Please Rewind Talent Wall

Anthony Rapp

Anthony Rapp has built a career that moves easily between stage, film, television and music. Born in Chicago on October 26, 1971, and raised in nearby Joliet, he began performing in community theater as a child. By 1981, he was on Broadway in The Little Prince and the Aviator. He later moved to New York to study film at New York University, leaving after one semester as his performing career took shape. Rapp’s defining stage role is Mark Cohen in Jonathan Larson’s Rent. He played Mark in the off-Broadway production and original Broadway cast, with Larson writing new material for the production with Rapp’s voice in mind. Rapp reprised the part in the 2005 film adaptation, returned to the Broadway production in 2007 and joined a national tour beginning in 2009. His long connection to the musical also informed his memoir, Without You: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and the Musical Rent, and a one-man stage show with music based on the book. His screen career began with the ensemble comedy Adventures in Babysitting in 1987. Rapp went on to appear in films including School Ties, Dazed and Confused, Six Degrees of Separation, A Beautiful Mind and Road Trip. Across those projects, he has often brought an attentive, thoughtful presence to ensemble casts, making distinctive use of both his theatrical experience and his understated screen style. On television, Rapp took on his first series-regular role as Lt. Commander Paul Stamets in Star Trek: Discovery. Introduced in 2016, Stamets was the first openly gay character in a Star Trek television series. Rapp prepared by watching curated selections of episodes from across the franchise. His other stage work includes Feeling Electric, which later became Next to Normal, and If/Then, in which he played Lucas on Broadway and on the 2015–2016 national tour. He has also worked as a singer and musician, releasing the solo album Look Around in 2000. It is a varied body of work, but the through line is clear: Rapp is a performer equally at home in intimate musical storytelling and large screen ensembles.