Michael Urie

Michael Lorenzo Urie was born in Houston, Texas, and raised in Plano. He is of Scottish and Italian descent.^[3][4] He graduated from Plano Senior High School in 1998.^[5]

Urie then studied at Collin County Community College before being accepted at the Juilliard School in New York City.^[5] While there, he was a member of the Drama Division's Group 32 from 1999 to 2003.^[6] Urie graduated from Juilliard in 2003.^[5]

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Urie, while still a student at Juilliard, performed in the world premiere of Love and Happiness (2001) at the Consolati Performing Arts Center, starring as a sixteen-year-old trying to get rid of his mother's boyfriend.^[7]

He received the 2002 John Houseman Prize for Excellence in Classical Theatre from the Juilliard School. His classical credits include Shakespeare, Jacobean drama, and commedia dell'arte.^[8]

Urie played the central character in the stage play WTC View as well as in the film adaptation.

He is on the board of Plum Productions and serves as its casting director. With the same company he has produced and appeared in Prachtoberfest and lowbrow (and a little bit tacky). As a freelance producer, he has worked on Like The Mountains and The Fantasticks (Four Players Theatre). He also directed the latter production.^[9]

In 2006, Urie began appearing in the ABC dramedy Ugly Betty as Marc St. James, the assistant of Wilhelmina Slater, played by Vanessa Williams. The show began with the concept that Wilhelmina would have a different assistant in each episode; thus Urie was originally billed as a guest star in the credits.^[10] However, Williams loved their chemistry, and Urie was signed on as a full-time regular midway through the first season. He and the cast were nominated for Screen Actors Guild awards for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series in 2007 and 2008.^[11] The role earned Urie a Ewwy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series in 2009. He remained with Ugly Betty until the show's cancellation in 2010.

During the 2007–08 Writers Guild of America strike, Urie hosted TLC's reality-based series Miss America: Reality Check. The program followed the contestants participating in the 2008 Miss America Pageant.^[12]

Urie has returned often to his theater roots, including directing a one-night celebrity-performed staging of Howard Ashman's unproduced musical Dreamstuff. The musical was reimagined by Howard's partners Marsha Malamet and Dennis Green and performed at Los Angeles's Hayworth Theatre as part of the Bruno Kirby celebrity reading series.^{[citation needed]} He has also been on Live with Regis and Kelly and has also starred in the 2008 Disney blockbuster production Beverly Hills Chihuahua as the voice of Sebastian.

Urie originated the role of Rudi Gernreich in the 2009 off-Broadway play The Temperamentals, about the foundation of the early LGBT rights organization the Mattachine Society. Urie received a Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Lead Actor.^[13]

In January 2012, Urie made his Broadway debut, joining the cast of the second revival of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying in the role of Bud Frump.^[14]

Urie has also started his own website for videoblogging and live chats.^[15] In 2012, Urie also starred as the mysterious limo driver James in the film adaptation of Wendy Mass's children's book Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life, written and directed by Tamar Halpern.

Urie was one of the leads in CBS's short-lived series Partners. The multi-camera comedy, from Will & Grace creators Max Mutchnick and David Kohan, centered on lifelong friends and business partners – one straight and one gay.^[16] The series premiered on September 24, 2012, but was cancelled after only six episodes had aired.^[17]

His performance in 2013's one-man show Buyer & Cellar won him a Clarence Derwent Award^[18] as well as a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Solo Performance.^[19]

In April 2015, Urie became the host of Cocktails & Classics on Logo TV, in which he and panels of celebrity friends watch and comment on classic movies while imbibing cocktails named or made for the films. Films profiled on the series have included All About Eve, Steel Magnolias, Valley of the Dolls, Breakfast at Tiffany's, and Mommie Dearest.^[20]

In November 2018, Urie starred as Arnold Beckoff in Harvey Fierstein's Torch Song revival on Broadway.^[21][22]

He had a recurring role as Redmond, the gossipy book agent, in the popular TVLand drama-comedy series Younger, produced by Darren Star.^[23]

