by Kate Lohnes
Though he left more than a decade ago, Josh Radnor is still a Columbus boy at heart.
When he comes home to visit, he hangs out with high school friends who live nearby. His parents still reside in the house where he grew up. And he’s never lost his taste for local institution Rubino’s Pizza.
Even so, after playing architect Ted Mosby on CBS’ successful sitcom How I Met Your Mother for five seasons, the Central Ohio native is reminded, time and again, that he’s not in Bexley anymore.
“I was a clue in an L.A. Times crossword puzzle recently,” he says via cell phone from California, where he currently resides. “The clue was, ‘Actor Josh from How I Met Your Mother.’ That was a very strange moment for me … Very strange, but not un-enjoyable.”
Radnor’s reaction to his crossword puzzle debut – a charming combination of amusement and modesty – characterizes the Midwesterner who became an acting success. Radnor didn’t grow up wanting to become a star. His taste for drama developed after several turns on stage at Bexley High School (he graduated in 1992) and summer performances with the Columbus Junior Theater (now the Columbus Children’s Theater).
His acting debut came in his high school’s rendition of Oklahoma! His second production, which he considers a turning point in his life, was Cabaret, in which he played the main character and narrator, the emcee.
“It felt fantastic having people watch what I did,” Radnor says. “In Cabaret, I really felt something shift. The response I got was definitely people saying, ‘You should be an actor.’ It felt outside the realm of possibility. I didn’t know any actors and I didn’t know any people from town who had gone on and done it. I really had to do a lot of research and find my role models, people whom I could emulate.”
Radnor carved his own path from there. He studied acting at Kenyon College, where he earned the prestigious Paul Newman Acting Trophy and interned at professional theaters around the country during summer breaks. After graduating, Radnor moved to New York City to earn his master’s degree at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University.
Post academia, Radnor’s stage and screen credits include regional and off-Broadway theater, a starring role in The Graduate on Broadway (co-stars included Kathleen Turner and Alicia Silverstone) and several television pilots.
With so many credits to his name, it is slightly ironic that Radnor’s portrayal of HIMYM’s Ted Mosby, a transplanted Ohioan living in New York City, has been his biggest – and most public – success to date. Oddly enough, Radnor says, the part wasn’t written for him.
“My character on the TV show was created by (HIMYM creators) Craig Thomas and Carter Bays, and Carter is from Shaker Heights in Cleveland. So my character, before I even got the part, was from Ohio,” he says. “I’m always saying how I love wearing Ohio State T-shirts, so they’re always putting me in an Ohio State T-shirt on the show, which, I’m sure, pleases the hometown crowd.”
Radnor’s hometown pride extends beyond college football. He makes a conscious effort to visit Columbus at least twice a year. Last June, he gave the commencement address at Bexley High School. Most recently, he made it back for Thanksgiving and for the Arnold Sports Classic in March (a friend hosted a charity event in which Radnor participated).
Radnor admits Columbus has changed somewhat since his childhood – which he calls a “classic American upbringing” full of Fourth of July parades and walking around the neighborhood.
“I’ve noticed that it feels different. It seems like a bigger town,” he says. “It’s more cosmopolitan. There are more good restaurants and there are more people there.”
And, of course, there are people that sometimes recognize him, Radnor says, which never fails to amuse his high school friends.
“I was out with some people and someone said my full name,” he says. “I looked over and there was just this guy at the other end of the bar. He said, ‘I love you, man,’ and I didn’t know him. It was really funny,” he says.
Radnor doesn’t mind the random shout-outs born of his Ohio pedigree. If anything, he says he increasingly appreciates his Columbus background.
“I find myself, as I get older, becoming more grateful for my Midwestern roots,” he says. “I met a girl the other day from Cincinnati. I hugged her. We’d just met. I like saying I’m from there. Ohioans are pretty nice people, and I’m happy to count myself among them.”
While he doesn’t see himself returning to Columbus on a permanent basis – it’s hard to be a professional actor outside of New York and Los Angeles, he says, and besides, he’s fallen in love with the California landscape – Radnor did say there are some things an Ohioan can’t quit.
Such as?
“Wearing Ohio State T-shirts,” he says with a laugh. “That I refuse to give up.”
Kate Lohnes is assistant editor of CityScene Magazine.