Evan Handler

Biography

Evan Handler (born January 10, 1961) is an American actor best known for television, though he has also built a substantial career in theatre and film. He is widely recognised for two roles: Harry Goldenblatt in Sex and the City and Charlie Runkle in Californication.

Handler was born in New York City and raised in Cortlandt, New York, in a secular Jewish family. He attended the Juilliard School but left its four-year drama programme after less than two years to take a role in Taps (1981). Before that he had worked as an intern at the Chelsea Theater Center and appeared in Off-Broadway productions.

He built a notable stage career, including several Broadway productions such as Six Degrees of Separation, I Hate Hamlet and Brighton Beach Memoirs. On film he appeared in Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers and Ron Howard's Ransom, opposite Mel Gibson.

On television he co-starred in the ABC sitcoms It's Like, You Know... and Hot Properties, and gained wider attention as the agent and best friend of David Duchovny's character in Californication, from 2007 to 2014. He has guest-starred in series such as Lost, The West Wing and Friends, and joined the cast of American Crime Story: The People v. O. J. Simpson in 2015.

Handler is also an author of two memoirs: Time on Fire: My Comedy of Terrors, about his recovery from leukaemia, and It's Only Temporary, which covers the years that followed his illness. He has also taken part in civic campaigns, including one supporting statehood for Washington, D.C. He has been married to Elisa Atti since 2003, and they have a daughter.

Key films

• Taps (1981): an early leading film role, shared with a young ensemble cast.
• Natural Born Killers (1994): a supporting part in Oliver Stone's satirical thriller about a pair of killers.
• Ransom (1996): a role in the thriller directed by Ron Howard and starring Mel Gibson.
• Sex and the City (2008): his return as Harry Goldenblatt, Charlotte's husband, in the film adaptation of the HBO series.
• Sex and the City 2 (2010): the sequel, in which he reprises the same character.