In 2018, Urie played Prince Hamlet in the Shakespeare Theatre Company's production of Hamlet in Washington, DC.^[24] He reprised the role in mid-2019 for the company's "Free for All" production run.^[25]

On September 13, 2019, it was announced that Urie would once again team up with his Ugly Betty co-star Becki Newton on a sitcom project for CBS and Warner Bros. Television called Fun, in which he would both co-star and serve as a co-executive producer with creator Michael Patrick King and fellow Ugly Betty showrunners Tracy Poust and Jon Kinnally.^[26] CBS passed on the pilot of the series on May 4, 2020.^[27]

In 2021, Urie starred in the Netflix Christmas romantic comedy Single All the Way.^[28]

In 2023, Urie began starring in the Apple TV+ series Shrinking.^[29]

Urie has narrated several audiobooks, including novel Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt. Urie narrated the voice of Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus held captive in a local aquarium. The audiobook was a 2023 finalist for the Audie Awards, which recognizes achievement in audiobook narration.^[30]

In 2009, Urie referred to himself as "a member of the LGBT community" on his website.^[31] In a 2010 interview with The Advocate, he said that he was in a relationship with a man and is queer. He said it never felt wrong when he was with women previously.^[32] Since 2008, he has been in a relationship with actor and writer Ryan Spahn.^[33]

Film

More information Year, Title ...

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2005	WTC View	Eric
2008	Beverly Hills Chihuahua	Sebastian	Voice
2011	The Decoy Bride	Steve Korbitz
	Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life	James
2012	Petunia	George McDougal
2013	He's Way More Famous Than You	Himself
2014	Such Good People	Richard Nearly
2019	Lavender	Arthur	Short film
2020	Nora Highland	Gala Host
	Smithtown	Ian Bernstein
2021	The Extinction of Fireflies	Jay
	Swan Song	Dustin
	Single All the Way	Peter
2023	Summoning Sylvia	Jamie
	Maestro	Jerome Robbins
2024	Goodrich	Terry

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Television

More information Year, Title ...

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2002	Undressed	Justin	Episode: "Tangled Beards"
2004	Kat Plus One	Roger	Television film
2006–2010	Ugly Betty	Marc St. James	Main role
2008–2009	Mode After Hours	Marc St. James	Main role
2010	Popatron	Himself	Episode: "1.2"
	Brain Trust	Prof. Franklin Gordon	Television film
	Celebrity Ghost Stories	Himself	Episode: "2.4"
2012	Submissions Only	Zach Blumenkrantz	Episode: "Y'all Were Great!"
2012–2013	Partners	Louis McManus	Main role
2013	It Could Be Worse	Mike	Episode: "I Need Help"
	Hot in Cleveland	Jeffery	Episode: "Cleveland Indians"
2014	Modern Family	Gavin Sinclair	2 episodes
2014–2016	The Good Wife	Stephen Dinovera	4 episodes
2015	RuPaul's Drag Race	Himself	Episode: "Snatch Game"
	Workaholics	Joey	Episode: "Gayborhood"
2016	Almost Royal	Himself	Episode: "Romance"
2016–2021	Younger	Redmond	Recurring role (seasons 2–7)
2018	After Forever	Daniel	2 episodes
2019	The Good Fight	Stephen Dinovera	2 episodes
2019–2020	Almost Family	Nate	3 episodes
2020	Ms. Guidance	Brant Finklestein	Episode: "The Taming of the Jenny"
2021	The Bite	Josh	3 episodes
2023–present	Shrinking	Brian	Main role
2023	American Dad!	Mark Zuckerberg / Student (voice)	2 episodes
2023–2025	Krapopolis	Hermes (voice)	12 episodes
2025	Night Court	Toby Nulman	Episode: "Funnest Judge in the City"

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Director and executive producer

More information Year, Title ...

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2009	House of Kai Milla	Executive producer	Television film
2012	He's Way More Famous Than You	Director
	Thank You for Judging	Co-director; executive producer	Documentary

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