Darren Criss

Darren Everett Criss was born on February 5, 1987 in San Francisco, California. He is a Golden Globe and Emmy Award-winning actor and singer-songwriter, perhaps best known for his TV roles as Blaine Anderson on Fox’s hit musical series Glee and as Andrew Cunanan in FX’s The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story.

Criss attended Stuart Hall for Boys and Saint Ignatius College Preparatory in San Francisco, graduating in 2005. He went on to receive a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Michigan in 2009, majoring in theatre performance and minoring in Italian and musicology.

Criss began his career on the stage in the San Francisco area, appearing in regional productions for 42nd Street Moon and the American Conservatory Theater, among others. After graduating from the University of Michigan, he co-founded the musical theatre company StarKid Productions with a few of his classmates and enjoyed success with StarKid's productions of A Very Potter Musical, A Very Potter Sequel, and A Very Potter Senior Year (based on the Harry Potter novels), as well as Me and My Dick.

Criss made his Broadway debut as J. Pierrepont Finch in the musical comedy How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre in January 2012. He returned to Broadway to assume the titular role in Hedwig and the Angry Inch at the Belasco Theatre from April through July 2015, and he reprised the role in the San Francisco and Los Angeles engagements of the production’s national tour in October and November of 2016.

In addition, Criss is also a co-founder of Elsie Fest, New York City’s annual outdoor music festival dedicated to show tunes, which has been in existence since 2015.

In television, following his role as Josh Burton on ABC’s Eastwick, Criss shot to global stardom after landing the role of Blaine Anderson in Fox’s smash hit musical series Glee. He would star in a total of 90 episodes from 2010 through 2015, and he earned his first Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics in 2015 for penning the original song “This Time” for the series finale.

Aside from his work on Glee, Criss earned critical acclaim in 2018 for his performance as serial killer Andrew Cunanan in the second season of the anthology series American Crime Story, subtitled The Assassination of Gianni Versace, on FX. He won both an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Television Movie.

Other notable television credits include the role of Music Meister on The CW’s Supergirl and The Flash (2017), Justin in FX’s American Horror Story (2015), and Toby Phillips in the web series Little White Lie (2009). He made his feature film debut in 2012’s Girl Most Likely. He has also worked extensively in voiceover, including the roles of Raphael in Batman vs Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2019), Sideswipe in Transformers: Robots in Disguise (2014-17), Sutemaru in The Tale of the Princess Kaguya (2013), and Katayama in The Wind Rises (2013).

Criss will star opposite Laurence Fishburne and Sam Rockwell in a star-studded Broadway revival of David Mamet’s American Buffalo at the Circle in the Square Theatre.