Ask anyone in Hollywood-Mark Feuerstein is known for being a super likeable guy. In high school, Feuerstein served as student body president, and as captain of both the football and wrestling teams. Today, he is a family man, who adores his wife, TV writer Dana Klein, and their three teenage kids.
On screen, too, he has tended to play menschy roles, from a kind doctor in the TV series Royal Pains, to a struggling actor living next door to his parents in the semi-biographical sitcom
9JKL
, which he co-created with his wife.
But these days, he's taken a "180" from his good-guy persona to play a coke-snorting hedonistic hotel owner in
Hotel Cocaine
, an MGM+ series that explores the seedy, yet decadent Miami cocaine scene of the 1970s and '80s.
Feuerstein got bitten by the acting bug as a Princeton undergrad. After college, he studied theater at the University of Oxford and the London Academy of Music and Fine Arts on a Fulbright scholarship.
The actor nabbed his breakout role on the soap opera Loving. He's appeared in a slew of other TV shows, from
Caroline in the City
and S
ex and the City,
to
The West Wing
and
Prison Break,
plus films like
Practical Magic
,
What Women Want
, and
In Her Shoes
.
You can catch Feuerstein in
Hotel Cocaine
, streaming now on MGM+.
What was the last book you read?
An Empire of Their Own: How the Jews Invented Hollywood
by Neal Gabler
What's your all-time favorite movie?
It's tough to pick just one:
Au revoir les Enfants
,
Jean de Florette
, T
he Squid and the Whale
,
Rocky
,
The Godfather
, and
Annie Hall.
What's your favorite Jewish food?
Kasha varnishkes
or a pastrami sandwich at the 2nd Ave Deli.
What are you listening to these days?
Podcasts: The Daily, The Times of Israel, and Hardfork. On my Pandora when I'm biking: G Love & Special Sauce Radio, A Tribe Called Quest Radio; and when I'm reading the newspaper or working: Yves Montand and Chopin. Radio
Who was the last person you texted on your phone?
My co-heads of the Jewish Affinity Group about the bagels for our upcoming breakfast.
If you could invite three people to a Shabbat dinner, who would they be?
William Shakespeare, Socrates, and Mel Brooks.
If you could have any other occupation, what would it be?
Leader of bike trips all over the world.
Who are two of your biggest role models?
My father, Harvey Feuerstein, the prototype of a New York mensch, and Henry Winkler, the prototype of a Los Angeles mensch.
What are you currently binging on TV?
The Bear
,
Chimp Crazy
, and
Entourage
.
If you could offer the teen version of yourself one piece of wisdom, what would it be?
In the immortal words of that great Jewess Idina Menzel, "Let it go."
