Economists on Screen

Pallavi Sharda
Pallavi Sharda as development economist Asha Maurya in Wedding Season on Netflix

 

Lou Llobell as Gaal Dornick in Foundation Series
Lou Lobell as psychohistorian (aka far future high-tech super-economist) Gaal Dornick, in Apple TV's Foundation, based on Isaac Asimov's book series.

 

Constance Wu in Crazy Rich Asians
Development economist and game theory professor Rachel Chu, played by Constance Wu in Crazy Rich Asians (2018)

 

Jack Ryan
John Krasinski as Jack Ryan, PhD economist turned action hero (2018).

 

Josiah Bartlet
President and Economics Nobel Prize Winner Jed Bartlet, played by Martin Sheen in The West Wing, 1999-2006

 

Olivia Munn
Economics PhD Sloan Sabbith in The Newsroom, played by Olivia Munn (2012-2014)

 

Russell Crowe as John Nash
Real-life economics Nobel Prize winner John Nash, portrayed by Russell Crowe in A Beautiful Mind (2001)

 

Richard Jenkins in The Visitor
Economics Professor Walter Vale, played by Richard Jenkins in The Visitor (2007)

 

Jonah Hill in Moneyball
Economics major and sabermetrics whiz kid Peter Brand, played by Jonah Hill in Moneyball

 

Richard Thaler and Selena Gomez
Nobel Prize-winning behavioral economics pioneer Richard Thaler cameo in The Big Short with Selena Gomez

the Mother
The Mother (Tracy McConell), an economics major and the bassist/vocalist in the band Superfreakonomics, played by Cristin Milioti (2005-2014)

 

Stringer Bell in class
Stringer Bell, a very serious economics student with an interest in business applications, portrayed by Idris Elba on The Wire.

 

Frank Gordon in Yes, Minister
Bernard: I don't think Sir Humphrey understands economics, Prime Minister; he did read Classics, you know.
Hacker: What about Sir Frank? He's head of the Treasury!
Bernard: Well I'm afraid he's at an even greater disadvantage in understanding economics: he's an economist.

Sir Frank Gordon, in the television series, Yes, Minister

 

Nick Nolte in Lorenzo's Oil
Nick Nolte playing real-life economist Augusto Odone as he struggles to find a cure for his son's progressively debilitating disease, in Lorenzo's Oil (1992).

 

Emily Blunt in the five-year-engagement
Rumor has it that Emily Blunt's character in The Five-Year Engagement (2012) was originally supposed to be a behavioral economist, but was rewritten to be a psychologist to avoid confusing people who don't think economists do experiments.

 

Life in Squares Cast
John Maynard Keynes, Virginia Woolf, and their other friends in the famous Bloomsbury Group "lived in squares, painted in circles and loved in triangles" as described by Dorothy Parker and depicted in this racy biopic from the BBC, Life in Squares.

 

Stockholm movie still image
"" Stockholm (2018), directed by Daniel Syrkin.

 

Doctor Strangelove
Doctor Strangelove (1964), said to have been modeled in part after early game theorist (and computer scientist) John von Neumann.

 

Paul Giamatti
Paul Giamatti, playing Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke in HBO's "Too Big to Fail."

 

Daniel Rhys
Actor Daniel Rhys playing groundbreaking economic theorist and Vietnam War whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg in Steven Spielberg's The Post (2017)

 

Alex Keaton from Family Ties
In the popular sitcom Family Ties, Michael J. Fox's character Alex P Keaton represented Reagan-era market fundamentalism in contrast to his left-wing parents. He majors in economics in college.

 

Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze
In Dirty Dancing, Jennifer Grey's character is on her way to a liberal arts college where she plans to study development economics.

 

Philip Barbay
Paxton Whitehead as cliche economics professor Philip Barbay, pitted against practical businessman (and lazy student) Rodney Dangerfield in Back to School.

 

Mikael Birkkjær
Mikael Birkkjær plays the Danish Prime Minister's economist ex-husband in https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/drama/borgen-season-4-cast-power-glory-characters/https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/drama/borgen-season-4-cast-power-glory-characters/.

 

Photo of four people in Transatlantic by Netflix
Economist Albert Hirschman's early days as a WWII Resistance fighter are depicted in the Netflix series, Transatlantic.

 

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