Early years

Chord Overstreet was born in Nashville, Tennessee, to hairdresser Julie Miller and country music singer-songwriter Paul Overstreet. He has an older brother, Nash Overstreet, who plays guitar in the band Hot Chelle Rae, an older sister, Summer, and three younger sisters, Harmony, Skye and Charity. He is of German, Irish, and English descent. He was named after the musical term of the same name. Overstreet was raised on a farm outside of Nashville. Encouraged by his parents to pursue music, he started playing the mandolin at an early age, and moved on to the drums, flute, piano, and guitar. He is also a songwriter. In his teenage years, Overstreet modeled for advertisements for Hollister, Famous Footwear and Gap.

Acting career

Overstreet began to pursue his passion of performing after his high school graduation in 2007. After two unsuccessful years, Overstreet started his acting career on the web series Private as Josh Hollis. He was also featured in an episode of iCarly titled "iSpeed Date" and starred in the unaired pilot of No Ordinary Family. His first film role was that of Teenage Boy in the 2009 thriller The Hole, and he starred in the 2011 film A Warrior's Heart as Dupree, alongside Ashley Greene and Kellan Lutz.

Overstreet plays the character of Sam Evans, a transfer student and athlete, on the FOX comedy-drama television series Glee. He landed the role after auditioning with the Commodores' song "Easy" and Gavin DeGraw's "I Don't Want to Be". He later sang "Billionaire" by Travie McCoy featuring Bruno Mars as a studio test, and eventually sang this in his debut episode titled "Audition". On April 21, 2011, the video for Hot Chelle Rae's "Tonight Tonight" was released on YouTube and featured a series of cameos of Overstreet alternately making out with a girl (whom he stole from the lead singer) on an office copier, DJing at a club, then playing guitar and mugging for the crowd with his brother, Hot Chelle Rae band member, Nash.

On July 1, 2011, TVLine's Michael Ausiello broke the news that Overstreet's contract option to become a series regular on Glee had not been picked up for season 3, but that he could possibly come back as an occasional guest star. In reaction to the announcement, fans launched a campaign to promote Overstreet's cover of "Billionaire" and various tags related to the actor, most notably "#DontCutTheChord", began trending on Twitter. The song made its way into the iTunes top 5 Glee charts during the campaign.

At the 2011 Comic-Con event, Glee co-creator Brad Falchuk reported that they had offered Overstreet a ten-episode deal with a possibility to become a series regular at mid-season, but that Overstreet had declined the option. Overstreet later stated to Ausiello during an interview that he had decided to leave the show to focus on his music career, explaining: "They offered me the chance to come back for a few episodes, but there was nothing guaranteed so I decided to dive into the music thing." It was reported on October 18, 2011, and confirmed by series co-creator Ryan Murphy six days later, that Overstreet would be returning to Glee as a recurring character starting with the third season's eighth episode. On July 23, 2012, it was confirmed that Overstreet would be a series regular for the fourth season of Glee, where he continued until the last season.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2009	The Hole	Adam
2011	A Warrior's Heart	Dupree
2011	Glee: The 3D Concert Movie	Evans, SamSam Evans	Concert movie
2015	4th Man Out	Nick

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2009	iCarly	Eric	Episode: "iSpeed Date"
2009	Private	Josh Hollis	11 episodes
2010	No Ordinary Family	Lucas Fisher	Episode: "Unaired Pilot"
2010-15	Glee	Evans, SamSam Evans	Recurring (season 2-3) Main cast (season 4-6)
2011	The Middle	Ralph Wilkerson	Episode: "Hecking Order"
2013	Regular Show	Dusty B (voice)	Episode: "The Thanksgiving Special"

Music videos

Year	Title	Artist	Role
2011	"Tonight Tonight"	Hot Chelle Rae	Model

Discography

Main article: Glee discography

Overstreet's cover of "Billionaire" was released as a single and charted at #15 in Ireland, #24 in Canada, #28 in the United States, and #34 in Australia. His cover of "Lucky" was also released as a single. On December 13, 2011, one of Overstreet's solo tracks, entitled "Beautiful Girl", was leaked onto the internet. On December 15, 2015, Overstreet signed a recording contract with Safehouse Records, a record label founded by Demi Lovato, Nick Jonas and Phil McIntyre.

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Work	Result
2011	Screen Actors Guild Awards	Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series	Glee	Nominated
2012	Screen Actors Guild Awards	Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series		Nominated
2012	Hollywood Teen TV Awards	Favorite Breakout Star		Nominated
2012	Grammy Awards	Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media	Glee: The Music, Volume 4	Nominated
2013	Screen Actors Guild Awards	Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series	Glee	Nominated
2013	Teen Choice Awards	Choice TV: Male Scene Stealer		Won
2014	Teen Choice Awards	Choice TV Actor: Comedy		Nominated

[ Source: Wikipedia ]