Ben Platt is both a stage and film actor known for his role as Evan Hansen in the Broadway musical Dear Evan Hansen, which opened in December 2016 at the Music Box Theatre. His performance has earned him major reviews and awards, including the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical. Previously he had played Applebaum in Pitch Perfect I&II and as Elder Arnold Cunningham in The Book of Mormon.
Who is Ben Platt?
Platt was born in Los Angeles on September 24, 1993, the son of Julie and Marc Platt. He is the 4th of 5 children. His family is Jewish. His father is a theater, film, and television producer, whose credits include Wicked – a Broadway musical based on Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West” by Gregory Maguire.
Ben attended the Adderley School for Performing Arts, Pacific Palisades, and then Harvard-Westlake School, Los Angeles, where he graduated in 2011. After graduating, he briefly attended Columbia University, New York, before dropping out after 6 weeks to keep his contract with The Book of Mormon. Later he attended school and became a member of the campus a cappella music group Nonsequitur.
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Platt has always been interested in the arts since his childhood and began performing on stage at an early age. At the age of nine, he played Winthrop Paroo in the musical The Music Man at the Hollywood Bowl. At the age of eleven, he took part in the short national tour of Jeanine Tesori and Tony Kushner’s Caroline, or Change. At seventeen he appeared as Jean Valjean in the production of Les Misérables at the Kidz Theater.
His other earliest stage appearances include Into the Woods, Bye Bye Birdie, Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical, and Alice in Wonderland. In 2012 he played Elder Arnold Cunningham in The Book of Mormon. The play premiered at the Bank of America Theatre on December 19, 2012, and ended on October 6, 2013, and was well received. The performance of Ben Platt was praised by the critics. He was later to re-perform the role of Elder Cunningham on Broadway at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre from January 2014 to 2015.
In the same year, 2012, he was given a supporting role as Benji Applebaum in Pitch Perfect, based on a nonfiction book entitled Pitch Perfect: The Search for Collegial A-Cappella Fame. The film was directed by Jason Moore and starred Brittany Snow, Skylar Astin, Anna Camp, Anna Kendrick, Adam DeVine, and Rebel Wilson. The film was a huge success and earned him a nomination for the Teen Choice Award in the “Choice Movie” category: Male Scene Stealer” nominated.
He resumed the role in the sequel – Pitch Perfect 2 – and has since appeared in other films, including Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk and Ricki and the Flash. In 2014 he joined Pasek and Paul’s Untitled P&P project. The following year he played Evan Hansen in the Broadway musical Dear Evan Hansen, which opened in December 2016 at the Music Box Theatre. Platt’s performance earned him numerous awards and prizes, including the Tony Award for best actor in a musical.
In addition to acting, Ben Platt is also active as a singer. In 2017 Platt signed a recording contract with Atlantic Records, and in January 2018 he performed “Somewhere” from the 1957 Broadway musical West Side Story live at the 60th Annual Grammy Awards, held at Madison Square Garden, New York City.
In March 2018 Ben Platt released a mashup of the Hamilton song together with Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda. He donated a portion of the proceeds from the songs to the anti-gun violence initiative March for Our Lives and in the same month performed on stage with Miranda at the Washington D.C. rally.
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Is He Gay, Who is He Dating? The Boyfriend or Girlfriend
Award for “Best Actor in a Musical”. The talented actor/singer encouraged young people to embrace and celebrate their strangeness because that is what makes them unique. This statement was probably misunderstood by many who believed that Platt was actually talking about his sexual orientation and at the same time advocating for the LGBT community. Although the actor has no problem with the gay community, he didn’t seem to imply that he was gay by his speech, but if he is, we’ll just have to wait for him to confirm it.
Although it has not been confirmed whether they are officially an item, Platt has a girlfriend named Beanie Feldstein, whom he knew in high school. They met through a mutual friend Bat Mitzvah, got to talk, and have remained friends ever since, and their joint appearances on some Broadway shows have fuelled rumors that they are an item. However, neither Platt nor Beanie have confirmed or refuted the speculations.
