine academic rigor with service. Its educational mission aims to form young men and women who serve others, a principle that shaped the Jesuit schools in Fairfield where Long was educated.
Personality
Physical Characteristics:
He is 5 feet 10 inches (1.78 m) tall, according to his IMDb biography.
Connections
Long dated actress Drew Barrymore, and the couple confirmed their breakup in July 2008. He began dating actress Amanda Seyfried in mid-2013, and they ended their relationship in September 2015.
He is married to actress Kate Bosworth, whom he wed in 2023. His father, R. James Long, taught philosophy and Latin at Fairfield University. His brothers are Damian, a stage actor and teacher at Weston High School in Weston, Connecticut, and Christian, an actor and director.
Father:
R. James Long
Professor of philosophy and Latin at Fairfield University.
Mother:
Wendy Lesniak
Former actress who has mostly performed on stage.
Brother:
Damian Long
Older brother; stage actor and teacher at Weston High School in Weston, Connecticut.
Brother:
Christian Long
Younger brother; actor and director.
Wife:
Kate Bosworth
Actress whom he married in 2023.
References
Justin Long
Encyclopedia entry covering his birth, family, education, film and television career, and the Get a Mac campaign.
Justin Long Biography
Biographical profile covering his early life, education, role in Ed, and physical details.
Justin Long Biography (1978-)
Biography listing his birth details and early television and film credits, including Ed and Galaxy Quest.
