Joe Manganiello's Brad Returns To 'How I Met Your Mother'

Oh, sure, you might know him as the sexy, often shirtless Alcide Herveaux on HBO's hit show, True Blood, with Anna Paquin, Stephen Moyer, Ryan Kwanten, Carrie Preston and Alexander Skarsgard, but Joe Manganiello was racking up an unlikely fan following for a recurring character, Brad, on CBS's How I Met Your Mother all the way back in 2006, when True Blood was still a mere twinkle in creator Alan Ball's eye.

Manganiello's Brad, an old law school buddy of Marshall's (Jason Segel) who appeared in a favorite How I Met Your Mother episode in which the unexpectedly single "bros" both try to do "couply" things together in spite of the fact that they're merely friends, resurfaced on Monday night's installment, "The Stamp Tramp."

"People love bros having brunch," Manganiello told Entertainment Weekly, referring to the episode that nabbed him his following. "Even with the beard and the hair, people come up to me like, 'Oh bro! You're Brad!'"

The cast of HIMYM agree that Manganiello's character's return is well-deserved. "There's something funny about Marshall and Brad," said Josh Radnor, who plays the unlucky-in-love Ted, "how they're like the same height. These two big guys who have brunch together."

"He's such a professional, and not everybody is," said onscreen best bud, Segel, whose character, Marshall, tries to help Brad get back on his feet on Monday's episode after running into him — down on his luck and looking disheveled — on the street. "Sometimes you work with actors who don't really know their lines and stuff like that. As you get more and more famous, some people feel like that allows them to be less prepared. But not Joe. He's on top of it."

According to Cobie Smulders, who plays Robin in How I Met Your Mother and recently appeared as Agent Maria Hill in The Avengers, Manganiello also has a way with comedy. "He's still very down-to-earth and really nice. And able to play and make fun of his hotness."

Catch How I Met Your Mother Monday nights at 8 p.m. EST on CBS.

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