Kevin Michael McHale (born June 14, 1988 in Plano, Texas) is an American actor, dancer and pop singer. Formerly of boy band NLT, McHale is best known for his recent role as Artie Abrams in the Fox hit television series Glee. Born in Plano, Texas and went to Dooley Elementary School and then to Armstrong Middle School where he participated in the school's pop choir, "Encore". Before becoming an actor, McHale was part of the Boy Band NLT ("Not Like Them"), which was discovered by Chris Stokes and shortly after released singles such as "That Girl", "She Said, I Said (Time We Let Go)" and "Karma". Despite the talent and a small, yet devoted fanbase, the group didn't go very far and officially split up in 2009, months before McHale made it big as Artie in Glee. Despite his character's disability, McHale, as per his boy band background, is a skilled dancer and has responded that it was hard to keep his feet from moving along with the music while he was on the set.
McHale also hosts a fairly successful British panel show, Virtually Famous (based around internet celebrities, viral videos and memes) and two radio shows on Dash Radio, McRiley with fellow Glee cast member Amber Riley, and Sick of My Own Voice with Brittany Burton, Justin Thorne (a fellow former member of NLT) and Amy Lynn Thompson.
Not to be confused with Boston Celtics great Kevin McHale, who did appear on two episodes of Cheers as himself.
Selected Filmography
- 2005: All That (TV Series) — Mark
- 2007: The Office (US) (TV Series) — Delivery Boy
- 2007 – 2008: Zoey 101 (TV Series) — Dooley
- 2008: True Blood (TV Series) — Neil Jones
- 2009–2015: Glee (TV Series) — Artie Abrams
- 2014: Boychoir (Film) — Wooly
- 2016: They Might Be Kennedys (Film) — Teddy Mulligan/Kennedy Ted
This actor's career provides examples of:
- Actor/Role Confusion: Kevin McHale has received not-so-friendly Twitter messages from Brittana shippers about staying away from Brittany, to which he responded that he "wasn't Artie."
- Breakup Breakout: Probably the one member of NLT to achieve mainstream success.
- The Cameo: NLT had a guest appearance in Bratz: The Movie, and after the band split, Kevin (alongside fellow Glee cast member Darren Criss) appeared in Katy Perry's "Last Friday Night", as a character that manages to be even more of a nerd than Artie. He also makes a brief appearance in the video for One Call's "BlackLight
". - Irony As He Is Cast: The best male dancer of the Glee cast, second only to Harry Shum Jr... And his character is in a wheelchair.
