Corey Stoll Bio
Corey Daniel Stoll (born March 14, 1976) is an American actor known for his work on stage and screen. He first gained widespread recognition for his television roles, including Congressman Peter Russo in the Netflix political drama House of Cards and Dr. Ephraim Goodweather on the FX horror series The Strain. Since 2020 he has portrayed Michael Prince in the Showtime drama Billions, and in film he is widely recognized for playing Darren Cross, also known as Yellowjacket, in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. A graduate of New York University’s Graduate Acting Program, Stoll has built a versatile career that spans Broadway, off-Broadway, independent cinema, and major studio productions.
Early Life and Background
Corey Daniel Stoll was born on March 14, 1976, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. He is the son of Judith Stoll and Stephen Stoll, the latter of whom co-founded The Beacon School, a well-known New York City public secondary school. Stoll was raised Jewish and grew up immersed in the cultural life of Manhattan, where his exposure to the arts began at an early age.
As a young performer, Stoll studied drama at Long Lake Camp for the Arts from 1988 to 1992, where he developed his foundational skills in acting. He went on to attend Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music and Art and Performing Arts, one of the most respected performing arts schools in the United States. After high school, he enrolled at Oberlin College in Ohio, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1998. These formative years helped shape the disciplined, stage-focused approach that has defined his career.
Path to Acting
Following his undergraduate studies, Stoll pursued advanced training at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, one of the country’s premier graduate acting programs. He completed the Graduate Acting Program in 2003, gaining the rigorous classical training that would soon open doors on both coasts. His professional career began in 2001, while he was still completing his graduate studies, and he made his Broadway debut that same year as part of the ensemble in a revival of William Shakespeare’s Henry IV at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre.
Stoll’s early career was rooted primarily in theater. In 2004, he earned a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play for his performance in the off-Broadway production of Intimate Apparel, acting opposite Viola Davis. He continued to build his stage résumé with Broadway appearances in productions such as the revival of Old Acquaintance in 2007 and Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge in 2010, in which he starred alongside Liev Schreiber and Scarlett Johansson. These stage credits established Stoll as a respected theatrical actor before his transition to broader film and television work.
Corey Stoll Career
Early Career (2001–2010)
During the early 2000s, Stoll steadily built a résumé of small but meaningful roles in film and television. He appeared in movies such as North Country (2005), Lucky Number Slevin (2006), Brief Interviews with Hideous Men (2009), and Push (2009), while also taking on television work, including the 2006 film A Girl Like Me: The Gwen Araujo Story. In 2010, he appeared in the drama Helena from the Wedding and the action thriller Salt, gradually expanding his presence in Hollywood.
He also gained experience on the small screen with a regular role on the NBC police drama Law & Order: LA, where he played LAPD Detective Tomas Jaruszalski from 2010 to 2011. These early projects laid the groundwork for the breakout roles that would soon follow, and his theater background continued to inform his grounded, character-driven screen performances.
Breakthrough (2011–2015)
Stoll’s breakthrough came in 2011 when he portrayed Ernest Hemingway in Woody Allen’s romantic comedy Midnight in Paris. The performance earned him widespread critical praise and a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male. The role marked a turning point in his career, signaling his ability to bring historical figures to life with both charm and intensity.
In 2013, he joined the cast of the Netflix political drama House of Cards as Congressman Peter Russo, a role for which he received a Golden Globe Award nomination. He also took on a leading role as Dr. Ephraim Goodweather on the FX horror series The Strain, which ran from 2014 to 2017 and was co-created by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan. In 2014, he appeared in the action film Non-Stop and the comedy-drama This Is Where I Leave You, and in 2015 he played Ben Day in Dark Places, based on the novel by Gillian Flynn.
That same year, Stoll was cast as the villain Darren Cross, also known as Yellowjacket, in the Marvel Cinematic Universe superhero film Ant-Man. The role introduced him to a global audience and cemented his status as a versatile character actor capable of handling blockbuster-scale productions. He later returned to the role in the 2023 sequel Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
Notable Works and Milestones
Beyond his Marvel work, Stoll has appeared in a string of notable films, including Black Mass (2015) alongside Johnny Depp, Café Society (2016) with Woody Allen, First Man (2018) with Ryan Gosling, The Seagull (2018), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), and Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story (2021). On television, he joined the cast of the Ryan Murphy Netflix series Ratched in 2019 and, beginning in 2020, took on the role of Michael Prince, a powerful business rival, in the Showtime series Billions. In 2023, he returned to Broadway in the Branden Jacobs-Jenkins play Appropriate, acting opposite Sarah Paulson, and earned a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actor in a Play.
Corey Stoll Award Nominations
Throughout his career, Corey Daniel Stoll has been recognized by major awards bodies for both his stage and screen performances. His Golden Globe nomination for House of Cards and his Independent Spirit Award nomination for Midnight in Paris marked him as a serious dramatic talent, while his Drama Desk Award nomination for Intimate Apparel and his Tony Award nomination for Appropriate reflected his continued excellence in theater. These nominations span independent film, prestige television, Broadway, and off-Broadway productions, underscoring the range and consistency of his work.
Corey Stoll Awards Won
Based on the verified information available, Corey Daniel Stoll has not yet won a major individual acting award at the levels of the Golden Globes, the Tony Awards, the Independent Spirit Awards, or the Drama Desk Awards, though he has earned notable nominations across all of these honors. His career, marked by strong critical reception and consistent collaboration with major filmmakers, continues to build toward future recognition.
Corey Stoll Family
Corey Daniel Stoll was born to Judith Stoll and Stephen Stoll, and grew up in a family with deep ties to New York City’s educational and cultural institutions. His father, Stephen Stoll, co-founded The Beacon School, a selective New York City public high school on the Upper West Side. Stoll has spoken about how his parents supported his early interest in acting, including his enrollment at Long Lake Camp for the Arts as a young teenager.
Personal Life
Stoll became engaged to actress Nadia Bowers in October 2014, and the couple married on June 21, 2015. They welcomed their first child in October 2015. Stoll and Bowers have largely kept their family life private, with the actor occasionally referencing his New York roots and his continued commitment to both stage and screen work. He resides in the United States and continues to balance major film and television projects with selective returns to the theater.