Jack Haven arrives to the NETFLIX: PaleyFest Fall TV Previews 2018 on September 6, 2018 in Hollywood, CA
The nonbinary actor who rose to fame playing Casey Gardner on Atypical announced that they have changed their name to Jack Haven.
Haven, best known for starring in last year’s I Saw the TV Glow in addition to Netflix’s Atypical, made the announcement in a Monday, January 20, Instagram post explaining that they took their new last name to honor their great-great uncle, composer and lyricist Haven Gillespie, who wrote the holiday classic, “Santa Clause is Comin’ to Town.”
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“And first name Jack has stuck,” they added.
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Haven wrote that they first started using the name two years ago in a workshop led by Iranian actor and director Saman Arastoo. “I said I was using it in safe spaces,” Haven wrote. “Saman said use it in dangerous spaces. So I use it in the mens bathroom.”
The 30-year-old actor got their start appearing in director Woody Allen’s 2015 film Irrational Man. In 2017, they starred opposite Matt Damon and Christoph Waltz in director Alexander Payne’s Downsizing and alongside Brie Larson, Naomi Watts and Woody Harrelson in The Glass Castle. From 2017 to 2021, they starred as Casey Gardner in the Netflix dramedy series Atypical, while also taking on roles in 2019’s Bombshell and 2020’s Bill & Ted Face the Music.
Haven came out as queer in 2018, and as nonbinary in a since deleted November 2019 Instagram post. “I’m non-binary,” they wrote. “Always felt a lil bit boy, lil bit girl, lil bit neither. Using they/them as of late n it feels right.”
Haven’s performance in last year’s I Saw the TV Glow, directed by transfeminine, nonbinary filmmaker Jane Schoenbrun, earned the actor widespread acclaim, including a Gotham Awards nomination for Outstanding Supporting Performance and an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Supporting Performance.
Earlier this month, GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics announced the nominees for its 2025 Dorian Film Awards, with I Saw the TV Glow leading with nine nominations, including for Film of the Year and a Supporting Film Performance of the Year nomination for Haven. GALECA also nominated Haven for its “We’re Wilde About You!” Rising Star Award.
Notably, neither the Gotham Awards, the Independent Spirit Awards, nor the Dorian Awards divide performance nominations by gender.
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