John Francis Daley

John Francis Daley (born July 20, 1985) is an American actor, filmmaker, and musician. He is best known for playing high school freshman Sam Weir on the NBC comedy-drama Freaks and Geeks and FBI criminal profiler Dr. Lance Sweets on the crime drama series Bones, for which he was nominated for a 2014 PRISM Award. He plays keyboards and sings for the band Dayplayer. Daley is also known for his collaborative work with fellow writer and director Jonathan Goldstein, working on various films together. Daley and Goldstein's first work together was co-writing the comedy Horrible Bosses (2011), co-writers for The Incredible Burt Wonderstone (2013), co-story writing for Horrible Bosses 2 (2014), and co-writing/co-directing (in their directing debuts) the fifth film in the National Lampoon's Vacation film series, Vacation (2015). The duo were co-writers for Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) with Jon Watts, Christopher Ford, Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers, and they co-directed the 2018 comedy Game Night and the 2023 fantasy Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. Early life Daley was born in the Chicago suburb of Wheeling, Illinois, to R.F. Daley, an actor, and Nancy Daley, a piano teacher. His father is of Irish Catholic background, while his mother is Jewish. He grew up in Nyack, New York, where he played Danny in Nyack Middle School's production of Grease. Career Daley began acting when he was cast as young Tommy in the U.S. and international tours of the Broadway hit The Who's Tommy. He played Sam Weir, protagonist of the "Geeks", in the television series Freaks and Geeks, and since then he has worked continuously in television, including series such as The Geena Davis Show, Boston Public, Regular Joe, Kitchen Confidential, Judging Amy, and Spin City. He was #94 on VH1's 100 Greatest Teen Stars.