Chris Colfer
Encyclopedia
Christopher Paul "Chris" Colfer (born May 27, 1990) is an American actor and singer known for his portrayal of Kurt Hummel
Kurt Hummel
Kurt Hummel is a fictional character and one of the male leads in the Fox musical comedy-drama series Glee. Series creators Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan initially conceived of him as a fashionable gay countertenor who is routinely bullied at school...

 on the television series Glee
Glee (TV series)
Glee is an American musical comedy-drama television series that airs on Fox in the United States, and on GlobalTV in Canada. It focuses on the high school glee club New Directions competing on the show choir competition circuit, while its members deal with relationships, sexuality and social issues...

, for which he won a 2011 Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor and was also nominated twice for an Emmy.

Colfer was named in Time
Time
Time is a part of the measuring system used to sequence events, to compare the durations of events and the intervals between them, and to quantify rates of change such as the motions of objects....

 magazine's 100 most influential people
Time 100
Time 100 is an annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world, as assembled by Time. First published in 1999 as a result of a debate among several academics, the list has become an annual event.-History and format:...

 in the world in 2011.

Early life and education

Colfer was born in Clovis
Clovis, California
Clovis is a city in Fresno County, California, United States, northeast of Fresno. The population is estimated to be 97,218 as of September, 2011. Clovis is located northeast of downtown Fresno, at an elevation of 361 feet .-History:...

, California, the son of Karyn (née Boling) and Tim Colfer. Colfer has Irish ancestry; he has stated "I’m very Irish, my family is all Irish and St. Patrick’s day in my house is crazy." He was home schooled for half of 7th grade and 8th grade because he was bullied so much in school.

While a student at Clovis East High School
Clovis East High School
Clovis East High School is a four-year public high school of Clovis Unified School District located in Clovis, California. It is home to the Timberwolves...

, Colfer was involved with the Speech & Debate program where he won "many speech and debate Champion titles," including placing 9th in the State Competition for Dramatic Interpretation, the drama club
Amateur theatre
Amateur theatre is theatre performed by amateur actors. These actors are not typically members of Actors' Equity groups or Actors' Unions as these organizations exist to protect the professional industry and therefore discourage their members from appearing with companies which are not a signatory...

, the FFA
National FFA Organization
The National FFA Organization is an American youth organization known as a Career and Technical Student Organization, based on middle and high school classes that promote and support agricultural education...

, "was president of the Writer’s Club, editor of the school's literary magazine, and captain of Destination ImagiNation
Destination ImagiNation
Destination ImagiNation Inc. or DI is a creative problem solving organization for youth and adults. Destination ImagiNation's educational goals are to foster creative and critical thinking, to develop teamwork, collaboration and leadership skills, and to nurture research and inquiry skills...

." As a high school senior, he wrote, starred in, and directed a spoof of Sweeney Todd
Sweeney Todd
Sweeney Todd is a fictional character who first appeared as then antagonist of the Victorian penny dreadful The String of Pearls and he was later introduced as an antihero in the broadway musical Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street and its film adaptation...

 entitled "Shirley Todd", in which all of the roles were gender
Gender
Gender is a range of characteristics used to distinguish between males and females, particularly in the cases of men and women and the masculine and feminine attributes assigned to them. Depending on the context, the discriminating characteristics vary from sex to social role to gender identity...

-reversed. One of his real in-school experiences was later turned into a sub-plot for his character on Glee, when the high school teachers denied him the chance to sing "Defying Gravity
Defying Gravity (song)
"Defying Gravity" is the signature song from the musical Wicked, composed by Stephen Schwartz, originally recorded by Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth on November 10, 2003, and released on December 16, 2003...

" from the musical Wicked
Wicked (musical)
Wicked is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and a book by Winnie Holzman. It is based on the Gregory Maguire novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West , a parallel novel of the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz and L. Frank Baum's classic story The Wonderful Wizard...

 because it is traditionally sung by a woman. His grandmother, a minister, let him sing the song in her church.

Career

The first show he was involved in with community theater was West Side Story
West Side Story
West Side Story is an American musical with a script by Arthur Laurents, music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and choreographed by Jerome Robbins...

.

When he was younger, he also starred in a production of The Sound of Music
The Sound of Music
The Sound of Music is a musical by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and a book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. It is based on the memoir of Maria von Trapp, The Story of the Trapp Family Singers...

 as the character "Kurt".

At the age of eighteen, Colfer starred as Russel Fish in Russel Fish: The Sausage and Eggs Incident
Russel Fish: The Sausage and Eggs Incident
Russel Fish: The Sausage and Eggs Incident is a 2009 comedy short film starring Chris Colfer.The film won Best Comedic Short at the 2009 AOF International Film Festival, and screened at the 2010 Seattle International Film Festival, the 2009 Austin Film Festival, the 2009 Palm Springs International...

