Adam Scott

Early life and education

Adam Paul Scott was born in Santa Cruz, California on April3, 1973, son of Dougald Scott. His parents, who were both teachers, divorced when he was a child. His father is of Scottish descent, while his mother was of half Italian (Sicilian) and half Irish descent. He has two older siblings, Shannon and David.

He graduated from Harbor High School and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Los Angeles, California.

Career

1994–2007: Early film and television work

Scott has appeared in several feature films, including Hellraiser: Bloodline (1996), Star Trek: First Contact (1996), The Lesser Evil (1998), High Crimes (2002), The Aviator (2004), Torque (2004), Monster-in-Law (2005), The Matador (2005), and Knocked Up (2007). Scott's early television roles include Griff Hawkins in Boy Meets World, Josh on Party of Five, a law intern on Murder One, as well as David's love interest, Ben Cooper, on Six Feet Under. His first series regular role was on the controversial and sexually-explicit HBO drama Tell Me You Love Me (2007) as Palek, a husband struggling to conceive with his wife. In the first two seasons of the HBO baseball comedy series Eastbound & Down, Scott played a cocaine-addicted baseball front office representative. He also appeared on CSI: Miami and Law & Order.

2008–2015: ''Parks and Recreation'' and comedy films

From 2009 to 2010, Scott starred as Henry Pollard in the Starz network show Party Down. For this performance, he earned an Entertainment Weekly Ewwy nomination for Best Actor in a Comedy Series. In 2010, Scott joined the cast of NBC's acclaimed comedy series Parks and Recreation, in which he played Ben Wyatt, a state auditor who arrives in the fictional town of Pawnee, Indiana, to evaluate the town's funds and eventually becomes the love interest of Leslie Knope. He appeared as a guest star in the second season before becoming a main character for the remainder of the series, which ended in 2015.

During this period Scott appeared in the films Step Brothers (2008), The Vicious Kind (2009), Piranha 3D (2010), Friends with Kids (2012), The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013), and Krampus (2015). Scott attributes his pivot from dramatic to comedic roles to landing the part of Derek Huff in Step Brothers, as he learned comedic improvisation from his co-stars Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly, and Kathryn Hahn.

Scott has appeared in and produced numerous independent films. He starred as Caleb Sinclaire in the 2010 film The Vicious Kind, for which Scott was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Actor. The film itself received positive reviews, and he won two individual awards at two separate film festivals. He starred in two films by Matt Bissonette, Who Loves the Sun (2006) and Passenger Side (2009), released on DVD on October 26, 2010. He appeared in the films Our Idiot Brother (2011) with Paul Rudd and Leslye Headland's Bachelorette (2012). He had lead roles in Friends with Kids (2012) and A.C.O.D. (2013).

He played antagonist Ted Hendricks, Walter Mitty's boss, in the 2013 Ben Stiller remake of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. His other major studio comedies include Hot Tub Time Machine 2 and the Christmas comedy-horror film Krampus, both in 2015. That same year, he executive produced and starred in the comedy film The Overnight. Scott and his wife created and produced four Adult Swim mockumentary specials, The Greatest Event in Television History, about remaking opening credits sequences of 1980s television shows. Scott continued his streak of comedic roles in several episodes of Ken Marino's The Bachelor parody Burning Love, as well as making guest appearances in the Adult Swim comedies Childrens Hospital and NTSF:SD:SUV:: and the Comedy Central television show Nick Swardson's Pretend Time as a newscaster in the episode "Relapse into Refreshment". He also appeared in a series of commercials for ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball.

2016–present: Career expansion and ''Severance''

From 2016 to 2018, Scott appeared in five episodes of the acclaimed Michael Schur show The Good Place as Trevor, a demon. In 2017, he appeared in David Wain's Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later and made a guest appearance on HBO's Veep. In 2017 and 2019, Scott took a turn to dramatic work by appearing in HBO's Big Little Lies as Ed Mackenzie, husband of main character Madeline Mackenzie, played by Reese Witherspoon.

Scott and Paul Rudd teamed up again to act in and produce the indie comedy Fun Mom Dinner (2017). Scott starred with Craig Robinson in the sitcom Ghosted, which premiered on October 1, 2017, on Fox, lasting just one season. He and his wife executive produced the show. In 2020, Scott hosted the one-season ABC game show Don't, executive produced by Ryan Reynolds.

In 2022, Scott began starring in and executive producing the Apple TV+ show Severance, which is executive produced and directed by Ben Stiller. His performance was critically acclaimed and has earned him 2 Emmy nominations for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series in 2022 and 2025 respectively, and 2 more nominations for Outstanding Drama Series in those same years as Executive Producer. The cult hit Party Down was revived in 2023, with Scott reprising the character of Henry Pollard. In Sony's Spider-Man Universe, Scott appeared in Madame Web (2024) as a young Ben Parker.

In 2024, it was announced that Scott would star alongside Danielle Deadwyler in the independent thriller, The Saviors. He is featured along with Adam Brody in the BBDO-created “It’s Time for WhatsApp” advertising campaign which debuted on 3 September 2025.

Other ventures

With Scott Aukerman, Scott is the co-host and co-creator of the Earwolf podcast U Talkin' U2 To Me, launched in February 2014. The series is introduced at the outset of each episode as "the comprehensive and encyclopedic compendium of all things U2," though it generally uses discussion of the band as a jumping off point for improv and absurdist humor. In February 2018, Scott and Aukerman launched another podcast in the same format, this time covering the career and work of the band R.E.M., titled R U Talkin' R.E.M. Re: Me?. A third podcast, R U Talkin' RHCP Re: Me?, debuted in July 2020, in which Scott and Aukerman discuss the Red Hot Chili Peppers; the podcast's format was almost immediately abandoned in favor of discussing Talking Heads and, as of the second episode, was renamed U Talkin' Talking Heads 2 My Talking Head. In September 2023, the show began to focus on discussing the work of Bruce Springsteen, and was renamed U Springin' Springsteen On My Bean?.

Scott has been a guest on many podcasts, including Comedy Bang! Bang!, Never Not Funny, How Did This Get Made?, Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard, Kevin Pollak's Chat Show, and Smartless.

Personal life

Marriage and family

Scott married producer Naomi Sablan in 2005. They have two children.

Interests

Scott is a fan of the band R.E.M., much like his character in Parks and Recreation. In 1992, he appeared as an extra in the music video to their song "Drive". Throughout 2018, Scott and the comedian Scott Aukerman hosted the podcast series R U Talkin' R.E.M. Re: Me?, which extensively covered the career and work of R.E.M.

On May 4, 2017, during an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Scott revealed he invited actor Mark Hamill to one of his childhood birthday parties. Guest host Kristen Bell surprised Scott with the guest appearance of Hamill wielding a lightsaber in observance of Star Wars Day.

Acting credits

Film

Television