Adam Paul Scott (born April 3, 1973) is an American actor and comedian. He is best known for his role as Ben Wyatt in the NBC sitcom Parks and Recreation (2010–2015), for which he was twice nominated for a Critics' Choice Television Award, as well as Mark Scout in the Apple TV sci-fi thriller series Severance, for which he was nominated for four Primetime Emmy Awards (two for acting and two for producing) and two Golden Globes, among others.
Scott has also appeared in films, including The Aviator (2004), Step Brothers (2008) and Hokum (2026), as well as the Starz sitcom Party Down (2009–2010; 2023), the HBO drama series Big Little Lies (2017–present), and the NBC comedy series The Good Place (2016–2018).
Adam Paul Scott was born in Santa Cruz, California, on April 3, 1973, son of Dougald Scott. His parents, who were both teachers, divorced when he was a child. His father is of Scottish descent, while his mother is half Sicilian Italian and half Irish. He has two older siblings, Shannon and David.
He graduated from Harbor High School in Santa Cruz and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Los Angeles.
1994–2007: Early film and television work
Scott appeared in several feature films, starting with Hellraiser: Bloodline (1996). On being cast in that film, Scott said: "I remember just being excited because it was a real movie, and I didn’t care if it was shitty. And it did end up being very, very shitty, but I was just happy to have a job." Other films he went on to appear in included Star Trek: First Contact (1996), The Lesser Evil (1998), High Crimes (2002), The Aviator (2004), Torque (2004), Monster-in-Law (2005), The Matador (2005), and Knocked Up (2007). Scott's early television roles include Griff Hawkins in Boy Meets World, Josh on Party of Five, a law intern on Murder One, as well as David's love interest, Ben Cooper, on Six Feet Under. His first series regular role was on the controversial and sexually-explicit HBO drama Tell Me You Love Me (2007) as Palek, a husband struggling to conceive with his wife. In the first two seasons of the HBO baseball comedy series Eastbound & Down, Scott played a cocaine-addicted baseball front office representative. He also appeared on CSI: Miami and Law & Order.
2008–2015: Parks and Recreation and comedy films
From 2009 to 2010, Scott starred as Henry Pollard in the Starz network show Party Down. For this performance, he earned an Entertainment Weekly Ewwy nomination for Best Actor in a Comedy Series. In 2010, Scott joined the cast of NBC's acclaimed comedy series Parks and Recreation, in which he played Ben Wyatt, a state auditor who arrives in the fictional town of Pawnee, Indiana, to evaluate the town's funds and eventually becomes the love interest of Leslie Knope. He appeared as a guest star in the second season before becoming a main character for the remainder of the series, which ended in 2015.
During this period Scott appeared in the films Step Brothers (2008), The Vicious Kind (2009), Piranha 3D (2010), Friends with Kids (2012), The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013), and Krampus (2015). Scott attributes his pivot from dramatic to comedic roles to landing the part of Derek Huff in Step Brothers, as he learned comedic improvisation from his co-stars Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly, and Kathryn Hahn.
Scott has appeared in and produced numerous independent films. He starred as Caleb Sinclaire in the 2010 film The Vicious Kind, for which Scott was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Actor. The film itself received positive reviews, and he won two individual awards at two separate film festivals. He starred in two films by Matt Bissonette, Who Loves the Sun (2006) and Passenger Side (2009), released on DVD on October 26, 2010. He appeared in the films Our Idiot Brother (2011) with Paul Rudd and Leslye Headland's Bachelorette (2012). He had lead roles in Friends with Kids (2012) and A.C.O.D. (2013).
He played antagonist Ted Hendricks, Walter Mitty's boss, in the 2013 Ben Stiller remake of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. His other major studio comedies include Hot Tub Time Machine 2 and the Christmas comedy-horror film Krampus, both in 2015. That same year, he executive produced and starred in the comedy film The Overnight. Scott and his wife created and produced four Adult Swim mockumentary specials, The Greatest Event in Television History, about remaking opening credits sequences of 1980s television shows. Scott continued his streak of comedic roles in several episodes of Ken Marino's The Bachelor parody Burning Love, as well as making guest appearances in the Adult Swim comedies Childrens Hospital and NTSF:SD:SUV:: and the Comedy Central television show Nick Swardson's Pretend Time as a newscaster in the episode "Relapse into Refreshment". He also appeared in a series of commercials for ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball.
2016–present: Career expansion and Severance
From 2016 to 2018, Scott appeared in five episodes of the acclaimed Michael Schur show The Good Place as Trevor, a demon. In 2017, he appeared in David Wain's Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later and made a guest appearance on HBO's Veep. In 2017 and 2019, Scott took a turn to dramatic work by appearing in HBO's Big Little Lies as Ed Mackenzie, husband of main character Madeline Mackenzie, played by Reese Witherspoon.
Scott and Paul Rudd teamed up again to act in and produce the indie comedy Fun Mom Dinner (2017). Scott starred with Craig Robinson in the sitcom Ghosted, which premiered on October 1, 2017, on Fox, lasting just one season. He and his wife executive produced the show. In 2020, Scott hosted the one-season ABC game show Don't, executive produced by Ryan Reynolds.
In 2022, Scott began starring in and executive producing the Apple TV show Severance, which is executive produced and directed by Ben Stiller. His performance was critically acclaimed and has earned him two Emmy nominations for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series in 2022 and 2025 respectively, and two more nominations for Outstanding Drama Series in those same years as Executive Producer. The cult hit Party Down was revived in 2023, with Scott reprising the character of Henry Pollard. In Sony's Spider-Man Universe, Scott appeared in Madame Web (2024) as a young Ben Parker.
In 2024, it was announced that Scott would star alongside Danielle Deadwyler in the independent thriller, The Saviors.
Scott portrayed the central character in the 2026 thriller The Whisper Man.
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