Rent

Background:

Stage and film actor Anthony Rapp is famous as one of the original cast members of Jonathan Larson’s Pulitzer and Tony Award winning Broadway production of “Rent” (1996), playing Mark Cohen, and later for recreating the role in Chris Columbus' 2005 feature film version (shared a Black Reel nomination and a Broadcast Film Critics Association nomination) and the 2009 U.S. National tour. Starting out as a child performer, the Illinois native enjoyed rave reviews as the son of Ed Harris and Judith Ivey in “Precious Sons” at age 14 and originated the role of Ben in the Broadway production of “Six Degrees of Separation” at age 18, a role he later reprised in Fred Schepis' successful 1993 big screen adaptation. Other Broadway credits include “You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown” (1999), “Henry V” (2002) and “Little Shop of Horrors” (2004). Making his film debut in “Adventures in Babysitting” (1987), Rapp has played supporting roles in movies such as “School Ties” (1992), “Dazed and Confused” (1993), “Twister” (1996), “Road Trip” (2001), “A Beautiful Mind” (2001, shared a SAG nomination) and “Love and Other Impossible Pursuits” (2009). He has collaborated with older brother playwright Adam Rapp in the plays “Ursula's Permanent” (1993), “Prosthetics and the $25,000 Pyramid” (1994), “Nocture” (2001) and the films “Winter Passing” (2005) and “Blackbird” (2007).

Also a singer, Rapp released an album in 2000 called “Look Around.” He said, “I'm very excited about this new chapter in my artistic life, and I'm very much looking forward to seeing how people respond to my music.”

In 2006, Rapp released “Without You: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and the Musical Rent,” a memoir about his days in “Rent,” as well as his mother's battle with cancer and his experiences growing up. The same year, he also was awarded the Trailblazer Award.

Rapp disclosed about his homosexuality when he was 18 years old. He has been linked to Josh Safron (met in 1997) and Rodney To (lives in NYC with him as of 2006). He is the supporter of LGBT rights.

Rapp has three cats, Emma, Sebastian, and Spike. He still stays close with many of his “Rent” castmates, including Adam Pascal, Idina Menzel, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Taye Diggs, Jesse L. Martin, and Wilson Jermaine Heredia.

Ant

Childhood and Family:

Anthony Dean Rapp was born on October 26, 1971, in Joliet, Illinois. After his parents divorced, he was under the care of her mother, a trained nurse. Young Ant, as his family called him, became interested in performing, and by age 6 he had starting performing in musicals. He graduated from Joliet West High School in Joliet, Illinois and then moved to New York in 1989 to attend the New York University. After dropping out of college, he headed to California to pursue film career. Ant also attended theater camp at the reputable Michigan Interlochen Arts Camp, where he studied acting for two years. He won a number of awards for his singing while in Junior High.

Ant is the younger brother of Pulitzer Prize nominating playwright and novelist Adam Rapp (born on June 15, 1968). He is most famous for his play “Red Light Winter,” which won the 2005 Joseph Jefferson Award for New Work, not to mention the 2006 Pulitzer Prize nomination for Drama. He also has a cousin named Anne, who he has been considered a little sister. Anne was raised by Ant's mother since she was a baby.

In 1997, Ant's beloved mom, Mary Rapp, passed away after battling with cancer for about five years.

A Beautiful Mind

Career:

Anthony Rapp began appearing in musicals when he was six years old. His first role was that of the Cowardly Lion in “The Wizard of Oz” at Isalnd Lake Camp. He went on to make his professional debut in a road tour production of “Evita” (1981) at age 9 and have the title role in a Broadway musical called “The Little Prince and the Aviator” at age 10. Although the latter show failed to make it to opening night, the gifted child performer quickly got job in a touring production of “The King and I” (1982), along side Yul Brynner. Four years later, Rapp got a second lead in a production of George Furth's stage memoir, “Precious Sons” (1986), opposite Ed Harris and Judith Ivey. His marvelous portrayal of the sensible, woolgathering youth who must choose between the theater and a conventional studies and the attendant contending his parents' wishes won the youth critical acclaim, and he was handed an Outer Critics Circle Award and a Drama Desk nomination.

