Anthony Rapp

Rapp was born on October 26, 1971, in Chicago, Illinois^[3] to Mary Lee (née Baird) and Douglas Rapp^[4] and raised in nearby Joliet.^[3] After his parents' divorce in 1974,^[3] he was raised by his mother, a nurse.^[5] His older brother is playwright, novelist and filmmaker Adam Rapp. He also has an older sister.^[6]

Rapp participated in community theater as a child^[6] and won awards for his singing in junior high school.^[7] He attended Joliet West High School and theatre camp at Interlochen Arts Camp in Michigan.^[8] He moved to New York in 1989 to attend New York University as a film student, but dropped out after a semester.^[6]

Rapp first performed on Broadway in 1981 in The Little Prince and the Aviator, a musical based on Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's novel The Little Prince. It closed during previews. He made his screen debut in the ensemble of the 1987 film Adventures in Babysitting, directed by Chris Columbus, who later directed Rapp in the film version of Rent. Rapp has appeared in several movies and Broadway shows. His notable roles include such films as Dazed and Confused, A Beautiful Mind, School Ties, Road Trip, Six Degrees of Separation (stage and film versions), The Beach Boys: An American Family, and Danny Roane: First Time Director.^[9]

Rapp played Mark Cohen in the off-Broadway and original Broadway casts of Jonathan Larson's musical Rent. For his audition, he sang R.E.M.'s "Losing My Religion", and received his callback in September 1994.^[7] After offering him the role, Jonathan Larson wrote new songs for the production with Rapp's voice in mind.^[10] Rapp reprised the role in the film adaptation, released on November 23, 2005. He returned to the stage version with original cast member Adam Pascal,^[11] from July 30 to October 7, 2007.^[12] Rapp, Pascal and fellow original cast member Gwen Stewart also participated in a national tour of Rent beginning January 6, 2009.^[13]

Rapp released a solo CD, Look Around, in 2000. In 2006, he published a memoir about Rent and his relationship with his mother, Without You: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and the Musical Rent,^[7] which he spent six years writing.^[14] Rapp developed a one-man stage show with music based on the memoir beginning in 2007, later performing it at such locations as the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.^[14] A recording of the show was released on December 11, 2012, by PS Classics.^[15]

In 2005, Rapp played The Doctor in the world premiere of Feeling Electric (later the Broadway musical Next to Normal) at the New York Musical Theatre Festival.^[6][16] During Next to Normal's Off-Broadway run in 2008, he worked as assistant director to Michael Greif, who had directed him in Rent,^[17] and wrote the introduction to the published script.^[18]

Rapp played Lucas in If/Then, starring fellow Rent alum Idina Menzel. It opened at the National Theatre in Washington, D.C., began previews on Broadway on March 5, 2014, and opened on Broadway at the Richard Rodgers Theater on March 30. In July, Rapp had to miss performances due to a knee injury and surgery.^[19] It closed on March 22, 2015. Rapp reprised the role in the 2015-2016 National Tour with Menzel and the rest of the main Broadway cast.^[20]

Rapp also appeared in "Psych: The Musical", an episode of the TV series Psych, which premiered on USA Network on December 15, 2013. In 2016, Rapp was cast in Star Trek: Discovery as Lt. Commander Paul Stamets, the first openly gay character in the Star Trek television series.^[21] It was Rapp's first television regular role; while he had watched some Star Trek as a child, he watched "curated lists" of episodes from the multiple series to prepare for the role.^[22]

Rapp had a close relationship with his mother, who was battling cancer during the beginning of the off-Broadway and Broadway transfer of Rent. He visited her on weekends.^[7][14] She died at age 55 in 1997.^[23] He credits her for instilling values of justice and respect in him.^[24]

In a 1997 Advocate interview, Rapp described himself as bisexual and recounts how he came out to his mother at 18, telling her that he had a boyfriend. Although originally upset, by her death she had grown comfortable with it.^[3] In an interview with Oasis magazine from the same year, he explained why he labelled his sexuality as queer rather than gay:

The things [sic] that's been most important to me to be out about is that I have been in loving relationships with men [...] 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. [...] I label myself as queer because I think if I have to have any label, that encompasses lesbian, gay, bisexual, everyone.^[25]

He has also identified as "four-and-a-half" on the Kinsey scale.^[20] Despite this, in 2012, Metro Weekly referred to Rapp as "one of the first openly gay men on Broadway".^[26][27] He has cited working with Larry Kramer as a young man (in Kramer's play The Destiny of Me) for his commitment to activism and "liv[ing] an open life".^[24][28]

Rapp is a "die hard" Chicago Cubs fan and co-hosts the baseball podcast The Clubhouse.^[29] At the Cubs game on August 29, 2016, he threw the first pitch and sang the Star Spangled Banner.^[30] He enjoys playing poker and video games.^[18]

In November 2019, Rapp announced his engagement to his partner, Ken Ithiphol.^[31][32] They have two children, both born via surrogacy.^[33][34]

• Without You: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and the Musical Rent (Simon & Schuster, 2006)