Who is Penn Badgley? Everything you need to know about the star of Netflix show You

The fifth and last season of the psychological thriller about a charming young man and his malevolent relationships with women is released on Friday

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The new series of You begins streaming on Friday and Penn Badgley is set to be the centre of attention this weekend.

Away from his eagerly awaited return to the role of Joe Goldberg, the 38-year-old has been making headlines with his podcast, and for his relationship with US singer Domino Kirke.

Here is all we know about You and Gossip Girl star Badgley as he returns in the show being streamed by Netflix, Amazon and Apple TV+.

What are his biggest roles?

Badgley began acting at the age of 12 but it wasn't until he was 21 years old that he made his TV debut as Dan Humphrey in Gossip Girl, shown by US broadcaster CW.

It was reported that Badgley repeatedly declined the part because he was frustrated at being typecast.

In an interview with Capital FM, he said: “I just didn't want to do it. I was pretty certain I didn't want to do any more television. It just wasn't an interesting role to me, which even the creators of the show recognised when they propositioned it.

They said: 'You might feel like you've already done this, but please take a look at it.' And I did take a look at it and I respectfully declined. I said: 'Thank you for thinking of me'. And then I came back like a month later and had a somewhat of an impassioned plea, and I’m indebted to their persistence.”

Apart from Gossip Girl, Badgley is well known for his role as Joe Goldberg in the Netflix psychological thriller series You.

Critics have praised his portrayal. IGN wrote that Badgley was “doing some of his best, most unhinged work in the series” and referred to it as his best performance.

His other notable appearances include playing Emma Stone's character's love interest, Todd, in the critically and commercially successful 2010 teen comedy Easy A, for which he was nominated for a Teen Choice Award.

While he’s not acting Badgley hosts Podcrushed, a hit podcast “exploring the heartbreak, anxiety and self-discovery of being a teenager”.

Along with co-hosts Nava Kavelin and Sophie Ansari he has interviewed celebrities including Ariana Grande and Jenna Ortega as well as Leighton Meester and Jameela Jamil.

Is he married and does he have children?

Badgley has been married to 41-year-old singer Domino Kirke since 2017. The two met in 2014 at a meatball shop and exchanged phone numbers.

Badgley has often talked about his wife, describing her as a “truly radiant soul” in a previous online tribute.

The pair have a four-year-old boy named James. In March, the couple revealed they were expecting twins. Additionally, Badgley is the stepfather to Cassius Riley, Kirke's 16-year-old son.

When did he date Blake Lively and when did they break up?

Badgley and Lively broke up before filming for Gossip Girl ended

Rex

Badgley said that he struggled to keep his real life apart from that of his character, Dan Humphrey, whose love interest was Lively’s character, Serena van der Woodsen, during his appearance on Alex Cooper’s Call Her Daddy on April 23.

Cooper asked: “You’re in your early 20s, and I feel like a lot of the character that you were being, you kind of had parallels. You were, like, living in New York City. You were dating Blake Lively; you were dating Serena on the show.

“Did you feel like you were able to separate your actual job from your reality and actually able to grow in your 20s or did it all feel like it was kind of merged?”

Badgley acknowledged it was difficult, saying: “When you do a television show, you’re doing it constantly [trying to separate your on-screen and offscreen lives]. What starts to happen when you’re in this one role for a long time, the aspect of celebrity being a huge part of it, there is not enough separation for anybody.”

While Dan and Serena made it down the aisle on Gossip Girl, Badgley and Lively called it quits long before the 2012 series finale.

The reason for their breakup has not been revealed but it sounds like the pair ended their relationship on good terms.

Executive producer Joshua Safran spoke to Vanity Fair in August 2017 about the breakup: “I found out on the set of the season two finale that Blake and Penn had broken up months before.

“They kept the breakup hidden from the crew, which you could never do now. I don’t even know how they did it. They kept it from everybody which is a testament to how good they are as actors. Because they did not want their personal drama to relate to the show.”

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