'Newsroom' Adds Young Actor to Play Mitt Romney Staffer (Exclusive)

Joel Johnstone

HBO is doubling down on Joel Johnstone.

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The relative newcomer has booked a recurring role on Aaron Sorkin's The Newsroom and joined the cast of the premium cable network's medical comedy pilot from the creators of Big Love, The Hollywood Reporter has learned exclusively.

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On political drama Newsroom, Johnstone will recur as Cameron, a well-scrubbed Mitt Romney campaign staffer in New Hampshire, where he'll be working alongside Grace Gummer's Hallie Shea, a reporter embedded with the campaign.

He joins recurring players Gummer, Rosemarie DeWitt and Patton Oswalt on the sophomore season ofSorkin's Jeff Daniels starrer. Oswalt is set to play the new vp human resources at cable network Atlantic Cable News, while DeWitt will portray a litigator brought in to defend the network in a wrongful-termination lawsuit.

Meanwhile, on Getting On -- from Big Love's Mark V. Olsen and Will Scheffer -- Johnstone will play Andrew Cesario, a young medical student in his residency under Dr. Jenna James (Roseanne's Laurie Metcalf). He joins a cast that includes the previously announced Alex Borstein (Family Guy) and Niecy Nash (Reno 911).

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Based on the BBC comedy of the same name, the half-hour comedy from BBC Worldwide Productions revolves around the doctors, nurses and administrators at the women's geriatric wing of a hospital.

Johnstone, repped by Working Entertainment, wrote, directed and starred in the comedic short The Pilgrim & the Private Eye. His TV credits include episodes of Criminal Minds and Ed.

Email: Lesley.Goldberg@thr.com; Twitter: @Snoodit