Colin Donnell

Colin Donnell was born in St. Louis, Missouri, as the youngest of three boys. He has Irish^[2] and French ancestry. He played the guitar and took singing lessons when he was 17. His introduction to the stage was at Kirkwood High School.^[3] He was a part of the choir and was in the background juggling and doing circus tricks, which led to being part of his first school musical production of Barnum.^[4] Donnell graduated from Indiana University Bloomington in 2005.^[5][6]

Donnell has been part of many national stage tours, such as Mamma Mia! and Wicked. His first Broadway Theatre performance was in Jersey Boys as Hank Mejewski. His other stage credits include Follies, Meet Me in St. Louis, Johnny Baseball and many more.^{[7][clarification needed]} He played Billy Crocker in the 2011 Broadway revival of Anything Goes and was nominated for a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Musical, an Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical, and an Astaire Award for Outstanding Male Dancer.

Donnell made his television debut by playing Mike Ruskin in the television series Pan Am. In 2012, Donnell was cast as Tommy Merlyn in television series Arrow,^[8][9] where he is a series regular in the first season and made occasional appearances in later seasons,^[10][11] including the final season.^[12]

In July and August 2013, Donnell starred as Berowne in the musical adaptation of Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost. He also appeared as Elizabeth Banks' husband in the crime thriller Every Secret Thing, which was released on May 15, 2015.^[13][14]

In January 2014, Donnell was cast as Monty in the 1960s-era Broadway musical Violet alongside Sutton Foster and Joshua Henry; previews began on March 28, and the show officially opened on April 20.^[15][16][17] In July, Donnell was cast to play Joshua Jackson's brother in Showtime original drama The Affair.^{[18][non-primary source needed]}

In 2015, he performed in the New York City Center Encores! production of the musical Lady, Be Good, alongside Tommy Tune, Erin Mackey and Patti Murin.^[19][20]

In March 2015, Donnell starred in Love Is A Four Letter Word, a pilot for NBC in which he played Sean, an ad agency partner; the show was not picked up to series.^[21] Donnell then landed a regular role in the NBC series, Chicago Med, playing a doctor in trauma surgery.^[22][23] On April 19, 2019, it was announced that Donnell was leaving the series after four seasons as a series regular.^[24]

A special Encores! Off-Center staged concert of Songs for a New World was performed at New York City Center June 27 through June 30, 2018. The production was directed by Kate Whoriskey and starred Shoshana Bean, Colin Donnell, Mykal Kilgore, and Solea Pfeiffer.

In 2022, Donnell and Patti Murin released a joint album titled "Something Stupid" on Broadway Records. The album was produced by Robbie Rozelle and co-produced by Yasuhiko Fukuoka. Luke Williams was the arranger and orchestrator. The album features a cross section of pop, Broadway, and Disney songs.^[25]

In 2024, Donnell was cast in the guest role of Brian Lange in CBS television series FBI: International for the final two episodes of the show's third season.^[26] In November of that same year, he starred as the Father in New York City Center's Encores! production of Ragtime opposite Joshua Henry, Caissie Levy and Brandon Uranowitz. He’s set to reprise the role for its 2025 Broadway transfer.^[27]

Donnell began dating actress Patti Murin in 2013 after they co-starred in a Shakespeare in the Park musical adaptation of Love's Labour's Lost. They became engaged in December 2014,^[28] and married on June 19, 2015, in New York City.^[29] Their first child, Cecily, was born on July 14, 2020.^[30][31] In October 2022, the couple announced that Murin was pregnant with their second child.^[32] Their second child, Lorelai, was born on April 2, 2023.

Donnell is a literary aficionado and a musician.^{[33][non-primary source needed]} He has two tattoos from his tour trips – one from Memphis and one from Dayton; which are five silhouettes of birds to represent his family, and a Fleur De Lis, because his mother is French.^[4]