The Handmaid’s Tale

Bradley Whitford, a classically trained stage actor, who quickly gained overnight fame as the sarcastic yet vulnerable, Josh Lyman, on NBC’s “The West Wing.” One of the few actors working successfully and simultaneously in theater, film and television, Whitford is one of Hollywood’s most sought-after talents. In 2019, he was awarded the Primetime Emmy Award for his work as Commander Lawrence, the architect of Gilead’s economy, in the third season of Hulu’s Emmy-winning series, “The Handmaid’s Tale,” in which he has since been nominated for two additional Primetime Emmy awards for the same role.

Whitford will soon return as Commander Lawrence in the fifth season of Hulu’s critically acclaimed series, “The Handmaid’s Tale.” He will also next be seen in the upcoming film, Rosaline, directed by Karen Maine. The film is a comedic retelling of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, told from the point of view of Romeo’s jilted ex, Rosaline, the woman Romeo first claims to love before he falls in love with Juliet. Bradley has also been cast in Audible’s seven-part audio drama series, “The Big Lie,” alongside Jon Hamm, Kate Mara, and Giancarlo Esposito.

In 2021, Whitford starred opposite Andrew Garfield in the Oscar-nominated film, tick, tick… BOOM! The Lin-Manuel Miranda directed Netflix project is based on the autobiographical musical by playwright Jonathan Larson. Bradley also served as an executive producer on the documentary, Not Going Quietly, which follows the story of Ady Barkan, who was diagnosed with ALS at the age of 32 and, fearing rising health care costs in light of the proposed 2018 tax reform, heads for Washington as part of a group voicing its concerns. In 2020, Bradley starred in multiple films including Greg Barker’s Netflix drama Sergio; IFC’s drama, Three Christs with Richard Gere, Peter Dinklage and Julianna Margulies; Todd Robinson’s political drama, The Last Full Measure, alongside Samuel L. Jackson, Sebastian Stan, Christopher Plummer and William Hurt; and the live-action CGI-animated adventure film based on the novel of the same name, Call of the Wild.

Recent film credits include Adam Mason’s, Songbird; Brie Larson’s The Unicorn Store, which stars Larson along with Samuel L. Jackson and Joan Cusack; Godzilla: King of the Monsters, alongside Vera Farmiga, Kyle Chandler, Sally Hawkins and Millie Bobby Brown; Phil, which was directed by Greg Kinnear; the crime drama Destroyer, alongside Sebastian Stan and Nicole Kidman; the sci-fi thriller The Darkest Minds, which is based on Alexandra Bracken’s popular young adult novel of the same time; Judy Greer’s directorial debut, A Happening of Monumental Proportions, which featured an all-star ensemble including Jennifer Garner, Allison Janney, Common, and Anders Holm; Steven Spielberg’s Academy Award-nominated drama, The Post with Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks; the critically-acclaimed Blumhouse horror-thriller, Get Out; Megan Leaveyopposite Kate Mara and Edie Falco; the independent film, Other People, written and directed by SNL writer, Chris Kelly which won the Grand Jury prize at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival; HBO’s Lyndon B. Johnson biopic, All The Way, opposite Bryan Cranston, which received multiple Emmy nominations; Sony Pictures Classics’ Hank Williams biopic, I Saw The Light, Disney’s Saving Mr. Banks, The Cabin in the Woods, the gritty true-crime drama An American Crime, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Little Manhattan, Kate & Leopold, The Muse, Bicentennial Man, Scent of a Woman, A Perfect World, Philadelphia, The Client, My Life, Red Corner, Presumed Innocent and My Fellow Americans.

On the small screen, Whitford also starred in NBC’s “Perfect Harmony,” a comedy about a small-town church choir that is out of tune in more ways than one. Bradley plays a salty, Ivy League music professor who reluctantly agrees to direct the choir after stumbling upon them and stars alongside Anna Camp, Spencer Allport, Will Greenberg, Tymberlee Hill, Rizwan Manji, and Geno Segers. He also starred in National Geographic’s docudrama “Valley of the Boom,” created by Matthew Carnahan and produced by Arianna Huffington, where he plays Netscape CEO James Barksdale; the POP TV series, “Flack,” a drama about the cutthroat world of celebrity PR; and Amazon’s award-winning comedy series, “Transparent,” for which he won both a 2015 Primetime Emmy Award for “Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series” (and was nominated in that same category again in 2016) and a Television Critics’ Choice Award for “Best Guest Performer in a Comedy Series.” Additional television credits include “Years of Living Dangerously,” “Chicago Justice,” “Mom,” “Better Things,” “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” “Happyish,” “Trophy Wife,” “The Good Guys,” “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip,” “The West Wing,” “ER,” “The X-Files” and “NYPD Blue.” His performance as Josh Lyman on “The West Wing” earned him a 2001 Emmy Award as well as Golden Globe Award nominations in 2001 and 2002.

Growing up in Wisconsin, Whitford studied theater and English literature at Wesleyan University and attended the Juilliard Theater Center. Whitford received rave reviews for his return to the stage in the production of Boeing, Boeing at the Longacre Theatre opposite Mark Rylance, Christine Baranski, Kathryn Hahn, Gina Gershon, and Mary McCormack. Whitford appeared on Broadway in Aaron Sorkin’s military courtroom drama, A Few Good Men. He made his Theatre Club professional performance debut in Measure for Measure at Lincoln Center Theater and held the title role in Coriolanus at the Folger Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, D.C. Whitford also starred in the off-Broadway production of Curse of the Starving Classopposite Kathy Bates and performed in Three Days of Rain at the Manhattan. Bradley will next star in an off-Broadway rendition of A Christmas Carol, portraying the notable role of Ebenezer Scrooge.