JOHNSON
Jake

• 1. Career

Mark Jake Johnson Weinberger is an American actor and filmmaker. He has starred as Nick Miller in the Fox sitcom New Girl (2011–2018), for which he was nominated for the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Actor in a Comedy Series in 2013. He has also voiced a version of Spider-Man in the animated film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) and its 2023 sequel.

Johnson has also starred in Let's Be Cops (2014), and appeared in Paper Heart (2009), Safety Not Guaranteed (2012), 21 Jump Street (2012), Jurassic World (2015), The Mummy (2017), and Tag (2018). Since 2022, he has starred in the comedy series Minx.

Career

Johnson grew up a fan of the Second City improv troupe. Raised in Wilmette, he graduated from New Trier High School in Winnetka and started his post-secondary education at the University of Iowa. While in Iowa City, he wrote a play, which wound up earning him admission to the Dramatic Writing Department at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, followed by the 2002 John Golden Playwriting Prize and the Sloan Fellowship for Screenwriting. The New York City off-Broadway group The Ensemble Studio Theater produced his play Cousins.

While in New York, Johnson started a sketch comedy troupe The Midwesterners, modeling their material and style after HBO's sketch comedy Mr. Show with Bob and David. After moving to Los Angeles, Johnson supported himself as a waiter and a production assistant, also scoring a series of bit feature and guest TV roles. In 2007, he landed a more regular gig with the TBS mini-show Derek and Simon: The Show, produced by Bob Odenkirk.

In 2009, he appeared in the mockumentary Paper Heart. In 2010, Johnson was cast in a small role in the Russell Brand comedy, Get Him to the Greek. He played Uma Thurman's character's brother in the romantic comedy Ceremony, and as a buddy of Ashton Kutcher's character in No Strings Attached. In 2011, he played Jesus in A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas. In 2012, he appeared in the film version of 21 Jump Street, which starred Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum. Johnson made an appearance at the 2012 Sundance Festival as one of the leads in Safety Not Guaranteed.

From 2011 to 2018, Johnson starred as Nick Miller alongside Zooey Deschanel on New Girl. In 2013, he appeared in the music video for "Rouse Yourself", a song by indie-soul band JC Brooks & the Uptown Sound alongside his Safety Not Guaranteed co-star Aubrey Plaza. He also starred (as a fictional version of himself) in a series of Dodge Dart commercials with Craig Robinson. In 2015, he played park informatician Lowery Cruthers in Jurassic World. In 2017, Johnson starred as Eddie Garrett in the Netflix comedy film Win It All.

The web series Drunk History was inspired by a 2007 conversation that Johnson had with series creator Derek Waters. Johnson, while drunk, was trying to describe the story of Otis Redding's death to Waters, and Waters was inspired to build a series around history narrated by drunk people. Johnson later appeared in the first episode of the web series as Aaron Burr. After it was adapted for television under the same title on Comedy Central, he appeared in the eighth episode as William B. Travis, and the ninth episode of season three as Boris Spassky.

In 2018, Johnson appeared in the comedy film Tag as Randy Cilliano. In the same year, it was announced that Johnson was cast in the lead role of Ben Hopkins in the Netflix adult animation series Hoops. Also that year, Johnson provided the voice of Peter B. Parker / Spider-Man in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.

In 2019, Johnson was cast in the lead role of Grey McConnell in the ABC drama series Stumptown. He took over the role from Mark Webber, who played the character in the original pilot episode.