What can you tell me about Clark Gregg from “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.?”
—Katherine Lim, Aurora, Colorado
With a list of TV and film credits as long as your arm, Gregg is best known for the role of Phil Coulson that he reprises in ABC’s “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.,” after having played it in the films “Iron Man,” “Iron Man 2,” “Thor” and “Marvel’s Avengers,” where the character was killed off.
“I was just told that I would get to be back to life, wearing the cool suits and getting to be this guy again, and that’s all it took,” he says of agreeing to resurrect Coulson from the dead. “It’s pretty spectacular that this guy who starts out in ‘Iron Man’ as an annoying bureaucrat who has a secret, ends up with his own TV show.”
Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Gregg, 51, is the son of Mary Layne and Robert Clark Gregg, an Episcopal minister and professor at Stanford University. He began his acting career as a founding member and former artistic director of the Atlantic Theater Company in New York, where he performed in many of the company’s productions.
Gregg moved to Los Angeles in the mid-’90s to pursue film and television work, landing roles in movies such as “Mr. Popper’s Penguins,” “500 Days of Summer,” “In Good Company,” “Spartan,” “State and Main,” “Lovely and Amazing,” “The Human Stain,” “We Were Soldiers,” “One Hour Photo,” “Magnolia,” “Much Ado About Nothing,” “The To Do List,” “Very Good Girls,” and the upcoming “Labor Day.”
On television he has had recurring roles on “The West Wing,” “Sports Night,” “Will and Grace,” “Sex and the City,” and “The Shield,” and co-starred on “The New Adventures of Old Christine.”
In addition to acting, Gregg is a screenwriter and director. His screenwriting debut was “What Lies Beneath,” and the first feature film he directed was “Choke,” which he adapted from the novel by Chuck Palahniuk. His second film as writer-director, in which he also starred, was “Trust Me.”
Gregg has been married to actress Jennifer Grey since July 2001. The couple has a daughter, Stella.
