Ron Livingston Bio
Ronald Joseph Livingston (born June 5, 1967) is an American actor whose career spans film, television, and stage work over more than three decades. He is widely recognized for his leading role as Peter Gibbons in the cult comedy Office Space (1999) and for his portrayal of Captain Lewis Nixon III in the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers (2001). Beyond those signature parts, Livingston has built a steady on-screen presence through character roles in acclaimed projects including Swingers (1996), Adaptation (2002), The Conjuring (2013), James White (2015), and Tully (2018), as well as the series Boardwalk Empire (2013), Loudermilk (2017–2020), and A Million Little Things (2018–2023).
Born and raised in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Livingston trained at Yale University before beginning his professional life in regional theater. He later moved into film and television work, where he has alternated between leading parts in independent dramas and supporting turns in major studio productions. He has been married to actress Rosemarie DeWitt since 2009, and the couple have two daughters.
Early Life and Background
Livingston was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to Kurt Livingston, an aerospace electronics engineer, and Linda Rinas, a Lutheran pastor. He grew up alongside two brothers and one sister in a household shaped by engineering, faith, and public service. His younger brother, John Livingston, is also an actor, and his sister, Jennifer Livingston, along with her husband Mike Thompson, worked as television news personalities at WKBT-DT in La Crosse, Wisconsin.
The Cedar Rapids community gave Livingston his first formal exposure to performance. While still a student, he took part in a job shadowing experience that introduced him to Theatre Cedar Rapids, where he began acting on stage. These early theater outings helped him discover a serious interest in performance and pointed him toward continued study after high school.
Livingston went on to attend Yale University, where he graduated in 1989 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Theatre Studies and English Literature. At Yale he sang with The Whiffenpoofs, the university’s storied a cappella group, in the same class as journalist Anderson Cooper. The combination of formal theatrical training and a strong liberal arts grounding shaped his approach to character work in the years that followed.
Path to Acting
After completing his studies at Yale, Livingston continued his stage work at Theatre Cedar Rapids, returning to the company that had first introduced him to acting. He then relocated to Chicago, where he became active in the local theater scene and built the practical foundation that would support his move into screen work.
His first film role came in 1992 with Dolly Parton’s Straight Talk, followed by supporting parts in Some Folks Call It a Sling Blade and The Low Life after he moved to Los Angeles. In 1996, Livingston was cast in Swingers, a project that marked his first major screen role and helped introduce his dry, understated style to a wider audience.
The years immediately after Swingers included a series of smaller film and television jobs that allowed him to develop range before his breakout turn. These early experiences helped him transition from regional theater and ensemble work into the larger film and television industry, setting up the leading roles that would define his career in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Ron Livingston Career
Early Career (1992–1998)
Livingston’s screen career began in 1992 with a part in Straight Talk, after which he moved from Chicago to Los Angeles to pursue film and television work. He took supporting roles in Some Folks Call It a Sling Blade and The Low Life, building credits and on-set experience during the mid-1990s.
His first major role arrived with Swingers in 1996, a film that connected him with a circle of young actors and filmmakers who would shape American independent cinema in the years to come. The attention that followed Swingers helped position him for the leading-man opportunity that arrived three years later.
Breakthrough (1999–2005)
In 1999, Livingston took on the role of Peter Gibbons, the disaffected office worker at the center of Mike Judge’s comedy Office Space, co-starring Jennifer Aniston. The film underperformed in theaters but grew into a cult favorite, and Livingston’s weary, deadpan performance became one of his most recognizable screen appearances.
In 2001, he joined the cast of the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers as Captain Lewis Nixon III, acting opposite Donnie Wahlberg and Damian Lewis in a story that followed an Army parachute unit through World War II. The project brought him wider critical attention and established his ability to anchor serious, ensemble-driven drama.
He continued to broaden his range in the years that followed, playing a Hollywood agent in Adaptation (2002), an Ivy League upstart opposite Alec Baldwin in The Cooler (2003), and teachers in Winter Solstice and Pretty Persuasion, both released in 2005. He also played the sardonic writer Jack Berger, a short-term boyfriend of Carrie Bradshaw, during the fifth and sixth seasons of Sex and the City, and guest starred in the House episode “TB or Not TB.”
Notable Works and Milestones
Among Livingston’s most notable works are his lead performance in Office Space, his turn as Captain Lewis Nixon III in Band of Brothers, his supporting role in the horror hit The Conjuring, and his starring role as recovering alcoholic Sam Loudermilk in the Audience Network series Loudermilk. He also appeared in major studio productions including The Time Traveler’s Wife, Dinner for Schmucks, and The Flash, in which he played Henry Allen in 2023.
Ron Livingston Family
Livingston is the son of Kurt Livingston, an aerospace electronics engineer, and Linda Rinas, a Lutheran pastor. His younger brother, John Livingston, is also an actor, while his sister, Jennifer Livingston, and her husband, Mike Thompson, worked as television news personalities at WKBT-DT in La Crosse, Wisconsin.
Personal Life
Livingston met actress Rosemarie DeWitt while the two were co-starring on the 2006 Fox series Standoff, and they began a relationship shortly afterward. After dating for three years, they married on November 2, 2009, in San Francisco. He was previously engaged to actress Lisa Sheridan.
In May 2013, Livingston and DeWitt announced that they had adopted an infant daughter born the previous month, and in December 2016 they announced the adoption of a second daughter, who had been born the previous year. The couple have continued to keep their family life largely private while raising their two daughters.