Gus Halper

Halper was born on July 2, 1992 in Manhattan, New York City.^[6] His mother, Deann Simmons Halper, is an actress and theater director.^[7][8] Halper graduated from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, which his mother had previously attended, in 2014.^[9]

In 2014, while studying at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, Halper played Romeo in the university's production of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.^[10] After graduating, he starred in the ABC television film The Kingmakers as Eli, a young man who infiltrates an Ivy League university to investigate his sister's death.^[11] The following year, Halper appeared alongside Nick Jonas and Ben Schnetzer in Goat, which was produced by James Franco.^[4] The same year, he portrayed Ukrainian teenager Mischa Bachinski in an off-Broadway production of Ride the Cyclone at the Lucille Lortel Theatre.^[5]

In 2017, Halper portrayed convicted murderer Erik Menendez in the eight-part series Law & Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders^[1], as well as starred for six episodes as Mikey Scaramucci in Happy! until 2018. A year later, he appeared in an episode of Ramy, then five episodes of both Jett and Dickinson. In 2020, Halper then starred in one episode of the series Love Life and appeared as Blaze in the film Holler, alongside Jessica Barden.^[12] In 2021, he appeared in an episode of Evil as Graham Lucian and two episodes of Fear the Walking Dead as Will.^[2] A year later, Halper appeared as Teddy Silas, a construction foreman, in Law & Order: Organized Crime.^[13] In 2023, he portrayed social democratic activist Tom Kahn, the assistant and lover of civil rights activist Bayard Rustin, in the biographical film Rustin.^[3]

In 2019, Halper was cast as Brendan Lalor in the workshop for the musical Sing Street, which then officially premiered its off-broadway run at the New York Theatre Workshop on December 16th and closed on January 26th, 2020.^[14] Following the hiatus of the Broadway transfer due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he reprised his role as Brendan for the cast recording that was released in April 2020.^[15]

Halper married actress Emma Geer on October 15, 2023.^[16] The couple had a baby in early 2026.^[17]