A veteran of musical theatre, Barrett Foa devoted the first decade of his career to the stage before moving into television with a starring role on hit crime procedural "NCIS: Los Angeles" (CBS, 2009-). Born in Manhattan, NY in 1977, Foa developed a love of acting from a young age and attended Michigan's Interlochen Arts Camp before studying Musical Theatre Performance at the University of Michigan, a period in which he also interned at Johnson-Liff Casting and spent a semester at London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts.
Having honed his craft further with stints in various stock theatre groups, Foa then landed his first major role, starring as Jesus in the 2000 off-Broadway revival of "Godspell," and a year later made his Broadway debut in the ABBA phenomenon "Mamma Mia." After adding the likes of "Much Ado About Nothing," "Camelot" and "Cupid & Psyche" to his list of credits, Foa took on the role of Rod in puppet-based musical "Avenue Q" for 18 months before spending a year playing Leaf Coneybear in "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee."
Parts in "The Pirates of Penzance" and "The Lady in Question" then followed in 2007, the same year that Foa made his on-screen debut with a one-off appearance on short-lived relationship drama, "Six Degrees" (ABC, 2006-07), but he soon returned to the stage with roles in "The Drunken City," "Giant" and "The Nightingale." However, Foa then spent 2009 focusing on television work with guest spots as computer hacker Andrew Gibbons in crime drama "NUMB3RS" (CBS, 2005-10), the boyfriend of a murdered FBI informant in police procedural "The Closer" (TNT, 2005-12), Ari's assistant Matt Wolpert in Hollywood satire "Entourage" (HBO, 2004-2011) and surfing-obsessed intelligence analyst Eric Beale in "NCIS" (CBS, 2003- ).
Foa then got the chance to flesh out the latter character when he was called back to appear alongside LL Cool J and Chris O'Donnell in the successful spin-off "NCIS: Los Angeles" (CBS, 2009- ). Foa became an integral part of the cast but still occasionally found the time to return to his first love, co-writing, producing and starring in the '80s musical tribute, "For The Record: John Hughes," appearing in a production of "The Music Man" and serving as the official social media correspondent for the CBS coverage of the 2013 Tony Awards.