Daniel Randolph "Dan" Humphrey is a fictional character in the best selling Gossip Girl series of novels. He is one of the central male characters in the television adaptation of the same name, where he is portrayed by Penn Badgley. Dan Humphrey is the son of Rufus Humphrey and has a younger sister, Jenny, while his mother remains absent for the majority of the series. Dan and his family live in Brooklyn, New York, the alternative of the old-moneyed and conservative Upper East Side.