Early life

Rannells was born in Omaha, Nebraska, the son of Charlotte and the late Ronald Rannells. Rannells' father had a heart attack very suddenly in 2001 when Rannells was 22. He is the fourth of five siblings, with three sisters and an older brother. His family has an Irish and Polish background.

Rannells attended Our Lady of Lourdes grade school and then Creighton Prep, an all-boys Catholic school in Omaha. His family lived in the Hanscom Park neighborhood of Omaha.

As a child Rannells 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. Rannells was 11 when he did his first play. He did community theater with Conor Oberst. Rannells also did voice-over work and commercials, including a 1996 Grease spoof with Amy Adams.

Rannells moved to New York City in 1997 after high school, studying theater at Marymount Manhattan College for two years before he started auditioning full-time and was landing roles.

Career

For about three years, from 2001-04, he worked with 4Kids Entertainment, a New York City animation production company, where his Omaha voice-over work served him well. He also directed a couple of video games, "Kirby" and "Sonic the Hedgehog."

As a voice actor, Rannells appeared in several 4Kids and DiC television programs and video games, such as Yu-Gi-Oh! Before winning his first Broadway role, Rannells took part in a number of regional theater productions, including Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Miss Saigon, and Thoroughly Modern Millie. For his turn as Hedwig at the Zachary Scott Theater Center in Austin, Texas, in 2002, Rannells was nominated for and won for best actor in a musical at the B. Iden Payne Awards in September 2002, which honor outstanding achievements in Austin theater. In 2006, he won the role of Link Larkin in the Broadway production of Hairspray. This was his first Broadway show, what he considers his big break. Rannells followed this with some regional performances.

Rannells 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.

Rannells originated the role of Elder Price in The Book of Mormon, a musical written by South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone and Avenue Q composer Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx. For his performance, he was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical. He won the Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album for his performance in the musical's Original Broadway Cast Recording. His last performance was June 10, 2012.

Rannells played a stripper in the 2012 film Bachelorette and played a lead character, Bryan Collins, in the 2012-13 television series The New Normal.

Rannells currently plays the recurring role of Elijah on the HBO television series Girls.

Rannells 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.

On March 31, 2016, it was announced that Rannells will be playing Whizzer in the upcoming Broadway revival of Falsettos directed by James Lapine. He is joined by Christian Borle and Stephanie J. Block who will be playing Marvin and Trina, respectively.

Personal life

Rannells is of Polish and Irish descent, and he is openly gay. He knew he was gay by high school. Rannells said he came out to his family when he was 18, but by then they had already figured it out. He also came out to his theater friends but not the people at his all-boys Catholic school. Rannells currently lives in New York City after temporarily re-locating to Los Angeles to film The New Normal. He shares his life with actor Mike Doyle.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2010	Sex and the City 2	Wedding Chorus
2012	Bachelorette	Manny
2015	The Intern	Cameron
2016	Why Him?		Filming

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1995-97	Street Sharks	Streex, Shrimp Louie (voices)	Lead role
1998	Pokémon	Harley, Additional Voices	Recurring role
1999	Archie's Weird Mysteries	Archie Andrews (voice)	Lead role
2000	Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters	Mako Tsunami, Noah Kaiba, Leon von Schroeder/Leon Wilson (voices: English dub)	Recurring roles
2001	Cubix	Connor	Lead role
2001	Fighting Foodons	Fried Ricer (voice, English dub)	Lead role
2001	Shaman King	Len Tao (voice, English dub)	Lead role
2002	Kirby: Right Back at Ya!	Narrator, Cloaked Nightmare (voices: English dub)	Recurring role
2002	Ultimate Muscle	Additional voices	Recurring role
2002	Tokyo Mew Mew	Dren, Wesley J. Coolridge III (voices: English dub)	Lead role
2002	Liberty's Kids	Alexander Hamilton (voice)	Guest role
2003	Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles	Additional voices	Recurring role
2003	Sonic X	Narrator, Decoe, Bokkun, Mr. Stewart, E-101 Beta, E-102 Gamma, E-104 Epsilon (voices: English dub)	Recurring role
2004	F-Zero GP Legend	The Skull (voice: English dub)	Recurring role
2004	One Piece	Young Roranoa Zola (voice, 4Kids English dub)	Guest role
2005	Yu-Gi-Oh! GX	Wheeler the Chimpanzee, Belowski, Additional voices	Recurring role
2006	Pokémon Chronicles	Additional Voices	Recurring role
2012-present	Girls	Elijah Krantz	Recurring role (season 1-3) Main role (season 4-present)
2012-13	The New Normal	Bryan Collins	Lead role
2013-14	How I Met Your Mother	Darren	2 episodes
2015	Glee	Himself	Episode: "Dreams Come True"
2015	The Knick	Frazier H. Wingo	2 episodes
2016	The Simpsons	Himself (voice)	Episode: How Lisa Got Her Marge Back

Video games

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2005	Shadow the Hedgehog	E-123 Omega, G.U.N. Officer

Theater

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2000-01	Pokémon Live!	James	Baritone/Tenor
2005	Hairspray	Fender, Link Larkin	Replacement roles
2006	The 60's Project	Performer	Chester, CT (Regional): World Premiere
2007	Jersey Boys	Bob Gaudio	US Tour: 1st National Tour, replacement role
2011	The Book of Mormon	Elder Price	Originated role
2014	Hedwig and the Angry Inch	Hedwig	Replacement
2015	Hamilton	King George III	Temporary five week replacement

Awards

• 2011 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical for The Book of Mormon (nom)
• 2011 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Musical for The Book of Mormon (nom)
• 2012 Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album for The Book of Mormon (won)
• 2013 OFTA Award for Best Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for Girls (nom)
• 2013 Gold Derby Award for Best Comedy Guest Actor for Girls
• 2013 Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association Rising Star Award (nom)
• 2014 Gold Derby Award for Best Comedy Guest Actor for Girls
• 2014 Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Guest Performer in a Comedy Series for Girls (nom)
• 2015 Broadway.com Audience Awards for Hedwig and the Angry Inch (nom)
• 2016 Broadway.com Audience Awards for Hamilton (TBA)

Charities

Andrew Rannells supports the following charitable causes: Gay Rights, Gay Youth, ALS (amyrotrophic lateral sclerosis).

[ Source: Wikipedia ]