Chris Messina can most recently be seen starring in Lee Kirk’s directorial debut, The Giant Mechanical Man, opposite Jenna Fischer, who also produced the film. He also co-wrote and starred in the upcoming Fairhaven, opposite Sarah Paulson. Both films premiered at the 2012 Tribeca Film Fesival to rave reviews.
Messina can currently be seen onscreen in Aaron Sorkin’s The Newsroom which premiered June 24th on HBO, opposite Jeff Daniels; and Damages premiering July 20th on Direct TV, opposite Glenn Close and Rose Byrne. He also recently wrapped production on The Mindy Project.
On the silver screen, he can be found in the comedy Celeste and Jesse Forever, opposite Rashida Jones, Elijah Wood and Emma Roberts; and the thriller Argo, opposite director Ben Affleck, Bryan Cranston, and John Goodman out October 12th.
Messina previously starred opposite Amy Adams and Academy Award winner Meryl Streep in Nora Ephron’s Julie & Julia. The film won several awards including the 2010 Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical. The native New Yorker also appeared in Sam Mendes’ Away We Go, and was directed by his fellow Away We Go actor John Krasinski in the independent feature Brief Interviews With Hideous Men. Mr. Messina’s other films include Greenberg, where he starred opposite Ben Stiller, Greta Gerwig and Jennifer Jason Leigh; Woody Allen’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona, with Rebecca Hall, Scarlett Johansson, and Academy Award winners Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz; Robert Cary’s award-winning Ira and Abby, as one-half of the titular duo, opposite screenwriter Jennifer Westfeldt; Paul Weiland’s Made of Honor, opposite Patrick Dempsey and Michelle Monaghan; Darren Grodsky and Danny Jacobs’ Humboldt County; J.J. Abrams’ telefilm Anatomy of Hope; Alan Ball’s critically acclaimed Towelhead; M. Night Shyamalan’s Devil; Dana Adam Shapiro’s Monogamy, opposite Rashida Jones; and Marilyn Agrelo’s An Invisible Sign.
Mr. Messina also worked with Alan Ball in a guest-starring arc on the acclaimed series Six Feet Under.
Among his many stage appearances are ones in Caryl Churchill’s Far Away, opposite Frances McDormand for director Stephen Daldry at the New York Theatre Workshop; Oscar Wilde’s Salome opposite Al Pacino and Marisa Tomei, in Estelle Parsons’ Broadway production; Adam Rapp’s Faster; This Thing of Darkness, for Craig Lucas at the Atlantic Theatre Company, Melanie Marnich’s Blur, at Manhattan Theatre Club; Jessica Goldberg’s Good Thing directed by Jo Bonney, at The New Group; and Frank Pugliese’s Late Night, Early Morning, which premiered at the 2004 Tribeca Theatre Festival and won the Jury Award for Best Theater at the 2005 Aspen Comedy Festival.
