Ebon Moss-Bachrach can be loud without letting the person disappear beneath the shouting. We value him most when a small movement reveals the hurt, or when a brief supporting part gives him room to be funny.
Fi1m perspective
A shrug registers through a face made of digital rock in The Fantastic 4: First Steps (2025). As Ben Grimm, Ebon Moss-Bachrach is gentle and slightly sad, and Matt Shakman gives those qualities room. We found Ben unexpectedly touching because that small movement still lets us see someone who can be hurt. The performance is a useful corrective to the idea that Moss-Bachrach’s chief asset is his volume. We rate him most for keeping a difficult person worth watching, even when we would rather not spend an evening beside them.
Recurring parts in Girls (2014–2017) and The Punisher (2017) preceded the sharp rise in attention brought by The Bear (2022). As Richard ‘Richie’ Jerimovich, he has the rapid delivery and physical force to make himself felt in a crowded kitchen. Yet the performance works because the distress belongs to this particular man, rather than becoming another contribution to the general din. Alongside Jeremy Allen White’s Carmy and Ayo Edebiri’s Sydney, he helps make the restaurant feel staffed by people with separate lives. We remain interested in Richie when we have had quite enough of the workplace.
That limit matters: The Bear can make kitchen friction so relentless that watching becomes work. Moss-Bachrach is one of the reasons to persist, but the ensemble’s persuasiveness does not excuse every stretch of noise. No Hard Feelings (2023) offers the opposite frustration, giving his Gary about four minutes. He is the funniest member of the supporting cast in a comedy that keeps retreating from its own premise. A larger part for him would not necessarily fix the script, but we would gladly have tested it.
Shakman makes better use of him by giving Ben a place among people who seem accustomed to one another. The domestic scenes in The Fantastic 4: First Steps are more engaging than the threat to the planet, and Moss-Bachrach helps make that imbalance understandable. He does not have to be the busiest actor in the group to hold our attention. His quieter work suggests casting him chiefly for disruption would miss a good deal of what he offers. Start with The Bear, provided an evening of restaurant strain sounds tolerable.
Biography
Ebon Moss-Bachrach is an American actor. He was born on 19 March 1977 in Staten Island, New York.
He is known for portraying Richard 'Richie' Jerimovich in the series The Bear (2022–2026), for which he received two Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series and two Golden Globe Award nominations. He has also appeared in the series Girls (2014–2017), NOS4A2 (2019–2020), The Punisher (2017) as David Lieberman and Andor (2022) as Arvel Skeen.
His film roles include Gary in No Hard Feelings (2023) and Ben Grimm / The Thing in The Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025). He trained in acting at the William Esper Studio in New York City.
