Sebastian Stan

**Sebastian Stan** is a Romanian American actor. On television, he has played Carter Baizen in Gossip Girl, Prince Jack Benjamin in Kings, Jefferson in Once Upon a Time, and T.J. Hammond in Political Animals. The latter earned him a nomination for the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Movie/Miniseries.

Stan gained wide recognition for his role as Bucky Barnes / Winter Soldier in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, beginning with 2011's Captain America: The First Avenger and later also in Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), Ant-Man (2015), Captain America: Civil War (2016), Black Panther (2018) and in Avengers: Infinity War (2018). In 2015, he co-starred in Jonathan Demme's comedy-drama Ricki and the Flash and Ridley Scott's science fiction film The Martian. Two years later, he portrayed Jeff Gillooly in the biopic I, Tonya.

## Early life

Stan was born in Constanța, Romania. He has stated that his parents divorced when he was two years old. At the age of eight, Stan and his mother, Georgeta Orlovschi, moved to Vienna, Austria following the Romanian Revolution, where Georgeta was employed as a pianist. Four years later, they moved to Rockland County, New York, after his mother married Anthony Fruhauf, the headmaster of Rockland Country Day School, where Stan was educated.

During Stan's years at the Rockland school, he starred in productions including Harvey, Cyrano de Bergerac, Little Shop of Horrors, Over Here!, and West Side Story. He also attended the Stagedoor Manor summer camp where he was cast in many camp productions. It was then that he decided to take acting seriously and began to apply for acting programs at several universities. He was accepted to and attended Rutgers University's Mason Gross School of the Arts, which also gave him the opportunity to spend a year abroad studying acting at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London, England. Stan became a United States citizen in 2002.

## Career

After several film and television roles, including The Covenant and Gossip Girl, Stan landed a lead role in the 2009 series Kings as Jack Benjamin. In 2010, he appeared in Darren Aronofsky's ballet thriller, Black Swan. Stan also began filming the supernatural horror film The Apparition in February that year; the film was released on August 24, 2012. Stan played Blaine, the main antagonist of Hot Tub Time Machine in March 2010. In July 2011, he portrayed Bucky Barnes in the film Captain America: The First Avenger, based on the Marvel Comics character. Although it was his first film in the franchise, it was not part of his nine-picture contract he has with Marvel Studios.

In 2012, he starred in the thriller Gone and began a recurring role in Once Upon a Time as the Mad Hatter. The A.V. Club described his work in "Hat Trick", his premiere episode, as "excellent" and placed the episode in their list of the 30 best episodes of 2012 from series which did not make their top list. It was initially reported the role would be recast for Once Upon a Time in Wonderland due to Stan's commitment to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but Edward Kitsis later revealed the next month that due to fan backlash and respect for Stan's performance, the character would not be recast and the series would proceed without the character.

The same year, he also appeared in the USA Network miniseries Political Animals as the troubled gay son of the former First Lady, for which he was nominated for the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Movie/Miniseries. In 2013, Stan played Hal Carter in the Roundabout Theater Company's production of William Inge's Picnic, at the American Airlines Theater in New York. In 2014, Stan reprised his role as Bucky Barnes in the first film of his nine-movie contract, Captain America: The Winter Soldier. In 2015, he played Joshua Brummel in Ricki and the Flash, and co-starred in The Martian as NASA scientist Dr. Chris Beck. Stan then reprised his role as the Winter Soldier in the third Captain America film, Captain America: Civil War (2016).

In 2017, Stan co-starred as a NASCAR driver, Dayton White, in Steven Soderbergh's comedy Logan Lucky, portrayed Jeff Gillooly, alongside Margot Robbie as Tonya Harding, in Craig Gillespie's biopic I, Tonya (2017), based on the figure skating rivalry between Harding and Nancy Kerrigan, and also starred alongside J. K. Simmons in the drama I'm Not Here.

Stan reprised his Winter Soldier role in Avengers: Infinity War (2018), and its upcoming, untitled sequel, set for 2019. He will portray Charles Blackwood in We Have Always Lived in the Castle, an adaptation of Shirley Jackson's novel of the same name, and stars as Scott Huffman in the Vietnam War drama film The Last Full Measure. Stan has also been cast in the thriller film Destroyer, opposite Nicole Kidman.

## Trivia

* He is Romanian. At age 8, his mother moved with him from Romania to Vienna, Austria, where she was employed as a pianist. At age 12, they moved to Rockland County, New York, where his mother married the Headmaster of an American private school.
* He is an only child.
* He speaks English and Romanian fluently. In Captain America: Civil War (2016) he actually speaks Romanian in the first scene set in Bucharest, Romania.
* Graduated from Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey with a BFA in Acting.
* Attended the famous performing arts summer camp Stagedoor Manor.
* Before being cast as James "Bucky" Barnes in Captain America: The First Avenger (2011), he was considered for the 'Steve Rogers/Captain America' part.
* Did all his own stunts in the movie The Covenant (2006).
* Starring in Eric Bogosian's play "Talk Radio". [April 2007]
* Worked two times with Academy Award winning director Jonathan Demme: In Rachel Getting Married (2008) and Ricki and the Flash (2015).
* He appears in two features nominated for a 'Best Picture' Academy Award: Black Swan (2010) and The Martian (2015).
* He spent a year abroad studying theater at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London.
* He did all his own stunts in the movie The Covenant.
* He dated his co-stars Leighton Meester from 2008 to 2010 and Jennifer Morrison from 2012 to 2013. In 2014, he began dating actress Margarita Levieva; but they broke up in 2016. He and actress Alejandra Onieva started dating in 2020.
* He was in Darren Aronofsky's film Black Swan.