Background and career
David Krumholtz (born May 15, 1978) is an American actor. He is best known for portraying Bernard in The Santa Clause franchise (1994–2022), Michael Eckman in 10 Things I Hate About You (1999), Goldstein in the Harold & Kumar film trilogy (2004–2011), Charlie Eppes in the CBS drama series Numb3rs (2005–2010) and Isidor Isaac Rabi in Oppenheimer (2023). Krumholtz has also had other supporting roles in notable films such as Addams Family Values (1993), The Ice Storm (1997), Slums of Beverly Hills (1998), Ray (2004), Serenity (2005), Superbad (2007), Hail, Caesar! (2016), Sausage Party (2016), Wonder Wheel (2017), and The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018). He also portrayed Harvey Wasserman in the HBO drama series The Deuce (2017–2019) and Monty Levin in the HBO miniseries The Plot Against America (2020). Krumholtz made his Broadway debut in the 1992 play Conversations with My Father. He returned to Broadway playing Hermann Merz in Tom Stoppard's semi-biographical Holocaust play Leopoldstadt (2022), for which he received a Drama League Award nomination. In August 2026, Krumholtz announced he was taking a hiatus from acting, which subsequently ended in October.
Krumholtz was born in New York City and grew up in Forest Hills, Queens. He is the son of Michael, a postal worker, and Judy Krumholtz, a dental assistant. He grew up in a "very working class, almost poor" Jewish family. His paternal grandparents had emigrated from Poland, and his mother moved from Hungary to the U.S. in 1956 during the Hungarian Revolution. He attended P.S. 196, Stephen A. Halsey Junior High School 157, and briefly attended Forest Hills High School.
At the age of 13, Krumholtz followed his friends to an open audition for the Broadway play Conversations with My Father (1992). When he tried out, he won the role of Young Charlie, with Judd Hirsch, Tony Shalhoub and Jason Biggs, who was also making his Broadway debut. Soon after his run on Broadway, Krumholtz co-starred in two feature films, Life With Mikey (1993) with Michael J. Fox and Addams Family Values (1993) with Christina Ricci. For his role in Mikey, Krumholtz was nominated for a 1993 Young Artist Award. Although his work in these two films garnered him critical attention, Krumholtz is probably best known by children as the sarcastic head elf Bernard from The Santa Clause (1994) and its first sequel, The Santa Clause 2 (2002). While he did not appear in The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause (2006) due to a scheduling conflict and his belief that the character was devalued, he reprised the role two decades later in the Disney+ series The Santa Clauses (2022). In 1994, Krumholtz co-starred in his first television series, Monty, with Henry Winkler; the show lasted only a few episodes. Krumholtz later starred in several short-lived series over the years. Along the way, he had the opportunity to work with Jason Bateman (Chicago Sons, 1997), Tom Selleck (The Closer, 1998), Jon Cryer (The Trouble with Normal, 2000), and Rob Lowe (The Lyon's Den, 2003). In 2005, he finally found television success with the CBS series Numb3rs. Along with his starring roles on television, Krumholtz made guest appearances on ER as schizophrenic patient Paul Sobriki, as well as on Law & Order, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Lucky, Freaks and Geeks, and Undeclared.
He broke out of the children's movie genre with The Ice Storm (1997), directed by Ang Lee, and Slums of Beverly Hills (1998), starring Alan Arkin and Natasha Lyonne. In 1999, Krumholtz starred as Michael Eckman in the popular teen movie 10 Things I Hate About You with Larisa Oleynik, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Julia Stiles, and Heath Ledger. That same year, he portrayed a completely different teen character – that of Yussel, a young conflicted Jewish man in Liberty Heights (1999).
It was the role of Yussel that brought Krumholtz to the attention of actor and filmmaker Edward Burns, who cast him in the independent film Sidewalks of New York (2001). Krumholtz's first role as a leading man was in the romantic comedy You Stupid Man (2002), opposite Milla Jovovich. Although never released theatrically in the United States, You Stupid Man, directed by Edward Burns's brother Brian Burns, was released on DVD (2006). Krumholtz carried another leading role in Big Shot: Confessions of a Campus Bookie (2002), which premiered on FX Networks. Big Shot was a true story based on the Arizona State University basketball fixing scandal in 1994. Krumholtz played Benny Silman, a college student and campus bookmaker, who was jailed for his part in shaving points off key Arizona State basketball games. Benny was unlike any character Krumholtz had played before; and he garnered critical praise for his performance, proving that he was not just a sidekick.
In 2005, Krumholtz played Max in My Suicidal Sweetheart (formerly Max and Grace), once again starring opposite actress Natasha Lyonne. Krumholtz also returned to smaller roles in the successful films Ray (2004) and Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle (2004), along with its two sequels. In September 2005, he was seen in Joss Whedon's science fiction film Serenity as "Mr. Universe", a hacker and information broker. In early 2006, Krumholtz's 2003 film Kill the Poor screened in New York City at IFC Center and across the country on Comcast's On Demand cable service. From 2005 to 2010, Krumholtz starred on the CBS television show Numb3rs, portraying Charlie Eppes, a genius who used mathematics to help his FBI agent brother Don (Rob Morrow) solve crimes. The cast of Numbers also included Judd Hirsch and Peter MacNicol, who appeared with Krumholtz in Addams Family Values as a camp counselor. Critic Matt Roush (TV Guide) called Krumholtz's work on Numbers "probably his best TV work to date". Numbers was cancelled by CBS on May 18, 2010. He starred in the 2010 TV film/series pilot Tax Man on Fox but was not picked up to series. He starred in The Playboy Club on NBC in 2011, but the show was cancelled after three episodes.
