Hartley Sawyer is an American actor, writer, and producer, who rose to prominence for his role as the Elongated Man on the popular superhero TV series, “The Flash.”
Early Life
Hartley Thomas Sawyer was born on 25 January 1985, which makes him an Aquarius. His parents raised him and his younger brother, Jansen, on a farm in Goshen, Orange County, New York, USA. His grandfather was an Equine Veterinarian.
Educational Background
He matriculated from Goshen Central High School and graduated from his father’s alma mater, Emerson College, in Boston, Massachusetts majoring in Theater and Philosophy.
Career
First Step
After college, he started his acting career in 2006 when he was given a role in an action-adventure movie called, “Thursday” directed by Thadd Williams. A series of short films followed, such as “Gizor & Gorm” released in 2006, “Killian” in 2008, and “Delmer Builds a Machine” in 2010.
TV Debut
His television debut happened in 2010 when he was chosen to be included in the main cast of a comedy-drama series, “Glory Daze.” Unfortunately, due to poor ratings, it was not renewed for a second season.
For the next couple of years, Hartley made several guest appearances in various TV shows until he was offered the role of Kyle Abbot in “The Young and the Restless.” The show was one of the longest running soap opera on television aired over at CBS. He stayed in the series for about eight months from 24 April 2013 up to 27 January 2014.
Web Series
More TV guest appearances followed with different shows but just for an episode or two. With no main cast or recurring roles offered, Hartley then tried his luck doing Web Series.
In 2014, he was given the role of Dagr in the superhero comedy series, “Caper,” written and produced by Amy Berg and Mike Sizemore. This web series had nine episodes and was uploaded to a YouTube channel called, “Geek & Sundy,” founded by Felicia Day and Kim Evey.
In 2015, he was offered the role of a Wall Street executive in a short film drama called, “SPiN,” along with Wilson Cleveland, who played the role of a financial journalist. It was written by Cleveland and directed by Noah Workman. It won the Webby Award for the Individual Short Drama category.
With the YouTube platform gaining more audience each year, he joined another sci-fi comedy web series in 2016 called, “Miss 2059,” which lasted for three seasons. After a year, he worked with CW Seed for another sci-fi/comedy/horror web series called, “Saving the Human Race,” for six episodes.
His biggest break
On the fourth season of the DC Comics-based series, “The Flash,” the role of a smart private investigator named Ralph Dibny, also known as ”Elongated Man,” was given to Hartley in July of 2017.
He first appeared as a recurring role on that season, and by the following year, the creator and producer decided to promote his role to series regular. He then received much love and attention from supporters and comic superheroes cult following. The last episode for Season 6 was aired last 19 March 2020. His fans need not worry as the actor would still be saving the world as the Elongated Man alongside The Flash, played by Grant Gustin, as CW has renewed the show for its seventh season.
Personal Life
Hartley is currently residing in Los Angeles, California since 2007.
He lives with his two adopted dogs named Maggie and BeeGee, also known as Baby Girl. He found both of these pit bulls from a Kill Shelter. He is quite private when it comes to dating and relationships. This is not unusual at all since he was an introvert growing up and only thought of joining school plays on a whim. From an exclusive interview in “A Book Of” magazine, he further said that, ‘I was very shy. I looked at it as some kind of challenge, I think, because I was terrified to do it. To be honest, I also had the thought in my mind that it might help me meet girls.’
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Even when it comes to his social media accounts, he rarely post about his mom and younger brother but is very close to them. He would often have his childhood friends babysit his dogs when he is busy at work. When he is not busy with work, he would often be seen traversing and camping in the different national parks in America; he loves the outdoors.
Advocacy
A dog-parent himself, Hartley spend a lot of his free time as an animal shelter volunteer in Los Angeles Animal Services. He supports different animal welfare and rescue organizations in America particularly the Stand Up For Pitts Foundation, Angel City Pit Bulls, and No-Kill Los Angeles. He is Vegan and do not eat anything with animal products on it. Most of his Instagram and Twitter posts include hashtags such as #standupforpitts and #adoptdontshop.
Social Media Accounts, Rumors, and Interesting Facts
- He is active on Instagram with over 500,000 followers and on Twitter with 45,000 followers.
- Some of his fans would often regard a certain Silje as his girlfriend, who was with him on Christmas Eve when he was decorating a tree in his home last December, as seen on a video that he posted on Instagram. On the other hand, some fans are questioning if he is gay due to his support for the LGBTQ community.
- Back as a teen, he bought a VHS version of Indiana Jones trilogy and watched it for about 40 times or more because he said that he stopped counting, but he never stopped watching.
- His dream role can be anything from Westerns or feel-good Christmas flicks or something like Keanu Reeves’ John Wick character.
- Based on an Instagram post that he made on 28 June 2015, Hartley expressed his elation and pride about civil rights advocate and lawyer, Mary Bonauto, who was chosen to argue on the same-sex marriage case that resulted in a win. His caption was: ‘Yes, #LoveWins – I have been bursting with pride and emotion since Friday’s decision; as I could not be more staggered with honor that I share blood with this amazing, badass person and lawyer Mary Bonauto. I am having difficulty putting the feelings into words. What an inspirational person.’
https://twitter.com/HartleySawyer/status/1237066514248826880
Appearance
He is 6ft 4ins (1.93m) tall, and has brown hair and brown eyes. There is no information about his weight, but he is physically fit as he works out regularly in the gym.
Net worth
Hartley never had a gap year in his professional acting career since he started working in 2006 and sources estimated his net worth to be around $3,000,000 million as of early 2020.