Justin Baldoni

Baldoni was born in Los Angeles, California, and was raised in Medford, Oregon, the son of Sharon and Sam Baldoni.[1] His mother is from a Jewish family and his father is of Italian ancestry. Baldoni's parents joined the Baháʼí Faith, which Baldoni practices devoutly.[2][3] Baldoni played soccer and ran track in high school, and was a radio disc jockey at a local top-40 radio station. While moving into a new apartment building, Baldoni met a manager who advised him to pursue a career in acting.[4]

In 2008, Baldoni wrote, produced, and directed his first music video that was selected and won him his first "Audience Choice Award" at Dawn Breakers International Film Festival.[5]

Justin Baldoni at the 2017 SAMHSA award ceremony

In 2012, Baldoni created a digital documentary series, My Last Days, a show about living – as told by the dying. The show eventually became one of the most-watched documentary series' streamed online. The second season of My Last Days aired on CW and third season was released in the winter of 2018. On the heels of that success Baldoni founded Wayfarer Entertainment, a digital media studio focused on disruptive inspiration.[6] In December 2018, Baldoni spoke at the annual End Well Symposium about why he believes that thinking about our death can help us live better.[7]

In 2014, Baldoni started playing Rafael Solano in the CW show Jane the Virgin and in May 2016 he launched a time-lapse video app for pregnant women and new moms called Belly Bump.[8]

In July 2017, Variety announced that Baldoni was developing a male talk show through his media company Wayfarer Entertainment. The show, entitled Man Enough, is described as a disruptive panel series that explores what it means to be a man today.[9] In an interview, Baldoni described the reason he created the show. "Man Enough really came about because I wanted to take a dive into what it really means to be a man, and this question of 'do we have it right?'"[10] The show includes prominent men like Matt McGorry and Javier Muñoz.[11] In August 2017, TED announced Baldoni would be a speaker at the annual TEDWomen Conference.[12]

Baldoni directed and produced CBS Films' Five Feet Apart, starring Cole Sprouse and Haley Lu Richardson, and based on an original script by Mikki Daughtry and Tobias Iaconis. The film was released on March 15, 2019, and chronicles the lives of two teenagers living with cystic fibrosis.[13]

He directed and produced Clouds, a film depicting the life of musician Zach Sobiech with Warner Bros. On May 14, 2020, it was announced Disney+ had acquired distribution rights to the film from Warner Bros., in light of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the film industry. It was released on October 16, 2020.[14] He is also scheduled to direct and produce It Ends with Us is based on novel with the same name by Colleen Hoover.[15]

Baldoni founded a production company with Ahmed Musiol called Wayfarer Studios that produces television, films, and digital content. In 2019, Wayfarer sold majority stake setting up the $25M content fund.[16][17] The philanthropic branch of the company, called the Wayfarer Foundation, benefits homeless residents of Los Angeles. They host an annual Skid Row Carnival of Love, which provides resources for employment, education, non-emergency medical care, food, clothing, hygiene, and other festivities such as face-painting, live concerts, and children's activities, serving over 4,000 homeless guests each year.[18]

After over a year of dating, Baldoni married Swedish actress Emily Baldoni (née Fuxler) in July 2013 in Corona, California.[19] They have a daughter, Maiya, who was born in June 2015[20] and a son named Maxwell, who was born in 2017.[21]

• Justin Baldoni at IMDb