Justin Baldoni
American actor and director (born 1984)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Justin Louis Baldoni (born January 24, 1984) is an American actor and director. He is best known for playing Rafael Solano on the CW telenovela Jane the Virgin (2014–2019) and for starring in and directing the romantic drama film It Ends with Us (2024). He has also directed Five Feet Apart (2019) and Clouds (2020).
.jpg)
January 24, 1984
- Actor
- director
Justin Baldoni | |
|---|---|
Baldoni at the 2015 PaleyFest | |
| Born | Justin Louis Baldoni January 24, 1984 Los Angeles, California, U.S.[1] |
| Occupations |
|
| Years active | 2004–present |
| Organization | Wayfarer Studios |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2 |
Baldoni co-founded the production company Wayfarer Studios in 2019.[2] He also produced and co-hosted the Man Enough podcast as well as published two books on positive masculinity and overcoming societal expectations of being a man.
Early life
Baldoni was born in Los Angeles, California, and was raised in Medford, Oregon, to parents Sharon (née Solomon) and Samuel Baldoni.[3] His mother is Jewish, born to Ashkenazi Jewish parents, making him Jewish according to Halakha (Jewish law), which follows matrilineal descent.[4] His father is from an Italian Catholic background.[5] His paternal grandfather is Louis Baldoni, a former member of the Indiana House of Representatives and the Indiana State Senate.[6]
Baldoni's parents converted to the Baháʼí Faith before he was born but celebrated both Christmas and Hanukkah in honor of their Jewish and Catholic ancestry.[4][5] He was raised in the Baháʼí Faith and has gone on several Baháʼí pilgrimages to Haifa.[5]
Baldoni played soccer and ran track while he was a student at South Medford High School,[7] and was a radio disc jockey at a local top 40 radio station.[8] While moving into a new apartment building, Baldoni met a manager who advised him to pursue a career in acting.[9] He attended college at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) on a partial athletic scholarship, but later dropped out.[10] In December 2024, Baldoni alleged he had "experienced sexual trauma" in a previous relationship when he was attending university. He said that he "wrestled with that trauma for the rest of my life, because in my head a man can't experience sexual trauma at the hands of a woman."[11]
Career
2004–2018: Early roles and Jane the Virgin
Baldoni made his acting debut in the soap opera The Young and the Restless in 2004.[12] In 2008, Baldoni wrote, produced, and directed his first music video that was selected and won him his first "Audience Choice Award" at Dawn Breakers International Film Festival.[13] In 2012, Baldoni created a digital documentary series, My Last Days, a show about living—as told by the dying.[14][15] The show eventually became one of the most-watched YouTube documentary series streamed online.[16] The second season of My Last Days aired on the CW, and the third season was released in the winter of 2018. On the heels of that success, Baldoni founded Wayfarer Entertainment, a digital media studio focused on disruptive inspiration.[17] In December 2018, Baldoni spoke at the annual End Well Symposium about why he believes that thinking about death can help us live better.[18]
From 2014 to 2019, Baldoni played Rafael Solano in the CW satirical telenovela Jane the Virgin, starring opposite Gina Rodriguez.[19] In May 2016, he, along with Travis Van Winkle and Travis Clark, attempted to launch a time-lapse video app for pregnant people to coincide with the finale of Jane the Virgin.[20] In 2018, he played a young Barry Minkow in the crime drama Con Man, directed by Bruce Caulk.[21]
2019–present: Expansion to directing
Baldoni directed and produced CBS Films' coming-of-age romantic drama Five Feet Apart, starring Cole Sprouse and Haley Lu Richardson, based on an original script by Mikki Daughtry and Tobias Iaconis. The film was released on March 15, 2019, and chronicles the lives of two teenagers living with cystic fibrosis who fall in love.[22] The film was a financial success but received mixed reviews.[23][24] The following year, he directed and produced Clouds, a film depicting the life and death of musician Zach Sobiech with Warner Bros.[25][26] On May 14, 2020, it was announced that Disney+ had acquired distribution rights to the film from Warner Bros., in light of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the film industry. It was released on October 16, 2020.[27]
