Darren Criss
Darren Everett Criss (born February 5, 1987) is an American actor, singer, and songwriter. One of the founding members and co-owners of StarKid Productions, a musical theater company based in Chicago, Illinois, Criss first garnered attention playing the lead role of Harry Potter in StarKid's musical production of A Very Potter Musical. The theater troupe made Billboard history when their original album, Me and My Dick, became the first charting student-produced musical recording, debuting at number eleven on the Top Cast Albums chart in 2010. Criss is best known for his portrayal of Blaine Anderson (2010–present), an openly gay student, on the Fox musical comedy-drama series Glee. As the lead vocalist of Glee ' s Dalton Academy Warblers, Criss' first number, a cover version of "Teenage Dream", became the fastest-selling Glee single, reached number eight on the Billboard Hot 100, and was certified gold in the U.S. The Warblers have sold over 1.3 million tracks, and the soundtrack album, Glee: The Music Presents the Warblers (2011), peaked at number two on the US Billboard 200. In January 2012, Criss made his Broadway debut, starring as J. Pierrepont Finch in the revival of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. His stint there proved to be a success: apart from Daniel Radcliffe's final week, the musical had the three most lucrative weeks of its 11-month run with Criss in the lead role, grossing more than four million dollars. In September 2012, he made his feature film debut in the comedy Girl Most Likely.