John Gallagher Jr.

John Gallagher Jr. (birthname: John Howard Gallagher Jr.) is an acclaimed actor with a robust track record on the American stage, on television, and on the big screen, starting with his supporting role opposite lead Katie Holmes in director-writer Peter Hedges’s comedy-drama, Pieces of April (2003), earning a solid $3.3 million gross for United Artists.

Gallagher’s next notable movie role was in Woody Allen’s Whatever Works (2009), starring Larry David, Evan Rachel Wood, Ed Begley Jr., Patricia Clarkson, Michael McKean, and Henry Cavill, with its $35 million global take more than double its budget. Gallagher landed a supporting role in the failed DC Comics/Warner Bros. Western mash-up, Jonah Hex (2010), starring Josh Brolin, John Malkovich, Megan Fox, Michael Fassbender, Will Arnett, and Michael Shannon.

John Gallagher Jr. joined the distinguished cast of Kenneth Lonergan’s extraordinary New York City drama, Margaret (2011), starring Anna Paquin, J. Smith-Cameron, Jean Reno, Jeannie Berlin, Allison Janney, Matthew Broderick, Kieran Culkin, Mark Ruffalo, Matt Damon, Josh Hamilton, Rosemarie DeWitt, and Olivia Thirlby, and though it lost money for distributor Fox Searchlight, the movie has emerged as a critical triumph, and deemed in polls (including the BBC’s) as one of the best movies of the 21^st century.

Gallagher had his first co-starring movie role in director-writer Destin Daniel Cretton’s acclaimed drama, Short Term 12 (2013), with Brie Larson, Kaitlyn Dever, Rami Malek, LaKeith Stanfield, and Melora Walters, and grossing nearly five times costs ($400,000). Gallagher earned his first leading-man role in a movie in writer-director Zachary Wigon’s indie drama, The Heart Machine (2014), with Kate Lyn Sheil, which premiered at the South by Southwest Film Festival.

Gallagher had his first co-starring role in a studio movie with the J.J. Abrams-produced sci-fi horror remake, 10 Cloverfield Lane (2016), starring Mary Elizabeth Winstead, John Goodman, Suzanne Cryer, and Bradley Cooper, and grossing a terrific $110 million globally for Paramount Pictures/Bad Robot Productions.

John Gallagher Jr. earned another starring role in a horror movie with the Blumhouse-produced Hush (2016), with Michael Trucco and Kate Siegel and streamed by Netflix after a South by Southwest film festival premiere, and then starred in his third horror movie in a role in another Blumhouse-backed project, writer-producer James Gunn’s The Belko Experiment (2017) for Orion Pictures, with Tony Goldwyn, Adria Arjona, and Michael Rooker, and grossing a good $11 million after a Toronto film festival premiere.

Gallagher co-starred (and also sang his song, “My Savior”) with Chloë Grace Moretz, Sasha Lane, Marin Ireland, and Jennifer Ehle in director-writer Desiree Akhavan’s successful indie drama, The Miseducation of Cameron Post (2018), winning Sundance’s grand jury prize. Gallagher joined the cast of Sophia Mitri Schloss, Melanie Lynskey, Danielle Brooks, and Tony Hale in the little-seen but well-reviewed indie drama from writer-director Megan Griffiths, Sadie (2018), which premiered at the South by Southwest film festival, and then Gallagher co-starred with Jennifer Garner and John Ortiz in the $54-million-grossing vigilante drama, Peppermint (2018), and grossing $54 million globally.

John Gallagher Jr. appeared in a supporting role in the biographical civil rights drama, The Best of Enemies (2019), with Taraji P. Henson, Sam Rockwell, Anne Heche, Wes Bentley, and Bruce McGill, and then Gallagher co-starred with Hong Chau, Sarah Gadon, and Ellen Burstyn in director/writer/producer Semi Chellas’ indie drama, American Woman (2019), premiering at the Tribeca film festival. Gallagher co-starred in 20^th Century Fox’s sci-fi horror movie, Underwater (2020), alongside Kristen Stewart, Vincent Cassel, Jessica Henwick, and Mamoudou Athie, but which ended up being a box-office bomb.

Gallagher co-starred (with Gillian Jacobs) as the father of an autistic child in director-writer Jacob Chase’s horror movie for Focus Features, Come Play (2020), which Gallagher followed up with a turn in director-writer Peter Hedges’s COVID-19-themed ensemble drama, The Same Storm (2021), with Sandra Oh, Mary-Louise Parker, Elaine May, Raul Castillo, Jin Ha, Ron Livingston, Rosemarie DeWitt, Alison Pill, and Judith Light, and which premiered at the Telluride film festival.

John Gallagher Jr. co-starred with Winona Ryder and Dermot Mulroney in co-writer/director Eli Horowitz’s thriller, Gone in the Night (2022), and then co-starred in and was an executive producer on the little-seen Spencer Squire-directed horror movie, Abandoned (2022), with Emma Roberts, Michael Shannon, and Paul Schneider. Gallagher went to space with a crew comprising Ariana DeBose, Chris Messina, Pilou Asbæk, Costa Ronin, and Maria Mashkova in the Gabriela Cowperthwaite-directed sci-fi thriller, I.S.S. (2024), which premiered at the Tribeca film festival. Gallagher then joined the cast starring Lucy Hale and Nat Wolff in the Peter Hutchings-directed rom-com, Which Brings Me to You (2024).