Alexander Karpovsky (born September 23, 1975) is an American actor, director, screenwriter, producer, and film editor. He is best known for his role as Raymond "Ray" Ploshansky on the HBO comedy drama series Girls (2012–2017), for which he was nominated for the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series. He is also known for his roles as Craig on the Amazon Prime Video psychological thriller series Homecoming (2018–20) and Jeff Glaser on the Peacock drama miniseries Angelyne (2022).
Early life and education Alex Karpovsky was raised in Newton, Massachusetts. He earned a bachelor's degree from Boston University before receiving a master's degree in visual ethnography at the University of Oxford.
Career His debut feature, The Hole Story, earned him a slot in Filmmaker magazine's 25 new faces of independent film. His subsequent feature-length films include Woodpecker, Trust Us, This Is All Made Up, Rubberneck, and Red Flag,Neil Genzlinger, Film Festival Blooms With Ripe Perversity, The New York Times, April 22, 2012 the latter two of which were released as a double feature at New York City's Film at Lincoln Center.Red Flag + Rubberneck, TimeOut, February 19, 2013 In addition to these features, Karpovsky has directed numerous episodes of TV shows as well as commercials and music videos.
As an actor, he played Ray Ploshansky in the HBO comedy series Girls, and also appeared in the Coen Brothers' films Inside Llewyn Davis and Hail, Caesar!, was a series regular on Amazon's Homecoming, played Dr. Seiderman on Curb Your Enthusiasm, and had a leading role in the Peacock limited series, Angelyne.Rick Porter, Martin Freeman, Alex Karpovsky Join 'Angelyne' Limited Series at Peacock, The Hollywood Reporter, February 12, 2020
As a writer and producer, he has developed projects at Amazon, Comedy Central, FX, TBS, and Hulu.
As a voice performer, Karpovsky's work has appeared in Selected Shorts, The Paris Review, Modern Love, n+1, Grand Theft Auto IV, and This American Life.
Karpovsky also collaborates with graphic designer Teddy Blanks. Together they work as Spielbergs, and created, wrote and directed the 2019 miniseries Oh Jerome, No, starring Mamoudou Athie.
Filmography
Actor Year Title Role Notes 2003 Cry Funny Happy Henry 2005The Hole StoryAlex2008Cubby KnowlesRobert Lincoln 2009 Beeswax Merrill Graf Harmony and Me Mean Man Mike 2010 Bass Ackwards Vlad Lovers of Hate Paul Lucas Tiny Furniture Jed Incredibly SmallTom 2011 Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same Rookie Agent Wuss Wally Combs Almost in Love Sasha 2012 Sleepwalk with Me Ian Gilmore Gayby Peter Supporting Characters Nick Berger Rubberneck Paul Harris Marvin, Seth and Stanley Seth Greenstein Red Flag Alex 2013 Good Night Jake Inside Llewyn Davis Marty Green 2014 The Foxy Merkins Merkin Man Summer of Blood Jamie 2015 Tired Moonlight Mike Possibilia Rick Bloomin Mud ShuffleChuck 7 Chinese Brothers Kaminsky 2016 Hail, Caesar! Mr. Smitrovich Folk Hero & Funny Guy Paul Scott My Entire High School Sinking Into the Sea Drake Voice role 2017 The Vanishing of Sidney Hall David Bauer Fits and StartsCharles Girlfriend's Day Styvesan 2018 The Front Runner Mike Stratton Being FrankRoss 2019 The Sound of Silence Landon The Return of the Yuletide KidMichael 2020 The Ride Chris 2021 Cryptozoo David Voice role
Television Year Title Role Notes 2012–2015 Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Stephen Lomatin 2 episodes 2012–2017 Girls Ray Ploshansky 42 episodes 2014 Dinner with Friends with Brett Gelman and Friends Himself Television Special 2015 The Show About The Show Himself 2 episodes 2016 Deadbeat Jared the Liar Episode: "Medieval Dead" 2018 Drunk History Zvi Aharoni Episode: "Heists" 2018–2020 Homecoming Craig Petrosian 13 episodes 2020 Curb Your Enthusiasm Doctor Seiderman Episode: "The Spite Store" 2022 Angelyne Jeff Glaser 5 episodes 2025 - Nobody Wants This Big Noah 3 episodes 2027 Recap Doc Broussard 3 episodes
Music video Year Title Artist(s) 2017 When You Die MGMT
Video game Year Title Role 2008 Grand Theft Auto IV The Crowd of Liberty City (voice)
Writer/director
Year Title Role Notes Network/Festival 2027 Allow Me To Destroy You Writer/Director (Upcoming feature-length film) 2019 Oh Jerome, No Writer/Director Episodes 101-108FXX 2018 Love DirectorEpisode 304Netflix 2016 The New Yorker Presents Director Episode 105 Amazon 2016 Girls Director Episode 509HBO 2012 Red Flag Writer/Director featureLA Film Festival 2012 Rubberneck Writer/Director feature Tribeca 2009 Trust Us, This Is All Made Up Writer/Director featureSXSW 2008 Woodpecker Writer/Director feature SXSW 2006 The Hole Story Writer/Directorfeature Harvard Film Archive
References
External links