Early life

Rapp was born in Joliet, Illinois, the son of Mary Lee (née Baird) and Douglas Rapp, a computer specialist. After his parents' divorce, he was raised by his mother, a trained nurse.

Rapp attended high school at Joliet West High School in Joliet, Illinois and theatre camp at Interlochen Arts Camp. In junior high school, Rapp won numerous awards for his singing. His brother is playwright, novelist, and filmmaker Adam Rapp.

Career

Rapp first performed on Broadway in 1981 in the musical The Little Prince and the Aviator, a musical based on Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's novel The Little Prince. The show closed during previews. He also appeared in the 1987 film Adventures in Babysitting, which was directed by Chris Columbus. Columbus would later direct Rapp in the film version of Rent. He has appeared in several movies and Broadway shows, most notably as intellectuals. His notable work includes such films as Dazed and Confused, A Beautiful Mind, School Ties, Road Trip, Six Degrees of Separation (stage and film versions), An American Family, Danny Roane: First Time Director and You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown.

Rapp is best known for playing Mark Cohen in the off-Broadway and original Broadway casts of Jonathan Larson's musical Rent. For his audition for the musical, Rapp sang R.E.M.'s "Losing My Religion", and received his callback in September 1994. After being offered the role, Jonathan Larson even wrote new songs with Rapp's voice in mind. He reprised that role in the film adaptation, which was released on November 23, 2005.

In 2000, Rapp released a solo CD, entitled Look Around. He returned to Rent on July 30, 2007, for a six-week run, along with original cast member Adam Pascal. Rapp and Adam Pascal continued in their return to Broadway's Rent through October 7 at the Nederlander Theatre.

Rapp and Pascal, along with fellow original cast member Gwen Stewart, reprised their roles of Mark and Roger in a national tour of Rent beginning January 6, 2009.

Rapp played the role of Lucas in If/Then, which starred fellow Rent alum Idina Menzel. If/Then played the National Theatre in Washington, D.C., and began previews on Broadway on March 5, 2014, and opened on Broadway at the Richard Rodgers Theater on March 30, 2014. It closed on March 22, 2015. Rapp reprises the role in select performances of the 2015-2016 National Tour, along with Menzel and the rest of the main Broadway cast.

Rapp also appeared in the television special Psych: The Musical, which premiered on USA Network on December 15, 2013.

Personal life

Although Metro Weekly labeled him "one of the first openly gay men on Broadway," Rapp has rejected the label of "gay" and instead identifies as "queer," as explained in a 1997 interview with Oasis Magazine:

I don't want to get into labels, but I've never labeled myself except to say I'm queer. The things that's been most important to me to be out about is that I have been in loving relationships with men. That is what I think is most important with any kind of visibility at this point is for people to see that ... yes, certainly it's about sex, people have sex, but ... what's most important who you love and are in love with So, how I've come out is by thanking the man I love in the bio. I haven't said 'I am gay.' Because the truth is that I've also been in love with women, although the truth is I do think I'm primarily homosexual. But the whole debate about bisexuality gets tiresome to me and I don't want to enter into it. People have such misconceptions about it. I'm really happy that right now there's a great conversation going on about fluidity, because I think that for a lot of people, that's the case.

Work

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1990	Sky High	Wes Hansen	TV movie
1994	Assault at West Point: The Court-Martial of Johnson Whittaker	Cadet Frederick G. Hodgson	TV movie
1996	The Lazarus Man	Verity	1 episode
1997	The X-Files	Jeff Glaser	1 episode
2000	The Beach Boys: An American Family	Van Dyke Parks	TV movie
2004	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	Matt Spevak	1 episode
2006-07	Kidnapped	Larry Kellogg	4 episodes
2012	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	Nathan Forrester	1 episode
2013	Psych: The Musical	Z	1 episode (TV special)
2014	It Could Be Worse	Casting Director	1 episode
2015	Stop the Bleeding	Buster	2 episodes
	The Knick	Dr. Thurman Drexler	2 episodes

