Troy Garity

Troy Garity married actress Simone Bent at Columbia University’s St. Paul’s Chapel in August 2007.

Much like his parents, Troy is also an avid activist. He is the founder of the Peace Process Network, an international gang violence prevention coalition. Additionally, he also serves as the chairman of Homies Unidos, a gang violence prevention group in Los Angeles.

Troy Garity was born as Troy O’Donovan Garity Hayden on July 7, 1973 in Los Angeles, California to Jane Fonda and Tom Hayden. While his mother was an Academy award winning actress, his father served as a politician. Troy has an adopted sister, Mary Williams, who is an activist. It were his parents who wanted Troy to carry the surname Garity (name of his paternal grandmother), instead of Hayden.

Since an early age, Troy Garity was interested in acting. Wanting to take it up professionally, he started training himself. His first ever acting class was at Santa Barbara's Laurel Springs Camp for the Arts where he performed commedia dell'arte. Later, he trained himself at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. He also became a member of the Academy Repertory Company.

In 1974, Troy Garity first gave a shot in front of the camera for the documentary film, ‘Introduction to the Enemy’ where he starred as himself. More of a family film, the camera followed his antiwar activist parents as they roamed around Vietnam making inquiries regarding the war’s effects. Interestingly, they did not limit their survey to a particular class and instead took information from people from all walks of life.

After an uncredited role in the film ‘On Golden Pond’ in 1981, Garity played the minor role of a bartender on the television movie ‘The Cherokee Kid’ in 1996 and followed it up with the role of an inter in ‘Conspiracy Theory’.

It was in 2000 that Troy secured himself a place in mainstream cinema. He was seen in the American biographical film ‘Steal This Movie!’ The film was based on the radical figure of the 1960s and founder of Yippies, Abbie Hoffman. Interesting as it may seem to be, in the film, Garity capped the role of his father Tom Hayden. He brought a lot of depth and gave an inside perspective to the character, which no other actor could have done justice to.

After ‘Steal This Movie’, Garity got himself a couple of roles including Simon in ‘Perfume’ and Harvey Pollard in ‘Bandits’. He also guest starred in the television series ‘Rude Awakening’ and in the short films, ‘Solomon Bernstein’s’ and ‘Lather.Rinse.Repeat’.

The 2002 film ‘Barbershop’ proved to be the breakthrough film of his career. A comedy film and the first of the Barbershop series, the film gave a big push to his career. His role play of Isaac Rosenberg was so appreciated that he reprised his role for the second and the third instalment of the series as well.

Though Garity has done a lot of work in both films and television, his best works seems to be the one for ‘Soldier’s Girl’ wherein he capped the role of Barry Witchell. The television film saw the best in Garity come out on screen. His role play was not just appreciated by the judges but critics as well. While the film was counted amongst the top ten television films of the year, it proved to be the highlight of Garity’s career as it helped him gain couple of nomination at prestigious award nights.