In 2024, he produced the romantic comedy A Nice Indian Boy, starring Jonathan Groff and Karan Soni. The film follows an Indian doctor, played by Soni, who brings his white boyfriend, played by Groff, to meet his traditional parents. Though it had a modest release and box-office turn worldwide,[28] it was met with universal acclaim by critics.[29] In 2025, the Wayfarer Studios-backed film Eleanor the Great, directed by Scarlett Johansson in her directorial debut and starring June Squibb,[30] had its world premiere at Cannes Film Festival.[31] Baldoni served as executive producer.[30] That year also saw the release of the action-comedy Code 3, directed by Christopher Leone, which Baldoni also produced through Wayfarer.[32]
2024 It Ends with Us controversy
In 2024, Baldoni directed and starred in the romantic drama It Ends with Us, based on Colleen Hoover's novel of the same name.[33] In the film, in which he acted opposite Blake Lively, Baldoni portrays a neurosurgeon who is revealed to be a domestic abuser. The film became a box office hit, earning over $350 million, but received mixed reviews from critics. [34][35] In December 2024, Lively filed a complaint with the California Civil Rights Department, alleging she experienced sexual harassment during filming from Baldoni and others associated with Wayfarer Studios and that there was a subsequent coordinated smear campaign from Baldoni and his associates.[36][37]
On December 22, 2024, The New York Times' published an article written by investigative reporters Megan Twohey, Mike McIntire, and Julie Tate’s about Lively's complaint and her allegations that Baldoni and producer Jamey Heath hired crisis management experts to "destroy" Lively's reputation through social media campaigns and strategic media placement.[38] Baldoni denied the accusations, and his lawyer, Bryan Freedman, produced a statement describing Lively's claims as "completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious."[39]
In response to their reporting on the allegations by Lively, Justin Baldoni filed a libel lawsuit for $250 million against The Times.[40] In addition to denying the allegations, Baldoni accused the paper of "working alongside Lively’s team to publish a one-sided article that benefited Lively and contained doctored evidence".[41]
The New York Times defended its reporting.[42] After Lively filed a lawsuit against Baldoni, he countersued her for $400 million, folding the claims against The Times into the suit. This lawsuit was dismissed in June 2025.[43] In September 2025, the New York Times filed a lawsuit against Baldoni's production company to recoup legal costs under New York State's anti-SLAPP laws.[44]
In April 2026, the court dismissed 10 of Lively's 13 claims, including her sexual harassment allegations against Baldoni, thereby removing him and all individual associates from the lawsuit.[45] Lively voluntarily dismissed her remaining claims of retaliation and breach of contract, resolving the case in a settlement in May 2026 without any monetary exchange.[46][47]
In June 2026, a federal judge ruled that Lively was entitled to recover her legal fees from Wayfarer Studios, Baldoni’s production company, from only the defamation claim in their countersuit, but she was not entitled any damages for harm caused by his defamation claims.[48]
Representation
The talent agency, WME, signed Baldoni in March 2019.[49] The agency, which also represents Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds,[50] dropped Baldoni in December 2024, following news of Lively's complaint.[51] Baldoni has alleged that Reynolds and Lively pressured the agency to drop him, which the agency denied.[52] Ari Emanuel, the executive chairman of WME Group, explained that he fired Baldoni because he is "ride or die" for Reynolds and Lively. In January 2026, unsealed discovery exhibits revealed Reynolds requested through his agent that Emanuel go “full Ari” on Baldoni. [53][54] In April 2026, WME released a public statement in support of Lively's case, stating it, “helped expose the devastating harm caused by covert digital takedown campaigns designed to intimidate, discredit, and drown out the truth.”[55]
Other ventures
.jpg)
Man Enough projects
In 2017, Baldoni gave a TED talk called "Why I’m Done Trying to Be 'Man Enough,'" which went on to inspire a web series.[56][57][58]
In July 2017, Variety announced that Baldoni was developing a talk show through his media company Wayfarer Entertainment. The show, entitled Man Enough, is described as a disruptive panel series that explores what it means to be a man today.[59] Eight 25-minute episodes were to be distributed on the internet.[60] In 2021, Baldoni released a book under the same premise.[61] A children's version of the book, Boys Will Be Human, was released in October 2022.[62]
In June 2021, it was announced that Wayfarer was launching The Man Enough Podcast in partnership with Procter & Gamble.[63] Baldoni led the podcast series with co-hosts Liz Plank and Jamey Heath.[64] It was an honoree at the 2022 Weebly Awards.[65] Plank left the podcast in 2024 after The New York Times reported allegations that Baldoni sexually harassed Blake Lively. Plank wrote in a statement, "I will continue to support everyone who calls out injustice and holds the people standing in their way accountable".[66]
