David Corenswet

David Corenswet (born July 8, 1993, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.) is an American actor who rocketed to stardom after being cast as the titular DC Comics superhero in James Gunn’s film Superman (2025). Prior to assuming that role, memorably portrayed in the past by Christopher Reeve and Henry Cavill, Corenswet trained as a theater actor at the Juilliard School in New York City and became known for his supporting parts in Ryan Murphy’s television series The Politician (2019–20) and Ti West’s film Pearl (2022).

Childhood and education

Corenswet was born in Philadelphia into a Jewish family with a background in entertainment. His father, John Corenswet, was a stage actor before becoming a lawyer, and his maternal grandfather, Edward Packard, invented the Choose Your Own Adventure book series. His mother, Caroline Packard, is a lawyer. David Corenswet’s first paid acting experience came early. At only nine years old, he was cast as Bert in a local production of Arthur Miller’s All My Sons. He continued to build his skills on the stage in numerous Philadelphia performances, including in productions of Macbeth at the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, the musical La Vie en Bleu, and Thornton Wilder’s Our Town. Despite his dedication to acting, when it came time to apply to college, Corenswet was unsure about pursuing a career in theater. He initially attended the University of Pennsylvania to study psychology, but after one year he transferred to the drama program at Juilliard, from which he graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 2016.

Early television and film career

Corenswet soon began landing bit parts in a number of television shows, including House of Cards, Elementary, and Instinct. His feature film debut was in the steamy political thriller Affairs of State (2018), in which he played a young congressional aide who has an affair with the wife of his boss. Corenswet’s first high-profile role came in 2019 when he appeared in Ryan Murphy’s The Politician, a Netflix high-school comedy about a bitter battle for student body president. Corenswet portrayed River Barkley, a popular student who dies by suicide in the first episode but reappears in the dreams of Payton Hobart (Ben Platt), his opponent in the school’s election and his former lover.

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A year later Corenswet again collaborated with Murphy, this time on the limited TV series Hollywood, a period drama about the post-World War II American film industry in which he played a rebellious young actor modeled on Montgomery Clift, Marlon Brando, and James Dean. In a 2019 interview with Entertainment Weekly, Corenswet acknowledged that his looks—he is 6 feet 4 inches (1.93 meters) tall and has the dark hair and blue eyes of Clark Kent—resembled those of the actor Henry Cavill, who starred in Zack Snyder’s Superman movies, and he described playing Superman as his “pie-in-the-sky ambition.”

In 2022 Corenswet starred in the Netflix film Look Both Ways alongside Lili Reinhart and had a supporting role in David Simon’s limited HBO TV series We Own This City. That same year, Corenswet costarred in the A24 dark comedy-horror film Pearl, the second installment in the X trilogy. Directed by Ti West, Corenswet played a smooth-talking film projectionist who is the love interest of the unhinged title character, Pearl (Mia Goth). It was this role that brought Corenswet to the attention of director Gunn.

In 2024 Corenswet costarred in the musical romance film The Greatest Hits, played a storm chaser opposite Glen Powell in the natural disaster blockbuster reboot Twisters, and acted alongside Natalie Portman in the Apple TV+ miniseries Lady in the Lake.

Superman

In 2023 it was announced that Corenswet and Rachel Brosnahan had been cast as Clark Kent/Superman and Lois Lane in a new iteration of the Superman film franchise, helmed by Gunn, who had brought the Guardians of the Galaxy to the screen for Marvel. Nicholas Hoult was later announced as Superman’s antagonist, Lex Luthor. The movie, released in July 2025, was intended to depict a sunnier, more playful Superman than other efforts had. It is the first of a slate of films in a planned multiyear run of movies based on DC Comics characters.

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Personal life

In 2023 Corenswet married actress Julia Best Warner in an interfaith ceremony at Immaculate Conception Jesuit Church in New Orleans, where his father had grown up. The star had met Warner at a summer theater program when they were teenagers. They have a daughter, who was born in 2024.