Jason Ritter

Jason Ritter
Jason Morgan Ritter (born February 17, 1980) is an American actor. He is known for his work on television series such as Joan of Arcadia (2003–2005), Gravity Falls (2012–2016), Another Period (2015–2018), and Raising Dion (2019–2022). He also played Mark Cyr on NBC's Parenthood (2010–2014), for which he received an Emmy nomination, and starred as Kevin Finn on the ABC series Kevin (Probably) Saves the World (2017–2018). Ritter made his feature film debut in Mumford (1999). His other credits include Swimfan (2002), Freddy vs. Jason (2003), Happy Endings (2005), The Education of Charlie Banks (2007), W. (2008), The Meddler (2015), The Tale (2018), and Frozen II (2019). Ritter is married to actress Melanie Lynskey, with whom he has a daughter.
Early life
Ritter was born on February 17, 1980, in Los Angeles, California, to actors Nancy Morgan and John Ritter. He is a grandson of actors Tex Ritter (who died six years before Ritter was born) and Dorothy Fay. His stepmother is actress Amy Yasbeck. Ritter has three siblings including actor Tyler Ritter.
Ritter appeared as a toddler in the opening credits of his father's show Three's Company, with Joyce DeWitt in the petting-zoo scene.
He attended middle and high school at the Crossroads School in Santa Monica, California, with Simon Helberg, who became his roommate at NYU. He then attended and graduated from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, where he studied at the Atlantic Theater Company. He also studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.
Career
1990–1999: Early work and film debut
Ritter made his professional acting debut when he appeared—at the age of ten—in the 1990 television movie The Dreamer of Oz: The L. Frank Baum Story, co-starring as Baum's son alongside his own father, John Ritter. Several years later, he had a supporting role as Ted Danson's teenage son in the 1999 film Mumford, a dramedy directed by Lawrence Kasdan.
2000–2009: Continued career
Ritter's film work throughout the early 2000s included prominent parts in teen-oriented projects such as Swimfan (2002), Ronny Yu's slasher hit Freddy vs. Jason (2003), and Raise Your Voice (2004), where he co-starred with Hilary Duff. Between 2003 and 2005, he appeared as Kevin Girardi—the disabled brother of Amber Tamblyn's Joan—on the CBS family drama series Joan of Arcadia. Next, he played a young man struggling to come terms with his sexuality in the Don Roos dark comedy Happy Endings (2005), which Stephen Hunter of The Washington Post described as "[a film] about people who use [other] people in the most exploitative of ways", adding: "The acting in this ensemble is of such a high order that the movie simply takes you in and makes you feel these lives as real".
Ritter's portrayal of an Ivy League college student in 2007's The Education of Charlie Banks, where he co-starred opposite Jesse Eisenberg, was met with critical acclaim: The Hollywood Reporter referred to it as a "head-turner" performance that combined "a believably brooding intensity with a bad boy swagger that brings to mind [a] young Matt Dillon". The following year, he appeared as Jeb Bush in one of the pivotal scenes of the biographical drama W, directed by Oliver Stone. Speaking of the experience, he said: "I watched everything that I possibly could and read some books about [the] Bush family [and] Jeb … My scene is one of the most well-documented moments in almost all of the books about the family, when George Bush came home and challenged his father to a duel". That same year, he produced and starred in the independent dramedy Good Dick with his long-term girlfriend at the time, Marianna Palka, making her directorial debut. A look at the relationship between an introverted girl and a video store assistant vying for her attention, the film was met with mixed reviews, but Anna Smith was enthusiastic in her appraisal for Empire, commenting: "Ritter's character — a romantic reformed druggie — is one to root for, and [the film] entertains enough to get by, marking Palka and Ritter as talents to watch".
2010–present: Television and film roles
In 2010, Ritter began playing the recurring role of Mark Cyr on NBC's
Parenthood. The performance earned him a nomination for the 2012 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series. His next project was the 2011 film A Bag of Hammers, where he and Jake Sandvig starred as felons who wind up taking care of a neglected child. The Hollywood Reporter called it a "muddled comedy", but felt that it "starts off strong, offering funny, well timed dialogue between Sandvig [and] Ritter". Also that year, he co-starred with Kathleen Turner in The Perfect Family, which critic Frank Scheck felt worked solely on the strength of its performances, commenting: "Turner is deeply sympathetic as the religious matriarch … while Ritter and Deschanel are thoroughly believable as the grown children who love their mother despite her oft-expressed disapproval of their actions".
Between 2012 and 2016, Ritter starred in the voice role of Dipper Pines on the Disney Channel animated series Gravity Falls, a show about a pair of twins—played by Ritter and Kristen Schaal—deciphering the weird goings-on in the mysterious titular town. The series was universally praised, with Alasdair Wilkins of The A.V. Club calling it "funny, emotional, beautiful, and terrifying in equal measure". In March 2013, it was announced that Ritter would play Gavin opposite Alexis Bledel's Stacey in Us & Them, Fox's sitcom pilot based on the British television comedy Gavin & Stacey. It was subsequently picked up as a series, but cancelled by Fox before it could premiere. The show's seven episodes were eventually released by Crackle.
