Born September 21, 1983 in Rhinebeck, New York, Joseph Francis Mazzello III is an American actor best known for his roles as Tim Murphy in Jurassic Park, Eugene Sledge in the HBO miniseries The Pacific, and Dustin Moskovitz in The Social Network.

Mazzello was raised in Hyde Park, New York.  He is the son of Virginia and Joseph Mazzello Jr., who owned a performing arts school.  He has one older sister, Mary Mazzello, and a younger brother, John Mazzello, who have both appeared in films.  He has been passionate about oldies music, and when he was growing up, his sister teased him for being old-fashioned.  Mazzello is an alumnus of Our Lady of Lourdes High School and the University of Southern California where he got a degree in cinema and television production.  He plans to continue his acting career while also following his aspirations of becoming a director.

Mazzello’s most notable roles were as Douglas Gresham in Shadowlands and Tim Murphy in Jurassic Park, both in 1993.  He was originally going to play Jack, Robin Williams’ son in Hook (1991), but he was too small, so Steven Spielberg went out of his way to the point of changing the script for Jurassic Park (1993), to let him play Tim.  He also played Dexter in the 1995 film The Cure, and “Sledgehammer” Eugene Sledge in the HBO miniseries The Pacific.  His previous credits include “Presumed Innocent” (1990) and “Radio Flyer” (1992), as one of two brothers dealing with an abusive alcoholic stepfather.

In 2010, Mazzello played the part of Dustin Moskovitz, one of the co-founders of Facebook in the David Fincher-directed movie, The Social Network.  Mazzello’s directorial debut was made with the film Matters of Life and Death in which he also stars; the cast includes David Strathairn (with whom he has worked in The Sensation of Sight, The River Wild, and Simon Birch), Daniel Gillies and Rachael Leigh Cook.

Joseph Mazzello Photo Gallery