Theatre

Year	Production	Role	Notes
Unknown	Youth is Broken	Unknown	off-Broadway
1981	Evita	Unknown	Regional
1982	The Little Prince and the Aviator	The Little Prince	Broadway; never opened
1986	Precious Sons	Freddy	Broadway; Mar. 20 - May 10, 1986
1990	Six Degrees of Separation	Ben/Woody (u/s)/Doug (u/s)	Broadway; Nov. 8, 1990 - Jan. 5, 1992
1992	The Destiny of Me	Alexander Weeks	off-Broadway
1993	Sophistry	Jack Kahn	off-Broadway
1994	Trafficking in Broken Hearts	Bobby	off-Broadway
1995	Raised in Captivity	Dylan Taylor Sinclair/Roger	off-Broadway
	Rent	Mark Cohen	off-Broadway; 1995
1996			Broadway; 1996-97
1997			National Tour
1998			West End
	Bright Lights, Big City	Unknown	off-Broadway
1999	You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown	Charlie Brown	Broadway; Feb. 4 - Jun. 13, 1999
2001	Nocturne	Unknown	Berkely Repertory Theatre
2002	Henry V	King Henry V	Commonwealth Shakespeare Company
2003	Hedwig and the Angry Inch	Hedwig Robinson	Brighton Fringe
	Private Jokes Public Places	William	off-Broadway
2004	Little Shop of Horrors	Seymour Krelbourn	National tour
2005	The 24 Hour Plays	Trisan	Broadway; special benefit production
2006	Rent	Mark Cohen	Broadway; 10th anniversary reunion concert
2007			Broadway; Jul. 30 - Oct. 7, 2007
	Spalding Gray: Stories Left to Tell	Performer	off-Broadway
2008	Without You	Anthony Rapp	International tour; 2008 - 2011
	Some Americans Abroad	Henry McNeil	off-Broadway
2009	Rent	Mark Cohen	National tour
2012	Pop!	Unknown	City Theatre
	Without You	Anthony Rapp	West End
2014	If/Then	Lucas	Broadway; Mar. 30, 2014 - Mar. 22, 2015
2015			National tour; Oct. 13, 2015 - present

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1987	Adventures in Babysitting	Daryl Coopersmith
1989	Grave Secrets	Jamie
	Far From Home	Pinky Sears
1992	School Ties	Richard "McGoo" Collins
1993	Dazed and Confused	Tony Olson
	Six Degrees of Separation	Ben
1996	Twister	Tony
	The Mantis Murder	Unknown
1997	David Searching	David
1999	Man of the Century	Timothy Burns
2000	Road Trip	Jacob Schultz
2001	Cruise Control	Mirror Man	Short
	A Beautiful Mind	Bender
2002	Paradisco	L'ami américain	Short
2004	Open House	Barry Farnsworth
2005	Rent	Mark Cohen
	Happy Endings	Dean
2006	Danny Roane: First Time Director	Self
2007	Let Them Chirp Awhile	Self
	Blackbird	Unknown
2008	Scaring the Fish	Gene
2009	The Other Woman	Simon
2012	Junction	Connor
2014	Grind	Vincent	Short
2015	Not Again	Dr. Thom	Short
2016	Opening Night	Logan Joyce	post-production
	Modern Love	Daniel	post-production
	Dreamland	Brad	completed

Discography

Year	Title	Notes
1996	Rent (original Broadway cast recording)	Solos on twenty-two tracks
1999	You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown (new Broadway cast recording)	Solos on nine tracks
2000	Look Around	Solo album
2012	Without You (original cast recording)	Solo album
2014	If/Then (original Broadway cast recording)	Solos on six tracks

Concerts

Start Date	End Date	Title	# of shows	Notes
Jan 10, 2011		New York Town Hall	1	With Adam Pascal
Apr 12, 2012		Highline Ballroom	1	With Adam Pascal
Nov. 23, 2012	Nov. 24, 2012	54 Below	2
Oct. 20, 2014		Emelin Theatre	1
Mar. 30, 2015		B.B. King Blues Club and Grill	1	With Adam Pascal, Mandy Gonzalez, Lindsay Mendez, Marcus Paul James, and Telly Leung

Autobiography

Release	Title	Notes
2006	Without You: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and the Musical Rent	Published by Simon & Schuster

Awards and Nominations

Year	Award	Category	Nominee	Result
1986	Outer Critics Circle Award	Outstanding Actor in a Musical	Precious Sons	Won
	Drama Desk Award	Outstanding Actor in a Musical		Nominated
1996	Obie Award	Special Citatons	Rent	Won
2001	ACC Award	Best Ensemble Cast	A Beautiful Mind	Nominated
	Screen Actors Guild Award	Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture		Nominated
2005	Stinkers Bad Movie Award	Worst Song Performance	Rent	Nominated
2006	Broadcast Film Critics Association Award	Best Song Performance		Nominated
		Best Acting Ensemble		Nominated
	OFTA Film Award	Best Adapted Music		Nominated
2014	Broadway.com Audience Award	Favorite Featured Actor in a Musical	If/Then	Won

[ Source: Wikipedia ]