Japhet Balaban was born and raised in London, England. He moved to the US to attend Kenyon College, where he studied Drama, played rugby, and DJ’d at the local radio station. Over the summers he worked at the Ojai Playwrights Conference and trained with the Atlantic Theatre Company.
He moved to New York City after graduation and started interning with LAByrinth Theatre Company. He assisted Stephen Adly Guirgis on the Broadway production of The Motherf**ker with the Hat.​​
Running lines with Bobby, 2011-ish
He spent the summer of 2011 in Chicago working on a new play with friends, and would stay in the city for the next decade. He acted in a number of well-regarded productions of challenging, ensemble-driven plays like Balm in Gilead, Posh, Women Laughing Alone with Salad, Ideation and You on the Moors Now. He also trained with Steppenwolf Theatre Company, where Amy Morton once told him to “shut the fuck up, Japhet.” (She meant it as a compliment, you had to be there.)
Powerless: Issues1-3, Society for Young Superheroes, 2011
You on the Moors Now, the Hypocrites, 2016
Balm in Gilead, Griffin Theatre, 2015
Posh, Steep Theatre, 2016
Ideation, Jackalope Theatre, 2017
Women Laughing Alone with Salad, Theatre Wit, 2018
While in Chicago, Japhet also started working on-camera. He shot on “Chicago P.D,” “Empire,” “Chicago Med” and “The Chi,” in addition to booking multiple big ticket national commercials for brands like **** *****, ****, and *******.
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Full Disclosure: he also shot many totally ludicrous, absolutely not national spots from which he pulled some really good gifs for texting. There’s one with lasagna, another where he has a big realisation while petting a dog, and a few where he is in a boyband and has shoulder length hair. (Those are a little regrettable.) He also worked in a bunch of really great restaurants where he made some of his favourite friends.
***********, 2018
****** ****** *******, 2016
In 2019, he booked his first lead role in a feature film in the Freeform romantic comedy The Thing about Harry, and followed that up with an episode of "Fargo" in February 2020.​ Things were looking up!
The Thing about Harry, Freeform, 2019
Newsies aka Fargo, FX, early 2020
The next two years were, as they were for almost everyone, really hard. ​​​
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Then, in 2022, amidst a bunch of auditions to play doctors, lawyers, hot doctors, jerky lawyers, hot jerky doctors, and yes, jerky hot doctors, Japhet booked a role in the Broadway production of Tom Stoppard's Leopoldstadt. After focusing on television & film in the run up to the pandemic, then spending two years in a pandemic, it was a joy to return to a rehearsal room to work on a vital story as part of a big, talented ensemble. ​
Leopoldstadt, Broadway, 2022-3
John Proctor Is the Villain, The Huntington, 2024
Glass. Kill. What If If Only. Imp., The Public Theatre, 2025
Since then, he has continued to work in the theatre. He starred in John Proctor is the Villain at the Huntington in 2024, and worked at Pioneer Theatre later that year. This past spring he performed at the Public Theatre in a new work by Caryl Churchill, directed by James Macdonald.
He lives in a quiet part of New York with his fiancée and their dog.