Why Hollywood Won't Cast Josh Radnor Anymore

For nine epic seasons of twists, turns, fake-outs, quick cuts, broad comedy, and grand romantic gestures, Josh Radnor anchored the popular CBS sitcom "How I Met Your Mother." He portrayed the show's main character, Ted Mosby, a young architect absolutely heartsick and extremely motivated to find the woman of his dreams and the future mother to his two kids (to whom he's telling the story of the show in the future).

"How I Met Your Mother" elevated the profiles of its already well-known cast members Alyson Hannigan and Neil Patrick Harris, and it made Radnor into a star. Carrying a network sitcom on his shoulders was no easy task, but Radnor was up for the job, winning over viewers with Ted's impish smiles, endless optimism, and self-aware pretentiousness. However, after the show wrapped up in early 2014, Radnor hasn't been seen much in Hollywood. Here's why.

Josh Radnor certainly got that career-making "big break" that most up-and-coming actors dream of when he was cast as Ted Mosby on "How I Met Your Mother." At that time, he'd worked mainly as a bit-part player on a handful of TV shows, and audiences didn't have any other roles to associate Radnor with other than Ted. And thus, the downside of portraying an iconic TV character manifested: Viewers imprinted Ted on Radnor and vice versa.

It's often tough for actors who've spent a long time playing one especially vital and unique character to shed that identity, whether it's on the small screen or the big one. For example, to many, Sarah Michelle Gellar will always be Buffy Summers, Daniel Radcliffe will always be Harry Potter, and Elijah Wood will always be Frodo Baggins. Similarly, Josh Radnor will always be known as Ted Mosby, whether he likes it or not. That has no doubt made it hard for the actor to land those post-Ted roles.

You'd expect someone who starred in a popular sitcom to capitalize on their role as much as possible. No one would blame Josh Radnor if he used his "How I Met Your Mother" momentum to play an endless series of lovelorn romantics. It's certainly a style of character that Radnor is good at portraying, but when he was leaving the show, he decided that he wanted to run in the complete opposite direction and try to shed the skin of Ted Mosby.

"In some ways, I always ran things through a bit of a 'How I Met Your Mother' algorithm in terms of, is this far enough away from the tone of the show," Radnor told People in a 2025 interview. "I was really looking for roles that just felt really different." Radnor said he kept up that systematic approach to understanding potential roles for years, which goes some way to explaining why Hollywood stopped casting him. Nowadays he doesn't run every script through his personal algorithm, but he still shies away from roles that remind him too much of Ted Mosby.

When "How I Met Your Mother" ended in 2014, Josh Radnor took a much-deserved break before making his return in 2016, taking on a role in a TV project unlike anything he'd ever done. The wacky sitcom hilarity of "How I Met Your Mother" was a far cry from "Mercy Street," a PBS drama about medical professionals working to save soldiers' lives during the Civil War. Radnor portrays the privileged surgeon Dr. Jed Foster in the show, which disappeared after two short seasons despite some solid reviews.

Undaunted, Radnor gave series television another try, headlining the 2018 drama "Rise." He portrays a crusading teacher who takes over his high school's moribund drama program to turn it around and change his students' lives. NBC canceled the show after just 10 episodes following a sizable dip in viewership. Since then, Radnor has gravitated toward supporting and ensemble roles. He dove headfirst into the world of voice acting with the Netflix animated series "Centaurworld" in 2021, and he featured in the acclaimed Jesse Eisenberg-led miniseries "Fleishman is in Trouble," which was nominated for seven Emmys, including outstanding limited series.

Radnor's most recent TV project got him as far from Ted Mosby as possible. In "Hunters," Radnor plays a member of a clandestine organization that hunts down neo-Nazis in 1970s New York City. "Hunters" tragically didn't get a third season, but the show really gave Radnor an opportunity to take on a new kind of character. He continues to pop up on the small screen every now and again, it's just that the roles are so different to what we're used to from him that his work goes largely unnoticed by most people — including, it would seem, people in Hollywood.

Prior to landing "How I Met Your Mother," Radnor had appeared in just one film: He played a tour guide in the 2001 teen film parody "Not Another Teen Movie." For whatever reason, whether it be typecasting or just fate, the stars didn't align for Radnor as a Hollywood movie star. However, he's still been able to ply his trade in projects away from the big studio system, keeping himself busy with indie films.

We're talking about small projects that don't tend to make much money: 2013's "Afternoon Delight," 2016's "The Seeker," and 2018's "Social Animals" have a combined worldwide box office take of about $420,000. It's not about the money, however. In the indie world, Radnor has been able to play a variety of parts and prove his worth as a film actor. His first film of the 2020s was "Three Birthdays," a drama and period piece set in the 1970s that sees Radnor as the patriarch of a family trying to adapt to shifting cultural attitudes. 2023's "All Happy Families" is another drama where Radnor really gets to shine: He stars as an actor whose struggles in the industry are only made worse by the success of his brother.

