Paul Walter Hauser Biography

Paul Walter Hauser was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He's known for his roles in the films I, Tonya (2018) and Cruella (2021), as well as in the TV shows Kingdom (2014-2017) and Cobra Kai (2019-2025).

His film debut was in Dustin Lance Black's Virginia (2010). He had guest roles on popular comedy shows like Community, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and Key & Peele between 2010 and 2013.

In 2014, he landed a recurring role as Keith on the show Kingdom for all three seasons.

The year 2017 was his time to shine after being cast as bodyguard and friend to Tonya Harding's ex-husband, Shawn Eckardt, in I, Tonya (2017). The film did exceptionally well and Paul had a few more film roles lined up, including Ivanhoe, a member of the Ku Klux Klan in BlacKkKlansman (2018), war veteran and drone expert Michael Dozer in the pandemic-inspired Songbird (2020) and lovable thief Horace in Cruella (2021).

He had a starring role in Clint Eastwood’s biographical drama, Richard Jewell (2019). Paul played the titular character — a security guard at the 1996 Olympic games who finds a pipe bomb and helps move people to safety before it goes off. While initially deemed a hero, he is soon the focus of an FBI investigation and suspected of creating the dangerous scenario himself for fame.

Paul's Apple TV+ miniseries, Black Bird, premiered in July 2022. Based on the memoir by James Keene, it follows Keene (Taron Edgerton) as he begins a 10-year sentence in prison, only to be offered a deal: get Paul’s character, suspected serial killer Larry Hall, to confess his crimes. For his work on the show, he won a Primetime Emmy, a Golden Globe Award and a Critics Choice Award, to name just a few of the awards he received for the miniseries.

He went on to voice the character of Embarrassment in the critically acclaimed animated film Inside Out 2 (2024), played Lefty Ledbetter in Americana (2025) opposite Sydney Sweeney, Harvey Elder/Mole Man in The Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025) and Ed Hocken Jr. in The Naked Gun (2025).

Paul married Amy Elizabeth Boland in 2020. They have two children together.

Filmography:

The Naked Gun (2025)
The Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025)
Americana (2025)
Behind the Lines (2024)
The Luckiest Man in America (2024)
The Instigators (2024)
Inside out (2024)
Orion and the Dark (2024)
Old Dads (2023)
Delia's Gone (2022)
Black Bird (2022)
Queenpins (2021)
Cruella (2021)
Silk Road (2021)
Songbird (2020)
Eat Wheaties! (2020)
Da 5 Bloods (2020)
Adam (2020)
Richard Jewell (2019)
Beats (2019)
Late Night (2019)
BlacKkKlansman (2018)
Super Troopers 2 (2018)
Kiss Me When I’m DOwn (2017)
I, Tonya (2017)
iSteve (2013)
Demoted (2011)
Virginia (2010)