Background and career
Jonathan Edward Bernthal (; born September 20, 1976) is an American actor. Known for playing brash, hard-edged, ethically complex characters, he first achieved prominence for his portrayal of Shane Walsh on the AMC horror drama series The Walking Dead (2010–2012). He went on to portray Frank Castle / The Punisher in Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) media beginning with the second season of Daredevil (2016), before starring in his own spin-off series The Punisher (2017–2019). He later starred in the first season of the revival series Daredevil: Born Again (2025), the Disney+ television special The Punisher: One Last Kill (2026) which he co-wrote, and the film Spider-Man: Brand New Day (2026). Bernthal has starred in multiple films including World Trade Center (2006), Day Zero (2007), Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (2009), The Ghost Writer (2010), The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), Fury (2014), Sicario (2015), The Accountant (2016), Baby Driver (2017), Ford v Ferrari (2019), King Richard (2021), Origin (2023), The Accountant 2 (2025), and The Odyssey (2026). He has also had prominent roles in several television series including the HBO miniseries We Own This City (2022) as Wayne Jenkins and Hulu's The Bear (2022–2026) as Michael Berzatto, the latter winning him a Primetime Emmy Award. He made his Broadway debut from March to July 2026 starring in Dog Day Afternoon.
Jonathan Edward Bernthal was born in Washington, D.C. on September 20, 1976, to a Jewish family. He is a son of Joan Lurie (née Marx) and Eric Lawrence "Rick" Bernthal, a former lawyer with Latham & Watkins LLP and chair of the board of directors for The Humane Society of the United States until 2019. His paternal grandfather was musician and producer Murray Bernthal. He has two brothers: Nicholas, an orthopedic surgeon and professor at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and Thomas, a consulting agency CEO who is married to former Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg. The three are cousins of rock musician Adam Schlesinger, who died in April 2020. Jon Bernthal grew up in Cabin John, Maryland. He attended the Sidwell Friends School in Washington D.C. graduating in 1995. He has often described his younger self as being a "troublemaker." After high school, he studied at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York, but dropped out. On the advice of his acting teacher, Alma Becker, he joined the Moscow Art Theatre School in Moscow. While there, he was a catcher for a Russian professional baseball team.
Bernthal was discovered while at the Moscow Art Theatre by the executive director of Harvard University's Institute for Advanced Theater Training at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts; he studied there as a graduate-level certificate student and completed his studies in 2002. After graduating, he moved to New York City to pursue a career in theater. He mentioned not being a fully method actor. Since 2002, Bernthal has performed in over thirty plays regionally and off-Broadway, including many with his own theater company, the now defunct Fovea Floods. He also had small guest roles in multiple television series, such as Boston Legal, CSI: Miami and How I Met Your Mother (S01E02). He was cast in the 2004 movie of Tony 'n' Tina's Wedding. Bernthal moved to Los Angeles in 2006. He booked his first regular role on a television series with the CBS sitcom The Class; the show was canceled after one season. He had roles in films including Day Zero and World Trade Center.
In 2009, Bernthal was a series regular on the ABC television series Eastwick, and starred alongside actress Jaime Ray Newman (his future co-star in The Punisher). Eastwick was canceled after one season. In 2010, Bernthal portrayed Sgt. Manuel Rodriguez on the HBO miniseries The Pacific. Bernthal found critical success portraying Shane Walsh in Frank Darabont's The Walking Dead, based on the comic book series of the same name. He was a regular on the show until 2012 and was nominated for the Breakout Performance – Male Award at the 2011 Scream Awards. Bernthal reunited with Darabont for the TNT series Mob City, in which he played LAPD Detective Joe Teague, a police officer working in a corrupt 1940s Los Angeles, which was cancelled after one season. During this period, Bernthal had supporting roles in the 2009 fantasy film Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian as mobster Al Capone and Roman Polanski's thriller film The Ghost Writer. He also appeared in the 2011 Woody Harrelson feature Rampart. He guest starred in episodes of television shows such as Numbers and Harry's Law. In 2011, Bernthal performed in the premiere of the dark comedy play Small Engine Repair. The play was critically acclaimed; critics praised Bernthal's performance for his "energy and wit" and he was nominated for an Ovation Award. After its world premiere run Small Engine Repair was transferred Off-Broadway by MCC Theater with Bernthal signing on to reprise his role. However, filming commitments made Bernthal withdraw from the play and he was replaced by James Badge Dale.
In 2013, Bernthal had supporting roles in the crime drama film Snitch, and the sports comedy film Grudge Match. Bernthal played Brad in the Martin Scorsese film The Wolf of Wall Street. He played southerner Grady "Coon-Ass" Travis in the 2014 World War II film Fury, with critics praising the cast of the film. In 2014, Bernthal took part in filming the movie Viena and the Fantomes, opposite Dakota Fanning and Evan Rachel Wood; the film was only released in 2020. Bernthal next appeared in Denis Villeneuve's 2015 action drama film Sicario, which won numerous awards and received positive reviews from critics. 2015 also saw Bernthal in supporting roles in Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, winner of the US Grand Jury Prize for drama at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, and We Are Your Friends. During this time, Bernthal portrayed NAACP attorney Michael H. Sussman in the HBO miniseries Show Me a Hero. He also, alongside actor Viggo Mortensen, executive produced the play The Time of Our Lies – The Life and Times of Howard Zinn, directed by frequent theater collaborator Josh Chambers. The Time of Our Lies was performed through the month of August 2014 at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
In June 2015, Marvel announced that Bernthal would play Frank Castle / The Punisher in season two of Netflix's superhero series Daredevil, which was released on March 18, 2016. Although he initially hesitated to join a superhero franchise, Bernthal decided to take the role after admiring the performances of actors Charlie Cox (Matt Murdock / Daredevil) and Vincent D'Onofrio (Wilson Fisk / Kingpin) in the previous season of Daredevil. Critics commended Bernthal's performance as The Punisher, with IGN calling it "an absolutely stellar, gutting performance." Comic book writer and the Punisher's co-creator Gerry Conway called Bernthal's performance a favorite on-screen portrayal of the character and said, "Jon Bernthal gives The Punisher the kind of pathos that's underneath the tough guy and I really like that." Despite not initially being ordered by Netflix, the network spun-off the character's self-titled series The Punisher, released on November 17, 2017. His portrayal of the title character in season one was commended as a "truly remarkable and intense performance" for its emotional depth and "possibly the best grizzly antihero performance among all of Marvel's Netflix series to date." Bernthal likes to perform his own stunts on the show. On December 12, 2017, it was announced that the show had been renewed for season two by Netflix, which was released on January 18, 2019. A month after the season aired, the show was canceled. In 2016, Bernthal co-starred with Ben Affleck in the action-thriller The Accountant as Brax. That same year, he was interviewed for the documentary Can't Be Stopped about an American graffiti crew of the same name. In 2017, he co-starred in Taylor Sheridan's directorial debut film Wind River, which premiered at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. He also appeared in significant roles in Edgar Wright's Baby Driver as Griff and prison drama Shot Caller. In the Irish action thriller film Pilgrimage, Bernthal played The Mute. Due to the actor's preference to stay in character on film sets, he chose not to speak to the cast or crew for the first few weeks of production. Bernthal was praised for his acting, with The Hollywood Reporter remarking that Bernthal "steals the film with his intense, nearly wordless performance... with his buff physicality and commanding presence filling the screen."