Ritter's appearance in 2014's Wild Canaries—a throwback to classic whodunits—was met with critical acclaim: Justin Chang of Variety called the film "eventful, plot-driven [and] fun", adding that "Corrigan and especially Ritter are solid in their hefty supporting roles". He headlined the independent drama About Alex that same year, playing a young man who finds solace in a group of old friends after attempting to take his own life. In his review for RogerEbert.com, Brian Tallerico said, "What's kind of refreshing about About Alex is that the predictable map through the clichés of this subgenre that seems to be charted in the opening scenes isn't quite followed", adding: "Ritter finds [the] emotional undercurrent that's often missing from these troubled characters. There's something honest in the way his voice quivers that makes his depression seem more genuine".
Next, Ritter co-starred with Rose Byrne and Susan Sarandon in the 2015 film The Meddler, and began playing Lord Frederick Bellacourt—the illiterate twin brother of Riki Lindhome's Beatrice—on Comedy Central's critically acclaimed period sitcom Another Period. The show ran for three seasons between 2015 and 2018. He also headlined the post-apocalyptic drama Embers (2015), playing a man suffering from memory loss. In his review of the film for Sight and Sound, Anton Bitel commented, "[director] Carré weaves from her ensemble amnesi-apocalypse a reflection of the human condition as philosophically compelling as it is emotionally intelligent … No film has either moved or provoked me as much this year".
In the satirical dark comedy Bitch (2017), Ritter re-teamed with writer-director Marianna Palka to play Bill, a promiscuous husband whose wife (Palka) suddenly takes on the mannerisms of a wild dog. Writing for IndieWire, Erick Kohn said, "The usually sweet-natured Ritter boldly plays against type … an American Psycho-like creep … leaving the care of his three young children to his clearly unstable wife", adding that "[the film] works best when it focuses on Bill's ongoing shock at the sudden demand for his responsibility, as he fights through the task of delivering his kids to school and suddenly loses traction in the workplace. A fierce portrait of unwieldy comeuppance, it's both hilarious and terrifying to watch Bill take in the strange events around him. One brilliant sequence finds him dashing in and out of his kid's school, collapsing onto the ground and throwing tantrums as everything he took for granted dissolves beneath him".
Ritter's portrayal of Kevin Finn—a depressed financial worker tasked with preventing humanity from self-destruction—in Kevin (Probably) Saves the World was warmly received by critics. The show ran for a single season on ABC between October 2017 and March 2018. Next, he appeared in The Tale (2018), a drama based on the childhood sexual abuse suffered by Jennifer Fox—the film's writer-director—at the hands of her running coach and his girlfriend. Ritter played perpetrator William "Bill" Allens, earning strong reviews for his performance: "Ritter has never been better" said Matt Goldberg of Collider, while The Atlantic'''s David Sims commented, "Handed the tough roles of mentors who shift into monsters, Ritter and Debicki subtly calibrate their performances as necessary, projecting a protective edge in one moment and a predatory one in the next. Their transformations are extraordinary to watch, and necessary to reckon with". Ritter said the experience of making the film had been a challenging one, and that there were times after a day's shooting when he "had to go home and let it all out".
In 2019, Ritter played the voice role of Ryder in Disney's Frozen II, which grossed over US$1.4 billion at the worldwide box office. That same year, he began starring as Pat Rollins on the acclaimed Netflix superhero series Raising Dion, which ran until 2022.
It was announced in March 2023 that Ritter had been cast alongside Kathy Bates in the upcoming CBS reboot of Matlock''.
Personal life
From October 1999 to 2013, Ritter was in a relationship with Marianna Palka. They met while they were both studying at the Atlantic Theater Company in New York City. In 2017, Ritter became engaged to New Zealand actress Melanie Lynskey after four years of dating. The couple had their first child, a daughter, in December 2018. They wed in 2020.
Ritter has been open about his struggle with alcoholism, and how his relationship with Lynskey gave him the strength to get sober: "I thought she would be incredible for someone who deserved her, basically", he said in 2023. "And I didn't feel like I was that person … It was only after [a] year into not drinking where I started to go, 'Oh, maybe I can promise some things to someone else. Maybe I can be this person'".
Filmography
Film
Television
Web
Music videos
Theatre credits
Accolades
References
External links
1980 births
Living people
20th-century American male actors
21st-century American male actors
Male actors from Los Angeles
American male child actors
American male film actors
American male voice actors
American male television actors
Clarence Derwent Award winners
Tisch School of the Arts alumni
Crossroads School alumni
American people of Scottish descent