David Corenswet

David Packard Corenswet (born July 8, 1993) is an American actor. After graduating from Juilliard in 2016, he began guest starring in television series, including House of Cards in 2018. He then played lead roles in the Netflix series The Politician (2019–2020) and Hollywood (2020), both created by Ryan Murphy. He has since starred in the films Look Both Ways and Pearl, and the HBO miniseries We Own This City (all 2022).

Early life
Corenswet was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His father, John Corenswet, was from a prominent Ashkenazi Jewish family in New Orleans, and worked as a stage actor in New York City for many years before becoming a lawyer. His maternal grandfather is the American author and creator of the Choose Your Own Adventure genre, Edward Packard.

Corenswet graduated from the Shipley School and earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in drama in 2016 from the Juilliard School in New York City. He applied and was accepted to Juilliard while a freshman at the University of Pennsylvania.

Early career
As a child actor, Corenswet appeared in numerous professional theater productions, including the Arden Theatre's 2002 production of Arthur Miller's All My Sons, the Philadelphia Shakespeare Festival's 2003 production of Macbeth, the Walnut Street Theatre's 2003 production of La Vie En Bleu, and the People's Light and Theatre Company's 2004 production of The Forgiving Harvest, among others. Corenswet wrote the screenplay for and acted in Following Chase (2011), directed by Greg Koorhan. He next co-wrote, produced, and starred in a two-season sketch-comedy web series, Moe & Jerryweather (2014–2016). In 2016, director Rob Reiner cast Corenswet as a co-lead in his planned television series, The Tap, set at Yale College in 1969. Corenswet played a student. USA Network ordered the pilot episode, which was filmed in 2017, but declined to pick up the series.

In Corenswet's first film role after graduating from Juilliard, he starred as Michael Lawson in Affairs of State (2018), a political thriller. The film also stars Thora Birch, Mimi Rogers, and Adrian Grenier. Los Angeles Times described the film as "well-acted". Corenswet then appeared in several guest-star roles, including in House of Cards, Elementary, and Instinct.

Rising profile
In Netflix's The Politician (2019–2020), he portrayed River Barkley, the lover and high-school political rival of Payton Hobart (Ben Platt). Vanity Fair described River as a "wealthy, sporty, straight-A student". Corenswet next starred as Jack Castello in Hollywood (2020), a Netflix limited series about the post-World War II film business in Los Angeles. The project reunited him with Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan, the creators of The Politician. Corenswet was also an executive producer on the series. Men's Health magazine praised Corenswet's performance as that of a "breakout lead". IndieWire called it "another star-proving turn from David Corenswet."

In We Own This City (2022), a fact-based HBO limited series from The Wire's writers and executive producers David Simon and George Pelecanos, Corenswet co-starred as the veteran police investigator David McDougall, whose work in 2016 helped uncover years of corruption in the Gun Trace Task Force of the Baltimore police department. Also in 2022, Corenswet co-starred as Jake in Look Both Ways, a Netflix original romantic comedy-drama film. Then in Pearl, a 2022 feature film released in theaters by A24 and directed by Ti West, Corenswet co-starred as The Projectionist.

In 2024, along with Lucy Boynton, Justin H. Min, and Austin Crute, Corenswet co-stars in The Greatest Hits, a film for Searchlight Pictures written, directed, and produced by Ned Benson. Described as a “musical time travel romance,” the film premiered at the 2024 SXSW Film & TV Festival in Austin, Texas, March 8-16. It had a limited theater release on April 5, and began streaming April 12 (on Hulu in the US, Star+ in Latin America, and Disney+ in the rest of the world). Also in 2024, Corenswet portrays Scott, a member of a team of tornado wranglers, in Twisters, a feature film slated for wide release in theaters July 19, by Universal Pictures in the United States and by Warner Bros. Pictures internationally.

Upcoming roles
Corenswet joins Natalie Portman, Moses Ingram, Mikey Madison, and Dylan Arnold in the forthcoming Apple TV+ series Lady in the Lake, directed by Alma Har'el. The series is set to premiere on July 19, 2024. Corenswet plays the male lead in a pilot from 20th Television, filmed in January 2023: The Answers, FX's adaptation of Catherine Lacey's novel of same name. His character, Christopher Skye, is a charismatic but troubled movie star involved in an enigmatic, futuristic dating experiment. In June 2023, Corenswet was cast as Clark Kent/Superman in the upcoming DC Studios film Superman from director James Gunn; it is set to be the first live action film in the DC Universe (DCU). Filming started on February 29, 2024, and it is scheduled to be released in theaters on July 11, 2025.