Cooke was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and attended Harriton High School, a small public high school in Rosemont, a suburb of Philadelphia. He was a member of Harriton Theater Company and directed a show his senior year. He has received acting awards including the James Pendleton Foundation Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Performance and the Judith & Milton R. Stark Scholarship. Cooke graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2004, where he majored in theater. He has been married to Eleisha Eagle since April 2011.
Acting career
Television
He played the lead role of Nate Solomon in NBC's 2005 sitcomCommitted. He appeared in guest roles on Without a Trace, Century City, Once and Again, 10-8, and Dragnet. In 2006, he starred in Four Kings, and Big Day, neither of which was renewed. He appeared in Curb Your Enthusiasm. In 2009, Cooke appeared in the Joss Whedon show Dollhouse as Leo Carpenter. He played Dan Stonewater on the final episode of Scrubs and Rabbi Feldman on the final episode of The King of Queens. In 2009, Cooke played Auggie Harris in Season 6 Episode 7 on Numb3rs. Cooke played Ben Coles on Better with You, a sitcom which began in 2010 and was cancelled after 22 episodes. Cooke voiced various characters in Seth Green's Robot Chicken and made an appearance in the hit Showtime series Dexter as Louis Greene. Cooke played Joel Stevens, boyfriend of Rachel Bilson's character Zoe Hart, in CW's Hart of Dixie and appears as Sue Heck's college professor on whom she has a strong crush in the seventh season of The Middle. In 2018, he guest starred as Greg in Younger as Caitlin's older boyfriend and as Barry, father to Sheldon's perceived rival, in Young Sheldon. He portrayed Reeves in Castle Rock. He also guest starred as Mason in episode 9, season 2 of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.
Film
In 2006, Cooke co-starred in the film Wasted as Dixon, alongside Eddie Kaye Thomas and Kip Pardue. Cooke also played Christina Milian's love interest, Eddie, in Snowglobe. He played Eric in Young People Fucking. He is set to appear in the upcoming filmA Fork in the Road. He had a small role in I Love You, Man as Alan, a straight married man in a relationship with Robbie Klaven. Cooke was one of the lead roles in Quarantine 2. Cooke starred as Andy in the 2010 comedy Group Sex, alongside Greg Grunberg and Odette Yustman. Cooke played the lead role as Ron in the 2008 direct-to-DVD film .
Theatre
In 2016, Cooke was cast in the La Jolla Playhouse premiere of Pulitzer Prize winner and Tony Award nominee Ayad Akhtar's as "Robert Merkin." It will be directed by Tony Award winner Doug Hughes and premiere on July 26, 2016.
Music
On November 10, 2015, he released his debut album 'fō under the stagename "fō". It was executively produced by Cooke and Erik Kertes.
