Jacob Batalon

Jacob Batalon is an American actor born October 9, 1996, in Honolulu, Hawaii (TMDB) — and if you've spent any time in the Marvel Cinematic Universe over the last several years, you already know his face. He broke through playing Ned Leeds, Peter Parker's endearingly loyal best friend, in Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), and the role stuck. What's striking is how much Batalon managed to do with a character who could've easily been comic relief and nothing more: Ned's "guy in the chair" moment in Homecoming is genuinely funny, but it's also weirdly touching. That's not nothing.

Batalon reprised the role across Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019) and Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021), plus cameo appearances in Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Avengers: Endgame (2019) (Wikipedia). Five MCU films. That's a run most actors in the franchise don't get, and it says something about how the character — and the performance — connected with audiences in a way the studio clearly didn't want to let go of.

Honestly, it's easy to overlook how much range it takes to hold your own opposite the kind of spectacle those films demand. Batalon's work isn't showy, but it doesn't need to be. He's also known by the informal nickname "CEO" (TMDB), which tells you something about the energy he brings to a room. His career arc from a Honolulu kid to a fixture in one of cinema's biggest franchises is, at minimum, worth paying attention to.