Darren Everett Criss (born February 5, 1987 in San Francisco, California) started out in the surprise Youtube hit and Affectionate Parody A Very Potter Musical, as the title character. He banded together with a few fellow University of Michigan student and formed Team StarKid, a theater production company that is now Los Angeles-based. Among the StarKid projects that he's been in are A Very Potter Musical, A Very Potter Sequel, and Little White Lie.
Even though he's been quoted as wanting to be an actor who sings and not the other way around, he's inseparable from music. He wrote part of the music for Me and My Dick, and all the music for A Very Potter Sequel, as well as for the musical Starship. In the meanwhile, he put out his own 5-song EP, “Human”. He loves singing live; give this guy a mike, a guitar, and a stage, and he's a happy man.
After graduation from U of M, he had a role in the short-lived series Eastwick, and made an appearance
in one of the final episodes of Cold Case ("Free Love").
He played the character of Blaine Anderson, an openly gay student at the all-boys' school Dalton and Kurt Hummel's love interest on Glee. Criss's start on Glee made a huge splash, as his version of “Teenage Dream” featuring the Dalton Warblers (a.k.a. the Tufts University Beelzebubs) became the highest-selling Glee song overnight, easily beating out “Don't Stop Believin'”.
Criss made his Broadway debut in the revival of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying in January 2012, replacing the original Harry Freakin' Potter, Daniel Radcliffe. He then portrayed the title character in Hedwig and the Angry Inch on Broadway in 2015.
In 2018, Criss starred in The Assassination of Gianni Versace, as Andrew Cunanan, which earned him universal acclaim and resulted in him becoming the first Filipino Emmy winner.
He married his longtime girlfriend, Mia Swier, in 2019.
Selected filmography:
- Glee as Blaine Anderson
- Transformers: Robots in Disguise (2015) as Sideswipe
- Dead or Alive: Dimensions as Jann Lee
- Arrowverse as Music Meister
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as Raphael
- The Assassination of Gianni Versace as Andrew Cunanan
- Tomorrowverse as Superman
- Hazbin Hotel as Saint Peter
Tropes that apply to this actor include:
- Affectionate Parody: A Very Potter Musical and A Very Potter Sequel are among the most affectionate.
- Band of Relatives: Criss used to play for his brother Chuck's band Freelance Whales.
- As of 2017, he and his brother Chuck now make up the band Computer Games.
- The Cameo: In Katy Perry's "Last Friday Night"."BEST PARTY EVER! WOOOOO!"
- Camp Straight: He grew up in gay-friendly San Francisco and is a huge fan of musical theater. When asked about playing a gay character on Glee, he often mentions that he had to "come out as straight" to his theater friends. Taken up to eleven with his attire◊ from the Coachella music festival, where he walked around shirtless covered in multicolored body paint and wearing clip-on earrings and rainbow nail polish.
- Companion Cube: Criss is famous for his trademark pink sunglasses. He even got them into a scene on Glee.
- The Cover Changes the Gender: Usually averted in his songs, whether it's Disney, Glee or his own work. Arguably plays with it in the case of Glee, as he plays a gay character. And in the case of this cover of "Happy to Keep His Dinner Warm", a song sung by a woman who dreams of being the ultimate housewife, he explicitly plays it as a gay man to his husband, and some of the lyrics are changed to show Criss's support for gay marriage.
- Cover Version
- Has an old YouTube account under the name of Iclemyer, where he does covers of Disney songs. Included are "Belle", "I'll Make a Man Out of You", and "Part of Your World".
- Lampshaded in AVPS. "I make weird covers of Disney songs. Who does that?"
- His cover of "Teenage Dream" is widely considered to be far better than the original.
- Creator Backlash: Later regretted playing a gay character on Glee despite being straight in real life, feeling that doing so deprives actual gay actors of their potential roles.note
- Deadpan Snarker:
- He and Chris Colfer were snarking jointly on Twitter after "Original Song" aired, in which their characters kissed.
Darren: Looks like we finally did what everybody was waiting on for so long... A Hey Monday song! Boy, I sure hope people liked it!
Chris: I fo' sho' thought "RIP Pavarotti" would be trending before "They Kissed". Tisk tisk. He is rolling in his bedazzled grave.- He does this all the time, really.
Reporter: How has your life changed since Glee?
Darren: How hasn't it changed?!... I bought a new sweater. - "I Am" Song: "The Coolest Girl". Written (as quoted by Word of God) by Criss to be another "Part Of Your World" or "On My Own", sung by Bonnie Gruesen (Hermione) in AVPS.
- Incredibly Long Note: "To Have A Home", AVPS.
- "I Want" Song: Most of his songs, of the romantic variety.
- Looped Lyrics: "Don't you want the way I feel/Don't you want the way I feel/Don't you want the way I feel for you".
- Love Nostalgia Song: "Sami"; "Don't You"
- Lyrical Dissonance: "Jealousy", a sunny and energetic song about Envy so consuming that he can't stand looking in the mirror, and he tries unsuccessfully to drown it out with alcohol.
- Obsession Song: "The Muse"; "Jealousy"
- Older Than They Look: He's currently in his mid-thirties, but he still manages to pass for his early-twenties if not teens.
- Performance Artist: He was a fan of musical theater growing up, and plays six instruments, sings, acts, and writes his own material.
- Queer Character, Queer Actor: Invoked. Criss himself is straight, and he announced after wrapping up American Crime Story that he would no longer seek out or accept gay roles, as he doesn't want to take that opportunity away from gay actors.
- Rewritten Pop Version: "Not Alone", "Sami" ("Harry"), "Even Though" and "Stutter" all have solo versions.
- Wild Hair: He sheared down to a more debonair look for Glee, but he has naturally curly hair which can become this when he lets it grow out.
