Read on to find out more about Casella’s life and career today. READ THIS NEXT: She Played Jo on The Facts of Life. See Nancy McKeon Now at 56. In 2015, Casella told The A.V. Club that getting cast on Doogie Howser, M.D. was a huge turning point in his career. When the show premiered, Casella was 22 years old. “Well, that was huge for me, the whole thing of doing Doogie,” he said. “I mean, it changed my whole life. It literally changed my whole life overnight. Like I said, before I did Doogie, I had done some theater and small TV things in Boston, and then in New York I did that episode of The Equalizer—and also one of Kate and Allie!—while I was studying and working in a small off-off-Broadway theater.” In an interview with HuffPost Live in 2016, he was asked how he came out of Doogie Howser without the “child star” label. “I was not a child and I was not a star, so that is why I escaped that,” he replied. Casella has a prolific career in TV, film, and theater. He’s played recurring roles in The Sopranos, Boardwalk Empire, Ray Donovan, Vinyl, and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. On the big screen, he’s been in the movies Newsies, Ed Wood, Revolutionary Road, Inside Llewyn Davis, Jackie, and The Tender Bar, among others. On stage, he originated the role of Timon in The Lion King on Broadway and was also in the Broadway revival of The Music Man.ae0fcc31ae342fd3a1346ebb1f342fcb Casella was unsure about being in The Lion King at first, especially because he had to wear and operate a large puppet. “That turned out to be a phenomenal experience, but at the time, it just seemed like a huge digression from what I wanted to be doing,” he told The A.V. Club. Casella has two children, Mia and Gioia, with his ex-wife Leona Robbins, and he occasionally posts about them Instagram. In July 2022, he shared a picture of them posing with Sylvester Stallone, his co-star on the upcoming series Tulsa King, and wrote, “Sly and the Family Casella.” Back in December 2020, he shared a picture of himself with his children and wrote, “These kids, these kids, THESE KIDS!” For more celebrity news delivered right to your inbox, sign up for our daily newsletter. In a different interview with The A.V. Club in 2019, Casella was asked if he still talks to his Doogie Howser co-stars. “Talk? No,” he said. “But, you know, Instagram. Like, like, like, hey, emoji with a few people.” He also said that Lawrence Pressman, who played Dr. Benjamin Canfield on the show, came to opening night of the play A Play Is a Poem, which he was starring in at the time. “I hadn’t seen him in 30 years,” Casella said.
