Darren Criss

Darren Everett Criss (born February 5, 1987) is an American actor, singer, and songwriter.

Criss was raised primarily in San Francisco, apart from 1988 to 1992, when the family resided in Honolulu, Hawaii, where his father started EastWest Bank, serving as chairman and CEO.

Criss says that while living in San Francisco, he faked a British accent for four years since he had told a woman that he was from Britain and the woman, unbeknownst to him, lived close to his parents' house.

Criss attended Roman Catholic schools.

Criss made his professional stage debut at the age of ten as Cesario in 42nd Street Moon's production of Fanny (1997), then played Mauro in the Richard Rodgers and Stephen Sondheim musical Do I Hear a Waltz? (1998), and Beauregard Calhoun in Babes in Arms (1999).

Throughout his adolescence, Criss appeared in a number of the American Conservatory Theater's plays, notably A Christmas Carol, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and The Voysey Inheritance.

At the University of Michigan, he performed in stage productions such as Pride and Prejudice, A Few Good Men, and The Cripple of Inishmaan.

Criss began his solo music career while attending the University of Michigan.

Playing in small venues, he developed his own musical repertoire which today consists of standards from the Great American Songbook, contemporary songs, Disney songs, and his own compositions.

He completed his elementary education at Stuart Hall for Boys, and later graduated from St. Ignatius College Preparatory in 2005.

In 2008, he spent a semester abroad studying Italian theater at the Accademia dell'Arte in Arezzo, Italy.

In 2009, Criss obtained his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Michigan, majoring in Theater Performance and minoring in Musicology and Italian.

Criss' interest in music started in early childhood; at age five, he began taking violin lessons and was classically trained for the next fifteen years.

Criss taught himself how to play other instruments, including guitar, piano, mandolin, harmonica, and drums.

In high school, Criss immersed himself in music – he held the position of concertmaster in the school orchestra, he fronted his own band, and was voted "most likely to win a Grammy" by his peers.

When he was fifteen, Criss began learning music composition and wrote his first song, which he later used as the title track of his first EP Human, released in 2009.

Criss also showed an interest for the performing arts.

At age ten, he was accepted into the American Conservatory Theater (Young Conservatory program) where he studied theater performance throughout his formative years.

At St Ignatius, he was a member of the performing arts program and acted in work, including, The Music Man, The Diary of Anne Frank, and Fiddler on the Roof.

He was active as both an actor and director in the University of Michigan's student-run theater organization Basement Arts.

Criss started his television career with a five-episode arc playing the character of Josh Burton on Eastwick in 2009.

The following year, he appeared in an episode of the series Cold Case.

Upon receiving his Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2009, Criss, along with some friends and classmates from the University of Michigan, co-founded StarKid Productions, a musical theater company.

His most prominent acting role with StarKid has been that of Harry Potter in the musical comedies A Very Potter Musical, A Very Potter Sequel, and A Very Potter Senior Year (based on the Harry Potter series of novels by J. K. Rowling).

Criss is credited as one of the primary songwriters and composers for StarKid Productions.

He has contributed songs to A Very Potter Musical, Me and My Dick (which became the first-ever student-produced college musical to reach Billboard, debuting at number 11 on the Top Cast Albums chart), Little White Lie, and A Very Potter Senior Year.

Subsequently, Criss solely composed all the songs and music for A Very Potter Sequel, its companion album A Very StarKid Album, and Starship, which landed at number one on the Billboard Top Cast Albums chart, and at number 134 on the Billboard 200 chart.

Criss portrayed Blaine Anderson, on the Fox television series Glee.

He rose to fame starring on the television series Glee (2010–2015) and received Emmy and Golden Globe acting awards for his leading role as spree killer Andrew Cunanan in The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story (2018).

He has also appeared on Broadway and in film and has released several musical albums.

A founding member and co-owner of StarKid Productions, a musical theater company based in Chicago, Criss first garnered attention playing the lead role of Harry Potter in, and writing most of the music and lyrics for, StarKid's musical production of A Very Potter Musical.

Criss has also starred on Broadway as a replacement in both How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and Hedwig and the Angry Inch.

He made his first appearance in season two in the episode "Never Been Kissed", which aired on November 9, 2010.

In 2015, Criss co-founded Elsie Fest which is touted as "New York City's first outdoor music festival celebrating tunes from the stage and screen".

In March 2017, Criss debuted his indie pop band Computer Games along with his brother Chuck Criss.

In addition to his music endeavors, Criss starred in the second installment of Ryan Murphy's American Crime Story.

Subtitled The Assassination of Gianni Versace (2018), Criss's portrayal of spree killer Andrew Cunanan received acclaim from critics, and earned him an Emmy win for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie and a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Miniseries, or Television Film.

Criss was born in San Francisco, California, the youngest child of Cerina and Charles William Criss, an investment banker and a patron of the arts.

He had an older brother, Charles "Chuck" Criss, who was a member of the band Freelance Whales.

His mother, a native of Cebu, Philippines, is of Chinese, Filipino and Spanish descent while his father, a native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was of English, German, and Irish descent.