, a short film where an awkward teenager must pass a Presidential Physical Fitness
President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports
The President's Council on Fitness, Sports, and Nutrition , is an American government organization that aims to "promote, encourage and motivate Americans of all ages to become physically active and participate in sport"...

 test or fail gym class
Physical education
Physical education or gymnastics is a course taken during primary and secondary education that encourages psychomotor learning in a play or movement exploration setting....

 and lose his admission to Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

.

Glee

Colfer's first TV role came in 2009 when he was cast as Kurt Hummel
Kurt Hummel
Kurt Hummel is a fictional character and one of the male leads in the Fox musical comedy-drama series Glee. Series creators Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan initially conceived of him as a fashionable gay countertenor who is routinely bullied at school...

 on Fox
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...

's Glee. Kurt is a fashionable gay countertenor
Countertenor
A countertenor is a male singing voice whose vocal range is equivalent to that of a contralto, mezzo-soprano, or a soprano, usually through use of falsetto, or far more rarely than normal, modal voice. A pre-pubescent male who has this ability is called a treble...

 who is routinely bullied at school, not only for being gay, but also for being part of the very unpopular Glee Club. Colfer auditioned for the part of Artie Abrams
Artie Abrams
Artie Abrams is a fictional character from the Fox musical comedy-drama series Glee. The character is portrayed by actor Kevin McHale, and has appeared in Glee from its pilot episode, first broadcast on May 19, 2009. Artie was developed by Glee creators Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan...

, who uses a wheelchair, which eventually went to Kevin McHale. The show's creator, Ryan Murphy, was so impressed with Colfer that he created the role of Kurt specifically for him, and in the process, scrapped a planned character called Rajish so they could add Hummel. In a 2010 interview with Allison Kugel
Allison Kugel
Allison Kugel is an American journalist, editor, and entrepreneur. In 2001 Kugel founded two online enterprises which led to her being featured in Entrepreneur Magazine in 2004. She manages her own public relations firm, and serves as a freelance writer...

, Colfer stated that "There have been a couple of times when I have gone to Ryan Murphy and told him a couple of things that have happened to me, and then he writes it into the show. Or he’ll ask me what song I would want to sing, in this situation or in that situation. I don’t think any of us directly try to give input on the character or on the storyline, but they definitely steal things from us."

Ryan Murphy revealed in an interview with the Hollywood Reporter that at the conclusion of Glees third season, Colfer's character Kurt will graduate from Mckinley High along with Rachel (actress Lea Michele
Lea Michele
Lea Michele Sarfati , known professionally as Lea Michele, is an American actress and singer. Michele began working professionally as a child actress on Broadway in productions such as Ragtime and Les Misérables. She originated the role of Wendla in the musical Spring Awakening and currently plays...

) and Finn (Cory Monteith
Cory Monteith
Cory Allan Monteith is a Canadian actor and musician, best known for his role of Finn Hudson on the Fox television series Glee.-Early life:...

). At the 2011 San Diego Comic-Con, producer Brad Falchuk
Brad Falchuk
Brad Falchuk is a television writer, director and producer. He is best known for his work on the television series Nip/Tuck, Glee, and American Horror Story.-Early life:...

 stated that "because they’re graduating doesn’t mean they’re leaving the show." Falchuk also stated "it was never our plan or our intention to let them go…. They are not done with the show after this season."

Hummel's characterization

Colfer has explained that Hummel "puts on a very confident, 'I'm better than you' persona, but underneath it all he's the same anxious and scared teen everyone is/was at some point. In later episodes, he goes through an identity crisis, accepting and finding acceptance for who he is. [...] He's a tough guy in designer clothes." The character is also gay, which is at the crux of many of his conflicts on the show. Colfer has a high vocal range, as displayed in the episode "Wheels
Wheels (Glee)
"Wheels" is the ninth episode of the American television series Glee. Written by series creator Ryan Murphy and directed by Paris Barclay, the episode premiered on the Fox network on November 11, 2009...

", in which his character demonstrates the unusual ability (for a man) of singing a "high F" (actually an F5
F (musical note)
F is a musical note, the fourth above C. It is also known as fa in fixed-do solfège.When calculated in equal temperament with a reference of A above middle C as 440 Hz, the frequency of Middle F is approximately 349.228 Hz. See pitch for a discussion of historical variations in...

). However, his character deliberately pretends to be unable to sing the note in order to spare his father the harassment he would receive for having a gay son.

At 20 years old, Colfer won the 2010 Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor in a Television Series for his performance as Kurt Hummel. He was twice nominated for an Emmy in the Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series category for his portrayal of Kurt.

Writing and other work

Colfer will star in the coming-of-age comedy Struck by Lightning
Struck by Lightning (2012 film)
Struck by Lightning is an upcoming coming-of-age comedy written by and starring Chris Colfer and directed by Brian Dannelly . After being struck by lightning and killed, a young man recounts the way he blackmailed his fellow classmates into contributing to his literary magazine...

 that has been set up with David Permut
David Permut
David A. Permut is an American television and movie producer. He was the producer of Richard Pryor: Live in Concert , the first theatrical live comedy concert, and Dragnet , an early example of remaking a television series into a motion picture. He is owner and president of Permut Presentations,...