In 2025, Radnor appeared in "Ramona at Midlife," a drama about the titular single mother (Yvonne Woods) coming to terms with her former literary success and uncertain future. That same year, he also starred in the short film "The Sacrifice," a dark comedy about a satanic cult and a backyard BBQ. Radnor keeps looking for small films that will put him in touch with new artists or will allow him to tackle brand-new acting challenges away from mainstream Hollywood.

Josh Radnor may not need big movie studios execs to cast him in their projects because he's built up a side career as a filmmaker, writing and directing very personal and artistic works. His directorial debut was the affecting and unabashedly earnest "Happythankyoumoreplease," released in 2010. It's a film about the power of small human connections and the importance of gratitude. Movie critics weren't exactly blown away (the film holds a score of 42% on Rotten Tomatoes), but they seemed to like it at the Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Audience Award in the dramatic category.

Radnor continued his screenwriting and directing pursuits in 2012 with "Liberal Arts," a romantic dramedy about a guy who returns to his old college and falls in love with a very dynamic female student (Elizabeth Olsen). It picked up a few film festival award nominations and earned a respectable 72% on Rotten Tomatoes. He also stars in both films, so he's been giving himself a platform where Hollywood won't.

In more recent years, Radnor has taken to directing music videos. In 2021, he wound up helming the video for "Afternoon" by Cinders after the band found out that the actor was a fan. They noticed that Radnor had been recommending their music on Twitter and their manager decided to reach out to him about directing the video for "Afternoon." It stars Abigail Spencer of "Mad Men" and "Rectify" fame.

One big reason why Josh Radnor doesn't land all that many screen-acting roles as of late is because he's far too busy taking on big roles in plays and musicals at the highest levels of American theater. After starring in a 2011 concert version of the musical "She Loves Me," he was set to headline the full-fledged revival on Broadway but had to drop out due to scheduling conflicts with his PBS series "Mercy Street." His replacement: Zachary Levi, who went on to receive a Tony Award nomination.

Radnor still went on to be very active on the stage, appearing in the Broadway production of Ayad Akhtar's Pulitzer Prize-winning "Disgraced" and doing stints in off-Broadway plays "White Rabbit Red Rabbit" and "The Babylon Line." Radnor also took his talents to Washington, DC, starring as nerdy, doomed botanist Seymour Krelborn in a 2018 Kennedy Center revival of "Little Shop of Horrors." His most recent stage performance came in 2024's "The Ally," an off-Broadway play about a liberal Jewish college professor that veers from comedy into drama when said professor (played by Radnor) is asked to sign a petition that mentions the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.

Seeking love and companionship and being in a relationship both take time and effort, so perhaps that has occupied Radnor when he might be otherwise off somewhere shooting some movies or a new TV series. After meeting on the set of "How I Met Your Mother" in 2007, Radnor and "Beverly Hills, 90210" actress Lindsay Price struck up a romance in 2008 and split up after about a year of dating. Radnor made celebrity news headlines again in 2013 after his one-year-plus relationship with "Twilight" actress Julia Jones came to an end. In 2016, Radnor struck up a romance with "Friday Night Lights" actress Minka Kelly, but it only lasted for three months. Fans followed his relationship status for years, but as of January 2024, it's a settled matter: That's when Radnor finally tied the knot with his then-fiancée Jordana Jacobs.

Their snowy outdoor wedding has gotten some love on social media, but as amazed as fans were by the ceremony, they were even more blown away by the story of how Radnor and Jacobs first met. Radnor's wife is a clinical psychologist, and Radnor met Dr. Jacobs at a 2022 meditation retreat. As part of the retreat, some participants got to take "magic" mushrooms and experience a group psychedelic trip. It was there that Radnor and Jacobs came face-to-face, and in that moment, Radnor had a sudden, extremely powerful realization. He told The New York Times that when he first looked at Jacobs, he heard a voice in his head say, "That's her. That's your woman." Amazingly, Jacobs said she had a very similar experience when she first laid eyes on Radnor during the mushroom trip. After that unorthodox meet-cute, Radnor and Jacobs were texting each other for months before finally making their relationship official.

Perhaps Josh Radnor doesn't act as much these days because he's otherwise concerned with completely different artistic pursuits, particularly his development as an indie musician. Sometime in the mid-2000s, Australian singer-songwriter and former Noise Addict member Ben Lee visited the set of "How I Met Your Mother," where he met and hit it off with the show's star, Josh Radnor. They started writing songs together and very slowly went about the art and business of making an album of mellow, folky pop rock.

