Penn Badgley

Penn Dayton Badgley (born November 1, 1986) is an American actor and musician. He is best known for his role as Dan Humphrey on The CW's series Gossip Girl (2007–12) and has also starred in a number of films, including John Tucker Must Die (2006), The Stepfather (2009), Easy A (2010), Margin Call (2011), and Greetings from Tim Buckley (2012). He is currently the lead singer for Brooklyn-based indie band Mother (stylized as MOTHXR). 2Early life Badgley was born in Baltimore, Maryland, the son of Lynne Murphy and Duff Badgley, who worked as a newspaper reporter and also a carpenter; Duff was the Green Party candidate for governor of Washington state in 2008. His parents divorced when he was 12. Badgley split his childhood years between Woodlake, Virginia and Seattle, Washington. He attended Woolridge Elementary, where his mother became PTA president before he transferred to St. Christopher's School. He enjoyed playing youth soccer, where his father coached. He attended Charles Wright Academy in Tacoma, Washington, and was involved with the Seattle Children's Theatr