Sebastian Stan on screen and stage

Sebastian Stan is a Romanian and American actor who has appeared in over 40 motion pictures, 12 television programs, and two stage productions. Although he appeared briefly in 71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance (1994), he considers The Architect (2006) to be his film debut.^[1] This was followed by roles in Renny Harlin's The Covenant (2006), Fred Durst's The Education of Charlie Banks (2007), and the series Gossip Girl (2007–2010) and Kings (2009), as well as his Broadway debut in Eric Bogosian's play Talk Radio (2007). Despite performing in well-received films such as Jonathan Demme's Rachel Getting Married (2008) and Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan (2010), he financially struggled during this period, surviving on residuals from Steve Pink's Hot Tub Time Machine (2010).^[2][3]

In 2011, Stan was cast in his most prolific role as Bucky Barnes / Winter Soldier in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), beginning with the film Captain America: The First Avenger. He has since portrayed the character in nine films, two television series, and one video game within the franchise. Notable entries include Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), Captain America: Civil War (2016), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Avengers: Endgame (2019), The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (2021), What If...? (2021–2024), Thunderbolts* (2025), and the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday (2026); of these, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame rank among the highest-grossing films of all time.^[4] He is also slated to join the Batman film franchise as Harvey Dent / Two-Face in The Batman: Part II (2028).

Outside of comic-book projects, Stan continued to star in films such as Ridley Scott's The Martian (2015), Craig Gillespie's I, Tonya (2017), Steven Soderbergh's Logan Lucky (2017), and Mimi Cave's Fresh (2022), and in television projects such as Once Upon a Time (2012) and Political Animals (2012), which earned him a nomination for a Critics' Choice Award.^[5] In 2022, he portrayed rock musician Tommy Lee in Pam & Tommy, which earned him nominations at the Golden Globe and Primetime Emmy Awards.^[6][7] In 2024, he portrayed a disfigured actor with neurofibromatosis in Aaron Schimberg's A Different Man and Donald Trump in Ali Abbasi's The Apprentice. He received simultaneous Golden Globe nominations for both performances—winning Best Actor for the former—while the latter earned him nominations for the Academy Award and BAFTA Award for Best Actor.^[8][9][10]