James Wolk is the guy you’ve seen in everything, but never really knew his name. To get your whistle wet, you’ll want to see him as Jordan Evans in the Paramount+ series Tell Me a Story (2018), where he tells us a story about his glute workout when he ditches his clothes to hop in the shower. We see his bare buns and his expertly crafted six-pack, and a lot of very fancy camera angles and precisely twisted body—because, really, Mr. Man could swear he saw a peek of something more than bare ass, or he came really, really, thisclose to seeing it. Such a tease! Once you have that project mastered, you’ll appreciate this Farmington Hills, Michigan, native in one of his many other popular projects. His first big break came when he was cast as lead character Brad Cohen in the Hallmark Hall of Fame movie Front of the Class (2008). His big-screen ventures tend to be more indie in nature, like The Stanford Prison Experiment (2015) with Ezra Miller and Billy Crudup, but his TV work is totally on point, with several big roles. He grabbed a recurring part as Bob Allen on Lone Star in 2010, one as Adam in Shameless in 2012, and the part of Douglas Hammond in the mini-series Political Animals (2012). James got himself a starring role as Zach Cropper in The Crazy Ones from 2013-2014, and simultaneously played Bob Benson in the hit Mad Men, showing off how cute he looks in retro business suits. There was the long-term role of Jackson Oz in Zoo from 2015-2017, a primetime hit for CBS; the part of Jeff Clayton on Amazon’s Goliath in 2018; Joe Keene on the HBO Watchmen mini-series (2019); and Joe Kimbreau in NBC’s Ordinary Joe from 2021-2022. He’s no ordinary James (bet you remember his name now!).
