Biography

Rod McLachlan (born September 9, 1960, in Detroit, Michigan) is a White American actor and writer who earned a B.S. in Speech and Drama from Northwestern University and has been a member of David Mamet's Atlantic Theater Company for nearly 20 years. He taught theater at the National High School Institute for Theater Arts in 1994, served as administrator of the Atlantic Theater School's West Coast Conservatory (2007–2008), and wrote the play Good Television (2013, Atlantic Second Stage). On stage he has performed on Broadway in Holiday (with Laura Linney), Death and the King's Horseman, Our Town (1988, with William H. Macy), The Real Inspector Hound (1992), Saint Joan, Timon of Athens, and The Government Inspector, and off-Broadway in Julius Caesar (with Martin Sheen and Al Pacino) and Cyrano de Bergerac. He originated the Messenger in David Mamet's Keep Your Pantheon at the Kirk Douglas Theater and performed in Mamet's School with John Pankow. His most notable film credits include Daniel Hill in Magnolia (1999), Guard Anderson in Instinct (1999), Justice Guard in Conspiracy Theory (1997), Independence Hall Guide in National Treasure (2004), Lloyd the Cop in Where the Money Is (2000), Actual Editor in Superhero Movie (2008), and Lawyer Seamus in The Kid (2000, with Bruce Willis). On television he is best known as Ed Wilson in Bull (2016), Charlie Peterson in Blue Bloods (2010), Jimmy Gildea in The Loudest Voice (2019, 5 episodes, with Philip Seymour Hoffman), and Jimmy Reilly in Penny Dreadful: City of Angels (2020, 4 episodes), with additional credits in Mad Men (2007), Modern Family (2014), Veep (2016), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2000), ER, Law & Order, CSI, Madam Secretary (2014), and Countdown (2025).