Jonathan Edward Bernthal (/ˈbɜːrnθɔːl/; born September 20, 1976) is an American actor. He is best known for his portrayal of Shane Walsh on the AMC horror series The Walking Dead (2010–2012; 2018) and Frank Castle / The Punisher on the Netflix action series Daredevil (2015–2018) and The Punisher (2017–2019). He began his career in theater before guest starring on various television shows. He has also starred in supporting and leading roles in films such as The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), Fury (2014), Sicario (2015), The Accountant (2016), Baby Driver (2017), Wind River (2017), Widows (2018), and Ford v Ferrari (2019).
Jonathan Edward Bernthal was born in Washington, D.C. on September 20, 1976, the son of Jewish parents Joan Lurie (née Marx) and Eric Lawrence "Rick" Bernthal, a former lawyer with Latham & Watkins LLP and chair of the board of directors for the Humane Society until 2019. His paternal grandfather was musician and producer Murray Bernthal (1911-2010), whose father, Samuel, emigrated to New York from Sareth, Buchenland, Austrian Empire (today Siret, Romania). He has two brothers: Nicholas, an orthopedic surgeon and professor at UCLA, and Thomas, a consulting agency CEO who is engaged to billionaire Sheryl Sandberg. His cousin was musician Adam Schlesinger, who died in April 2020 of complications from COVID-19 during the global pandemic of the virus.