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Actor

1971-07-15 · Charlotte, North Carolina, USA · Male

55 series in the catalog

James Rash (born July 15, 1971) is an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. He played Dean Craig Pelton on the NBC sitcom Community (2009–2015), for which he was nominated for the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series in 2012.

He co-wrote The Descendants (2011) alongside Alexander Payne and Nat Faxon for which they received the Academy Award, Independent Spirit Award and Writers Guild of America Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. They were also nominated for the BAFTA Award, Golden Globe Award, and Critics' Choice Movie Award. Rash has since, with Faxon, written and directed the comedy films The Way, Way Back (2013), and Downhill (2020).

Early life

Rash grew up in Charlotte, North Carolina. Both he and his sister were adopted. He attended Charlotte Latin School. After graduating, he spent a post-graduate year at the Lawrenceville School in Lawrenceville, New Jersey.

He graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1994.

Career

Rash played Mr. Grayson/Stitches in the 2005 film Sky High, Fenton on That '70s Show and That '90s Show, and Andrew the "whore house guy" on Reno 911!. He appeared in the final episode of Friends, and played Head T.A. Philip in Slackers. From 2009 to 2015, Rash starred on Community as Craig Pelton, the dean of the community college in which the show takes place.

Rash and comedy partner Nat Faxon moved into screenwriting with a pilot in 2005 for a series entitled Adopted, which did not take off. They wrote the screenplay for The Descendants (2011), based on the novel of the same name, which appeared on the 2008 edition of the Black List (the most popular unproduced scripts in Hollywood at that time). The film was released to critical acclaim, receiving a Golden Globe nomination and winning the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.

Both Rash and Faxon co-wrote and co-directed the film The Way Way Back (2013), which received a standing ovation at its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. Parts of the film are based on Rash's teenage life. The ensemble comedy starred Steve Carell, Toni Collette, Allison Janney, Maya Rudolph, and Sam Rockwell. The film was a success, earning a Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Comedy nomination.

In 2020, Rash and Faxon reunited for Downhill, an adaptation of the film Force Majeure (2014) by Swedish director Ruben Östlund. The film starred Will Ferrell and Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Rash and Faxon co-wrote the script with Jesse Armstrong. The film debuted at the Sundance Film Festival where it received mixed reviews, with critics comparing the film to the original.

Rash has voiced the Marquess of Queensberry for all four seasons of the Adult Swim animated comedy Mike Tyson Mysteries. From 2017 to 2021, he voiced Gyro Gearloose in the reboot of DuckTales. In 2023, Rash voiced the Fixer, the enforcer for the Conglomerate and recurring character in My Dad the Bounty Hunter. He also voiced a video game announcer in the same series.

In 2026, Rash wrote and directed Miss You, Love You starring Allison Janney and Andrew Rannells.

Personal life

Rash is gay. During a September 2022 interview promoting Bros, he stated he came out "well over 10-plus years ago".