Sorry, couldn't resist.
Joseph Michael "Joe" Manganiello (born December 28, 1976 in Mount Lebanon, Pennsylvania) is an American actor, director, producer, and author. He's best known for playing Alcide Herveaux on HBO's True Blood and Big Dick Richie in the Magic Mike films.
Apart from his acting career, he's also a published writer and film director/producer. His self-help and fitness book Evolution was published in 2013, followed by the release of his 2014 directorial debut La Bare, a documentary centered on a male strip club of the same name in Dallas, Texas.
He was married to Modern Family star Sofía Vergara from 2015 until 2023, when the two announced that they were separating and planning to divorce.
Selected filmography:
- Spider-Man Trilogy as Flash Thompson:
- Spider-Man (2002)
- Spider-Man 3 (2007)
- How I Met Your Mother (2006 — 2012) as Brad Morris
- One Tree Hill (2008 — 2010) as Owen Morello
- True Blood (2010 — 2014) as Alcide Herveaux
- What to Expect When You're Expecting (2012) as Davis
- Magic Mike (2012) as Big Dick Richie
- Magic Mike XXL (2015)
- Magic Mike's Last Dance (2023)
- Sabotage (2014) as Joseph "Grinder" Phillips
- Pee-wee's Big Holiday (2016) as himself
- Smurfs: The Lost Village (2017) as Hefty Smurf (voice)
- Rampage (2018) as Burke
- DC Extended Universe as Slade Wilson / Deathstroke
- Justice League (2017)
- Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021)
- Star Wars Resistance (2019) as Ax Tagrin (voice)
- Archenemy (2020) as Max Fist
- Koati (2021) as Balam (voice)
He provides examples of:
- Ascended Fancast: He was a fairly popular choice for the role of Deathstroke and was eventually cast because producers found a fanart of it.
- Ascended Fanon: His D&D character, the lawful evil paladin of Tiamat Arkhan the Cruel, has made an appearance in Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus, where players can go through him to petition Tiamat herself for aid.
- Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: At 6'5", he's naturally this with any actress he's paired with — especially his True Blood love interest, the 5'5" Anna Paquin.
- Metalhead: He snuck a Metallica song into his wedding ceremony, albeit a violin and cello version of "Nothing Else Matters". He also throws up the metal horns any chance he gets.
- Mr. Fanservice: To the point where he's practically a Walking Shirtless Scene in some of the stuff he's in.
- What Could Have Been:
- He was originally cast to play Wes on Scream Queens, but pulled out before production began, eventually replaced by Oliver Hudson.
- He was set to appear as Deathstroke in more DC Extended Universe films than Justice League such as a Batman film and even a film centered around his character, but the constant changes in the plans of DC Films made them fall into Development Hell.
