James Rash (born July 15, 1971) is an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. He is widely known for his role as 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. In that same year, he won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and received a Golden Globe nomination as one of the writers of "The Descendants".