Who is Josh Lawson? Everything to Know about the St. Denis Medical Star
St. Denis Medical's surgeon, Bruce, is a familiar face who you may recognize from other projects like Superstore.
NBC’s new workplace mockumentary St. Denis Medical, which premieres November 12, brings a comedic twist to the medical field. The show is co-created by the creator of Superstore and brings back one of its most hilarious cast members, Josh Lawson.
For those who don't remember, Lawson had a recurring role as the egotistical pharmacist, Tate Staskiewicz, in the first three seasons of Superstore, and now takes on the lead role of trauma surgeon Bruce in St. Denis Medical.
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Beyond his beloved sitcom roles, Lawson is a talented and multifaceted actor and filmmaker who’s taken on everything from comedy to action to dramas, across both television and film, in both the United States and his native Australia (that's right, his real voice has an Australian accent). As we get ready to meet Bruce, let’s look back at Lawson’s career.
Josh Lawson got his start down under
Lawson originally hails from Brisbane, Australia, and made his television debut on the Australian children’s show The Wayne Manifesto in 1997. In 2001, he graduated from the National Institute of Dramatic Art in Sydney and spent time in Los Angeles studying improv comedy.
Most of Lawson’s early roles were in his native country, including recurring parts on TwentyfourSeven, a drama series about the staff of a magazine, and Blue Heelers, a police drama. His first part in a US production was in an episode of the 2006 TNT horror anthology Nightmares & Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King.
Lawson has worked continuously in both television and film, with a focus on the comedy genre. On the film side, American audiences might recognize him from his appearance in director Jay Roach’s 2012 political comedy The Campaign, in which Lawson played Tripp Huggins, the brother of Marty Huggins, a bumbling aspiring politician played by Zach Galifianakis. Lawson also appeared in 2013’s Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues as Kench Allenby, a news executive whose thick Australian accent causes comic confusion for the other characters.
On the television front, from 2012 to 2016, Lawson had a starring role alongside Don Cheadle, Kristen Bell, and Ben Schwartz in the Showtime dramedy series House of Lies, playing consultant Doug Guggenheim.
Josh Lawson is also an accomplished filmmaker
In 2014, Lawson starred in, wrote, and directed the sex comedy The Little Death. The film won him the Audience Award for Narrative Spotlight at that year’s South by Southwest festival. Speaking with Variety, Lawson explained that the film’s explicit subject matter “definitely pushes the boundaries a bit, and I really wanted to make a film that you hadn’t seen before.”
Lawson also starred in, wrote, and directed a second feature film, the sci-fi romantic comedy Long Story Short, which came out in 2021. The film stars Rafe Spall as a man who finds himself jumping forward in time after his wedding. In an interview with Script Magazine, Lawson revealed that he was equally inspired by classic Hollywood comedies like His Girl Friday and sci-fi and speculative fiction like The Twilight Zone.
“I do feel sometimes that my stuff is of a bygone era, but I also embrace that now,” Lawson said. “It’s probably not for everyone but this is a sort of classic Hollywood type of rom-com where it’s very dialogue-driven.”
Josh Lawson is a rising star in film and television
In 2019, he appeared in the Fox News-set drama Bombshell alongside Charlize Theron, Nicole Kidman, and Margot Robbie. Lawson portrayed James Murdoch, the son of Fox co-creator Rupert Murdoch. In Bombshell, Lawson was also acting alongside his older brother Ben Lawson, an actor who has appeared in shows including Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23, 13 Reasons Why, and The Good Place. Ben portrayed Lachlan Murdoch, the older brother of James Murdoch.
In 2021, Lawson took on the role of the wisecracking mercenary Kano in the action-packed video game adaptation Mortal Kombat, a role he reprised for a sequel set to release next year. The character had previously been played by Trevor Goddard in the 1995 Mortal Kombat film.
Though Mortal Kombat was a Hollywood production, it was filmed in Adelaide, Australia, giving Lawson a chance to return to the country he grew up in after years working on projects in the United States.
“It is just lovely to feel like Hollywood is a little closer to Australia when you do something like that,” he shared in an interview with Mediaweek. “It makes the world feel smaller in a good way.”
Catch Josh Lawson in St. Denis Medical, premiering on November 12 on NBC and streaming the next day on Peacock.
