In the 2010s, he began working as a screen actor; most notably, he starred in the 2012 NBC sitcom The New Normal and played the recurring role of Elijah in HBO's Girls (2012–2017). In 2019, he began starring in Black Monday on Showtime. He has accumulated numerous voice acting credits since the beginning of his career including, currently, Matthew MacDell on Netflix's Big Mouth and William Clockwell on Amazon Prime's Invincible.
Early life and education
Rannells was born in Omaha, Nebraska, to Charlotte and Ronald Rannells.[2] He is the fourth of five siblings, with three sisters and an older brother.[2][3] Rannells attended Our Lady of Lourdes grade school in Omaha, and then Creighton Preparatory School,[2] an all-boys Roman Catholic school in Omaha.[3][4] He left the Catholic Church upon graduating as he was sexually abused by a priest at his high school.[5] His family lived in the Hanscom Park neighborhood in Omaha.[2]
As a child, he took classes at the Emmy Gifford Children's Theater and performed at the Omaha Community Playhouse and the Firehouse Dinner Theatre and the Dundee Dinner Theatre.[2][6] Rannells was 11 when he acted in his first play. He did community theater with fellow Omahan and Creighton Prep alumnus Conor Oberst.[7] He did voice-over work and commercials, including a 1996 Grease spoof with Amy Adams.[3]
Rannells moved to New York City in 1997 after graduating from high school, studying theater at Marymount Manhattan College for two years before he started auditioning full-time and began landing roles.[9]
Career
1994–2002: Early career and voice acting
Active in community theater, Rannells got his start as a professional actor as a teenager through voice acting. In the mid-1990s, he found work with the animation production company DIC Entertainment through an Omaha casting call. He was subsequently cast in a number of their television productions in main voice roles.[10] He continued to work in the medium for a number of years while pursuing theater. Rannells worked with the New York City-based production company 4Kids Entertainment from 2001 to 2004 and did voice acting for several English dubs of anime series such as Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh!,[7] in addition to serving as voice director for the dubs of Kirby: Right Back at Ya! and Sonic X.[2]
One of his first theater roles was as the character James in the touring production of Pokémon Live! from September 2000 to August 2001. When asked about his experience in 2014, he jokingly said that he would have rather starred in a porn film or snuff film instead and that he only took the job for the pay.[11][12]
In his 2019 memoir Too Much Is Not Enough: A Memoir of Fumbling Towrd Adulthood, Rannells admitted that playing James on Pokemon Live! was a miserable experience, as he found the character to be an offensive depiction of a gay man. Being a gay man himself, he felt the role was not only a hurtful insult towards his orientation, but also a bad role model for any gay kid who watched the show when it was on tour. He also admitted that he only starred in the show because he was broke and needed the paycheck.[13]
Before winning his first Broadway role, Rannells had parts in a number of regional theater productions, including Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Miss Saigon, and Thoroughly Modern Millie.[14] For his turn as Hedwig at the Zachary Scott Theater Center in Austin, Texas, in 2002,[15] he won best actor in a musical at the B. Iden Payne Awards in September 2002, which honor outstanding achievements in Austin theater.[16]
2005–2012: Broadway debut and The Book of Mormon
Rannells in 2009
In 2005, Rannells made his Broadway debut when he first understudied and then assumed the role of Link Larkin in the Broadway production of Hairspray.[17][18]
He followed this with some regional performances.[3][19][20] He played Bob Gaudio in the First National Tour of Jersey Boys. His last performance with the tour was on December 6, 2008, in Toronto. In January 2009, he reprised the role of Gaudio in the musical's Broadway production.[21]
Rannells played a stripper in the 2012 film Bachelorette[23] and played a lead character, Bryan Collins, in the 2012–13 television series The New Normal.[24][25] In one of his most well known roles, he played the recurring role of Elijah on the HBO television series Girls.[26]
Rannells in 2015
In 2015 Universal Pictures acquired a comedy that was to be written by Rannells with Mike Doyle and produced by Judd Apatow.[27] He temporarily replaced Jonathan Groff in the role of King George III in Hamilton on Broadway from October 27 to November 29, 2015, while Groff fulfilled pre-arranged filming commitments.[28]
He played Larry in the 2018 Broadway revival of The Boys in the Band. It was a limited run, in honor of the play's 50th anniversary. It won a Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play. He revived his role (along with the rest of the revival cast) for the film adaptation for Netflix, which was released on September 30, 2020.
On the television show Black Monday Rannells played Blair Pfaff, one of the leading roles and was also a producer.[33] The show premiered on January 20, 2019, on Showtime. In April 2019, the series was renewed for a second season that premiered on March 15, 2020. In October 2020, the series was renewed for a third season which premiered in 2021.[34] In January 2022, it was confirmed by cast member Paul Scheer that the show was cancelled by Showtime.[35]
During this period, he also returned to voice acting; notable credits include main roles in Netflix's Big Mouth (2017–2025) and Amazon's Invincible (2021–present). He played Trent Oliver in Netflix's 2020 movie musical The Prom, an adaptation of the Broadway musical of the same name.[36]
He reunited with his The Book of Mormon co-star Josh Gad for a limited Broadway production of Gutenberg! The Musical! from September 15, 2023, to January 28, 2024.[40]
Rannells published his first book, a memoir titled Too Much Is Not Enough, in 2019. It is a series of essays about his childhood in Omaha, Nebraska, and his years spent in New York leading up to his 2005 Broadway debut in Hairspray.[41] His second book Uncle of the Year: & Other Debatable Triumphs, again a memoir in the form of essays, was released in 2023.[42]
He made his directorial debut with season 2 episode 7 of Modern Love, titled "How Do You Remember Me?"[43] He also wrote the episode, adapting an essay he wrote for the New York Times column (which appeared in his first memoir).[44]
During an interview on a podcast called "4Kids Flashback", Rannells revealed that he was never called up to reprise his role as Tao Ren for the English dub of Shaman King (2021).[45]
Personal life
Rannells is gay[46], mentioning that he had known about his sexual orientation since high school.[3] He came out to his family when he was eighteen, but he stated that "by that point, no one was surprised".[47] He also came out to his theater friends, but not his all-boys Catholic school.[3]
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