Rapp segued to the big screen in the following year with a leading role in “Adventures in Babysitting” (1987), the feature film directorial debut of Chris Columbus. In the pleasant comedy, he finely portrayed Daryl Coopersmith, the sex maddened, big mouthed best friend of Brad (played by Keith Coogan), the Andersons' elder child who has a crush on his babysitter. He continued to play Pinky Sears in Meiert Avis's independent thriller “Far From Home” (1989), starring Drew Barrymore, Matt Frewer, Jennifer Tilly, Dick Miller, and Jamie in Donald P. Borchers' horror, “Grave Secrets” (1989), starring Paul Le Mat.

1990 saw Rapp make his TV movie bow in the Disney produced family/drama “Sky High,” which broadcast as part of NBC's “The Magical World of Disney.” There, he starred with Damon Martin. Also in that same year, he returned to the stage when he originated the role of Ben, the son of wealthy, fleeceable parents in the Broadway production of John Guare's “Six Degrees of Separation.” He co founded a theater company, Mr. and Mrs. Smith Productions, in 1991 and performed in the off Broadway productions of “The Destiny of Me” and “Sophistry” in 1992. He stepped to the director's chair for the New York production of “Ursula's Permanent” in 1993, a play he co wrote with his brother Adam.

Rapp resumed his movie career by having the supporting role of Richard 'McGoo' Collins in the Robert Mandel-directed “School Ties” (1992), a drama /sport that successfully established the acting careers of Brendan Fraser, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Chris O'Donnell and Cole Hause. After having the attention getting supporting role of a high school outsider named Tony Olson in Richard Linklater's “Dazed and Confused” (1993), he recreated his stage role of Ben in the film version of “Six Degrees of Separation” (1993). Directed by Fred Schepisi, the film earned a great critical success.

In 1994, Rapp was cast as Cadet Frederick G. Hodgson in Showtime's made for TV film “Assault at West Point: The Court-Martial of Johnson Whittaker,” opposite Samuel L. Jackson, Sam Waterston, Greg Germann and George Martin, and performed in his brother's play, “Prosthetics and the $25,000 Pyramid,” at the Workhouse Theatre. It was also in 1994 that the actor began the role of Mark Cohen, the highly strung aspiring filmmaker who “narrates” much of Jonathan Larson's musical, “Rent,” based on Giacomo Puccini's opera “La bohème,” in a limited three week Workshop production at the New York Theatre Workshop. He would go on to reprise the role in the massively successful Off-Broadway production, which premiered on January 25, 1996, again at the New York Theatre Workshop, and in its subsequent original Broadway production that opened on April 29, 1996. He would remain with the production until 1998, closing it in London's West End. “Rent” was a critical hit on Broadway and picked up several Tony Awards, including Best Musical. Rapps netted an Obie Award, which he shared with the ensemble cast that included Taye Diggs, Wilson Jermaine Heredia, Jesse L. Martin, Idina Menzel, Adam Pascal, Daphne Rubin-Vega and Fredi Walker.

Rapp returned to films in “The Mantis Murder,” a comedy directed and written by Keith Thomson, and the Jan De Bont summer blockbuster “Twister,” playing Tony, one of the scientific team of tornado chasers of Cary Elwes (both 1996). In “David Seaching” (1997), an independent drama directed and written by Leslie L. Smith, he played the title role of a young gay man trying to find himself. His last film in the decade was “Man of the Century” (1999), a comedy/romance directed by Adam Abraham and starring Gibson Frazier and Cara Buono. He also made a memorable guest appearance in “The X Files” (1997), playing Jeff Glaser.

