Charlie Tahan

Charlie Tahan has built a screen career around characters caught in strange, dangerous and emotionally unsettled worlds. Born and raised in Glen Rock, New Jersey, Tahan began appearing in films at a young age, playing Ethan in the post-apocalyptic horror film I Am Legend in 2007. That early role pointed toward a recurring thread in his work: stories where ordinary lives collide with something darker. His film roles soon moved across drama, horror and fantasy. Tahan played William Woolf opposite Natalie Portman and Scott Cohen in The Other Woman, appeared in Burning Bright and co-starred with Zac Efron in Charlie St. Cloud. In 2012, he brought his voice work to Tim Burton’s stop-motion feature Frankenweenie, playing young Victor Frankenstein. The part placed him at the centre of a movie that mixed childhood loneliness, monster-movie affection and macabre comedy. Television gave Tahan room to develop characters over longer stretches. He appeared as Calvin Arliss in the twelfth season of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, played a young Dr. Jonathan Crane in Gotham and starred as Ben Burke in the dystopian mystery series Wayward Pines. Beginning in 2017, he took on one of his most substantial television roles as Wyatt Langmore in the Netflix crime drama Ozark, alongside Jason Bateman, Laura Linney and Julia Garner. The series drew critical praise for its tone, direction, production values and performances, while receiving 45 Primetime Emmy Award nominations during its run. Tahan’s choices have repeatedly taken him toward thrillers, crime stories and offbeat genre projects, while his work spans film, television and voice acting. He has also begun moving behind the camera. In 2024, he made his directorial debut with Taxon, a short film written by Tahan and Tommy Aiken and released on Vimeo. It adds another dimension to a career already shaped by an interest in stories with shadows around the edges.