After officially forming a band, the obviously titled Radnor & Lee, the duo released its first album, Radnor & Lee, in 2017. Radnor and Lee played a lot of tour dates in support of the record, and a stop in Brazil in 2018 was so impactful that it inspired another record, the much more swiftly written, recorded, and released Golden State, made available to the public in 2020. Since then, Radnor has released two full-length solo albums: 2023's "Eulogy Vol. 1" and 2024's "Eulogy Vol. 2."

Radnor poured his heart and soul into the "Eulogy" albums, which might explain why he was absent from the big and small screens in 2024. Instead of working in front of the camera, Radnor has been writing songs and touring his music all across the country. Radnor's tour of "Eulogy Vol. 2" took him through Washington, Oregon, California, Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia. His fans might miss seeing him on TV, but now there's a chance they'll be able to catch Radnor in person with a guitar in his hands when he stops by their city.

Most people know Josh Radnor as an actor. A smaller group of fans are familiar with his work as a musician, but not nearly as many people are aware that Radnor is a writer, too. He isn't publishing novels or poetry collections, but in between writing songs and taking on acting gigs, Radnor has been regularly maintaining a Substack for years.

Substack is a platform that lets writers publish their work and even earn money from fans if they want. Radnor's Substack isn't a paid subscription, though. Instead, Radnor uses the platform more like a personal blog, and fans can check it out to get updates on his life, artistic work, or simply his musings on current events. Radnor has written about unexpected vacation disasters, his major music releases, and his complicated relationship with his own fame.

Fans who follow Radnor's Substack often get the first updates about his latest projects. When Radnor started a "How I Met Your Mother" rewatch podcast, his Substack followers knew right away. More than just being a news repository, Radnor's Substack is a place where fans can get to know his deeper thoughts and interact with a side of Radnor that doesn't necessarily come across through Hollywood films and TV shows.

He might not get many Hollywood offers these days, but Josh Radnor is a star in a very different way: The "How I Met Your Mother" alum fills a good chunk of his time by helping people. Radnor has used his fame and massive platform to help support causes that he cares about. Contributing to charities has also allowed him to use some of his non-acting artistic abilities. In 2017, Radnor lent his name and vocal talents to a charity event called "Saved by a Story." He sang at the event, which helped raise money for the Bard Prison Initiative, an organization that helps prisoners earn a bachelor's degree from Bard College while serving their sentence.

Radnor has also used his acting to benefit others. In 2024, he performed alongside Casey Affleck, Jamie Hector, and Aubrey Plaza in a benefit production of Kenneth Lonergan's play "Lobby Hero," directed by Mark Brokaw. Not long after that, Radnor had the opportunity to reunite with his "How I Met Your Mother" family when the show's cast and creators hosted a charity concert in January 2025. The event raised money for research into Jacobsen syndrome, a genetic disorder that affects one of the show creator's children.

"How I Met Your Mother" kept Josh Radnor extremely busy during its lengthy run. For all those years, Radnor's schedule was dominated by his work on the show. It should be no surprise, then, that Radnor has been dedicating more and more of his free time to his family since the show ended. Take a scroll through Radnor's Instagram page and you'll find that when he isn't working on a new artistic project, he's focused on things that are close to home.

In 2020, Radnor adopted a puppy named Nelson who's become a shining light in his home and on his social media. Now that he isn't constantly filming for TV, Radnor can spend time with his dog and make appearances at big family events. When Radnor attended his nephew's high school graduation in 2024, Nelson came along for the adventure. Spending time with his nieces, nephews, and beloved dog is a bigger part of his life than ever before.

Josh Radnor spent a long time running from his "How I Met Your Mother" success. That changed in 2025 when he decided to start a podcast where he would revisit every episode of the show with series co-creator Craig Thomas. "How We Made Your Mother" is the title of the revisit podcast, and it features Radnor and Thomas giving behind-the-scenes info about each episode as well as sharing their genuine reaction to how the episodes have aged.

"Much like the older, wiser narrator Ted, which we are now around that age, let's look back and see who we were, who we are now, where we're going," Radnor said in a YouTube video promoting the podcast. The podcast's weekly episodes are an hour long, and Radnor and Thomas also put out a follow-up video for each episode where they address questions from the audience. There's a ton of content for fans of "How I Met Your Mother" to dive into, and the podcast offers a truly unique inside look at a beloved, long-running TV show.

Radnor also has plans to start another podcast: It's called "The People of the Book," and it's going to be all about Jewish art and literature. He took a deep dive into the subject while preparing for his role in "The Ally" and he wants to give a platform to Jewish authors and creatives. It's being produced by Jeremy Goldscheider of JLTV, who told The Times of Israel: "This series fosters understanding, builds bridges, and connects audiences to the richness of Jewish life." Needless to say, Radnor is very busy with his podcast work.