Mark Harelik

Harelik's screen career doesn't have one clean breakthrough moment — it's more of a long accumulation. He was turning up in notable projects as far back as the late 1990s, with his role as Dave Novotny in *Election* (1999) landing him in one of that decade's sharpest political satires. It's a supporting part, but Alexander Payne's films don't really have throwaway supporting parts, and Harelik holds his own opposite Matthew Broderick and Reese Witherspoon. The early 2000s brought *Jurassic Park III* (2001), where he played Ben — the parasailing tourist whose very bad day kicks off the film's plot before he can really do much about it. Short role. Memorable exit. From there, Harelik kept a steady presence across prestige television, racking up guest appearances on *ER*, *Six Feet Under*, *The Big Bang Theory*, and *Breaking Bad*, among what BroadwayWorld and TV Guide document as over 90 television credits total. That's not a number you hit by accident — it reflects a working actor who can walk into almost any genre and find the truth of a scene. His stage work runs parallel and, honestly, might be the more impressive track record. A Broadway appearance in *The Light in the Piazza* (2005) won him the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical (BroadwayWorld). As a playwright, *The Immigrant* — drawn from his own family history and his experience growing up Jewish in Hamilton, Texas — has had a long life in regional theater. Then came *Preacher*. His casting as God in the AMC adaptation (2016–2019) gave him the kind of recurring prestige-TV role that reintroduces an actor to a whole new generation of viewers, and he played the character across all four seasons with an eerie, almost bored divinity that suited the show's irreverent tone perfectly. Films like *42* (2013) and *Trumbo* (2015) filled out the same period, cementing a late-career stretch that's been anything but quiet.