Wayfarer Studios
Baldoni and Steve Sarowitz co-founded a production company called Wayfarer Entertainment, named for a phrase used by the founder of the Baháʼí faith,[67] that produces television, films, and digital content. In 2019, Wayfarer sold a majority stake in the company to investment fund 4S Bay Partners, setting up a $25 million content fund,[68][69] and was renamed Wayfarer Studios in 2020.[70] In 2022, the studio received a $125 million investment from Sarowitz.[2] The studio's most successful project to date is the 2024 romance drama It Ends with Us, that Baldoni directs and stars in. The film grossed $351 million at the box office.[71] The studio partnered with the nonprofit No More to provide resources and information related to domestic abuse and violence such as that shown in the film.[72]
In 2014, Baldoni through Wayfarer Studios' philanthropic branch, Wayfarer Foundation started the annual Skid Row Carnival of Love in downtown Los Angeles.[73][74] The event served between 4,000 and 5,000 homeless individuals living around Skid Row, providing career services such as "housing services, domestic violence services, dental and medical exams, an eye clinic, haircuts, and massages" and other festivities such as face-painting, live concerts, and children's activities.[73] The Foundation was shuttered in May 2025.[75]
Personal life
After almost two years of dating, Baldoni married Swedish actress Emily Foxler, now known as Emily Baldoni.[76] He proposed to her in a 27-minute video, which he released on his production company's YouTube channel where it went viral. He described it as "his first movie".[77][78][79] The couple married in July 2013 in Corona, California.[80] They have a daughter and a son together.[81][82]
Baldoni is a member of the Baháʼí Faith and has stated that for him it is a "daily source of inner happiness".[83] He has stated that he has Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).[84][85] He has previously written and spoken about his struggles with Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD).[86][87] Baldoni is on the Board of Ambassadors of the Tahirih Justice Center, a nonprofit organization advocating for women, girls, and all immigrant survivors of gender-based violence.[88]
Filmography
Film
| Year | Title | Role | Notes | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Yesterday's Dream | Pat | ||
| The Helix...Loaded | Jason | |||
| 2008 | The House Bunny | Waiter | ||
| 2009 | After Dusk They Come | Peter | ||
| Alpha Males Experiment | Gavin | |||
| 2010 | Unrequited | Todd Brown | ||
| 2011 | Royal Reunion | Nicky | Short film | |
| Intervention: Cinderella | Aladdin | |||
| 2013 | Isolated | Ambassador for Peace | ||
| Not Today | Eli Hill | |||
| The Proposal | Justin | Short film | ||
| 2014 | A Fine Step | Marzo Bolivar | ||
| 2018 | Con Man | Young Barry Minkow | [89] | |
| 2019 | Five Feet Apart | N/a | Director; also executive producer | |
| 2020 | Clouds | N/a | Director | |
| 2023 | The Senior | N/a | Producer | |
| 2024 | The Garfield Movie | N/a | Executive producer | [90] |
| Ezra | N/a | [91][92] | ||
| It Ends with Us | Ryle Kincaid | Also director and executive producer | ||
| Will & Harper | N/a | Executive producer | [93] | |
| A Nice Indian Boy | N/a | Producer | [94] | |
| 2025 | Eleanor the Great | N/a | Executive producer | [95] |
| Code 3 | N/a | Producer | [96] |
Television
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | The Young and the Restless | Ben | Three episodes |
| Wedding Daze | Guillermo Valerio | Television film | |
| 2005 | JAG | Azzam | Episode: "Bridging the Gulf" |
| Spring Break Shark Attack | J.T. | Television film | |
| Charmed | Salko | Episode: "Something Wicca This Way Goes" | |
| 2005–2006 | Everwood | Reid Bardem | 15 episodes |
| 2007 | CSI: Miami | Damon Argento | Episode: "Cyber-Lebrity" |
| 2008 | The Suite Life of Zack & Cody | Diego | Episode: "Foiled Again" |
| 2009 | Heroes | Alex Woolsey | Episodes: "Building 26" and "Exposed" |
| 2010 | The Bold and the Beautiful | Graham Darros | 10 episodes |
| CSI: NY | Heath Kirkfield | Episode: "Out of the Sky" | |
| 2011–2012 | Single Ladies | Derek | Four episodes |
| 2012 | Blackout | Josh Martin | TV miniseries |
| Shadow of Fear | Bobby | Television film | |
| Undercover Bridesmaid | Jake | ||
| 2013 | Happy Endings | Marcus | Episode: "Fowl Play/Date" |
| 2014–2019 | Jane the Virgin | Rafael Solano | Main role; 99 episodes |
| 2017 | Madam Secretary | Kevin Park | Two episodes |
Bibliography
- Man Enough: Undefining My Masculinity (HarperOne, 2021)
- Boys Will Be Human: A Get-Real Gut-Check Guide to Becoming the Strongest, Kindest, Bravest Person You Can Be (Harper Collins, 2022)