“The music I'm making is influenced by all of those people, I think. So it's a little hard for me to pin it down. Some of it is a little noisy, some of it quiet, some jazzy, some sort of post-punk. I think all of it has a pop sensibility at its heart, though; hooks are very important to me. I've taken to calling my music 'alternapop,' the closest label I could find that fits.” Anthony Rapp

Entering the new millennium, Rapp full filled his childhood dream of becoming a recording artist by releasing his debut album, “Look Around,” released on October 1, 2000. He wrote or co wrote nine of 12 songs included in the album named “Living Alive,” “Look Around,” “Then Again,” “Human Tornado,” “Always,” “Just Some Guy,” “Goodbye,” “Visits To You,” “Now I Know.” The songs “Always” and “Visits to You” deal with the death of her mother.

Still in 2000, Rapp played the supporting role of Samuel Pierce in the ABC Emmy Award nominating TV film “The Beach Boys: An American Family” (2000), a biopic of the rock group The Beach Boys, and costarred as Jacob in the box office hit comedy “Road Trip,” co written and directed by Todd Phillips and starring Breckin Meyer, Seann William Scott and Amy Smart. In addition, he made a cabaret debut at Fez in New York City. Following work in the short “Cruise Control” (2001), Rapp delivered a notable supporting role of Bender, one of the friends and colleagues of math genius John Forbes Nash (played by Russell Crowe), in Ron Howard's highly successful drama, “A Beautiful Mind” (2001), based on the life of f John Forbes Nash, Jr., a Nobel Laureate in Economic. He shared a Screen Actors Guild nomination for Outstanding Performance by the Cast of a Theatrical Motion Picture for his work.

Returning to the stage after having the titular character in the 1999 Broadway revival of “You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown,” Rapp starred in West Coast premiere of brother Adam's play, “Nocture,” at Berkeley Repertory Theatre in 2001. In the next year, he took the lead role in The Commonwealth Shakespeare's production of “Henry V” in Boston. He went on to perform in musicals such as “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” (2003), “Little Shop of Horrors” (2004, starred as as Seymour) and “Feeling Electric” (2005, as Dr. Madden).

In 2004, Rapp portrayed Matt Spevak in an episode of “Law & Oder: Special Victims Unit” called “Bound” and supported Hedy Burress and James Duval in the musical film “Open House,” by Dan Mirvish. He was featured along side Zooey Deschanel, Ed Harris, Will Ferrell and Amelia Warner in the comedy film “Winter Passing” (2005), written and helmed by brother Adam, before reprising the role of Mark Cohen for the big screen adaptation of “Rent” (also 2005), directed by Columbus. The film received mixed reviews and was not a big success at the box office. Rapp and his costars jointly earned a Black Reel nomination for Best Ensemble and Broadcast Film Critics Association's Critics Choice nomination for Best Song for the song “Seasons of Love,” for their work in the film. Talking about shooting the film, he stated, “It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. And now to have it twice in a lifetime by getting to do the film, well, I don't know what to say, except, thank you Chris Columbus.”

After “Rent,” Rapp appeared in childhood friend Andy Dick's “Danny Roane: First Time Director” (2006) and brother Adam's “Blackbird” (2007). During 2006 to 2007, he also had a supporting role in the NBC short lived series “Kidnapped,” playing Larry Kellogg.

In 2008, Rapp performed the autobiographical, “Without You: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and the Musical Rent” at the Pittsburgh City Theatre. After having a reprise performance in the summer of 2007, he once again portrayed Mark Cohen in a 2009 national tour of the musical that began in Cleveland, OH in January 2009. The tour will end in Toronto, Canada in January 2010. Adam Pascal also joined him in both productions.

On the film front, Rapp recently could be seen in Don Roos' “Love and Other Impossible Pursuits,” adapted from Ayelet Waldman's novel of the same name. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 16, 2009. Costars in the film include Natalie Portman, Lisa Kudrow, and Lauren Ambrose. He will star as Gene in Todd Miller's indie drama, “Scaring the Fish” (2009).

Awards:

• Trailblazer Award: 2006

• Obie: “Rent,” 1996

• Outer Critics Circle: “Precious Sons,” 1986