 (Youth in Revolt). The plot revolves around Colfer's character, who is struck and killed by a bolt of lightning, and chronicles his exploits as he blackmails his fellow senior classmates into contributing to a literary magazine he's publishing.
Colfer also wrote the script for "Struck By Lightning," which was shot during the Glee hiatus in the summer of 2011.

On June 8, 2011, Colfer signed a book deal to write two novels for kids, the first of which, The Land of Stories, is scheduled for release in 2012.

Personal life

Colfer is openly gay and shared on Access Hollywood that his parents were accepting of him but he was frequently bullied at school. Colfer's sister, Hannah, suffers from severe epilepsy
Epilepsy
Epilepsy is a common chronic neurological disorder characterized by seizures. These seizures are transient signs and/or symptoms of abnormal, excessive or hypersynchronous neuronal activity in the brain.About 50 million people worldwide have epilepsy, and nearly two out of every three new cases...

, and often experiences over fifty seizures in an hour. Colfer has commented that when he was younger he used acting as a method of escaping the stress involved with having a family member with disabilities.

Colfer appeared on the British chat show Friday Night with Jonathan Ross
Friday Night with Jonathan Ross
Friday Night with Jonathan Ross was a British comedy chat show presented by Jonathan Ross. It was first broadcast on BBC One on 2 November 2001. The programme featured Ross's take on current topics of conversation, guest interviews and live music from both a guest music group and the house band...

 on June 18, 2010, along with his fellow Glee co-stars Amber Riley
Amber Riley
Amber Patrice Riley is an American actress and singer best known for her role on the series Glee as Mercedes Jones.-Early life and career:...

 and Matthew Morrison
Matthew Morrison
Matthew James "Matt" Morrison is an American actor, director, musician, and singer-songwriter. He is best known for starring in multiple Broadway and Off-Broadway productions, including his portrayal of Link Larkin in Hairspray on Broadway, and most notably for his Emmy and Golden Globe nominated...

. He demonstrated his skill with a pair of sai
Sai (weapon)
The sai is a traditional Okinawan martial arts weapon. The basic form of the weapon is that of a pointed, dagger-shaped metal truncheon, with two curved prongs called yoku projecting from the handle...

, revealing that he bought a pair on eBay
EBay
eBay Inc. is an American internet consumer-to-consumer corporation that manages eBay.com, an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide...

 and regularly practices in his trailer. He also mentioned that he would like it if his sai swords could be worked in to an episode of Glee; they first appeared in the season 3
Glee (season 3)
A third season of the Fox musical comedy-drama television series Glee was commissioned on May 23, 2010 while the first season aired. It premiered on September 20, 2011, and is being produced by 20th Century Fox Television and Ryan Murphy Television, with executive producers Dante Di Loreto and...

 episode I Am Unicorn
I Am Unicorn
"I Am Unicorn" is the second episode of the third season of the American musical television series Glee, and the 46th overall. The episode was written by series co-creator Ryan Murphy, directed by series co-creator Brad Falchuk, and first aired on September 27, 2011 on Fox in the United States...

, during Colfer's character Kurt Hummel's
Kurt Hummel
Kurt Hummel is a fictional character and one of the male leads in the Fox musical comedy-drama series Glee. Series creators Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan initially conceived of him as a fashionable gay countertenor who is routinely bullied at school...

 performance of "I'm the Greatest Star", from the musical Funny Girl.

Filmography

Year Title Role Notes
2009 Russel Fish: The Sausage and Eggs Incident
Russel Fish: The Sausage and Eggs Incident
Russel Fish: The Sausage and Eggs Incident is a 2009 comedy short film starring Chris Colfer.The film won Best Comedic Short at the 2009 AOF International Film Festival, and screened at the 2010 Seattle International Film Festival, the 2009 Austin Film Festival, the 2009 Palm Springs International...

 
Russel Fish Short Film
2009–present Glee
Glee (TV series)
Glee is an American musical comedy-drama television series that airs on Fox in the United States, and on GlobalTV in Canada. It focuses on the high school glee club New Directions competing on the show choir competition circuit, while its members deal with relationships, sexuality and social issues...

Kurt Hummel
Kurt Hummel
Kurt Hummel is a fictional character and one of the male leads in the Fox musical comedy-drama series Glee. Series creators Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan initially conceived of him as a fashionable gay countertenor who is routinely bullied at school...

Main Cast
Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film (2011)
Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series (2010)
Nominated - Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series (2010–2011)
Nominated - Monte-Carlo TV Festival Award for Outstanding Actor - Comedy Series
Nominated - Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film (2009–2010)
Nominated - Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series (2011)
Nominated - Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series (2011)
Nominated - Lesbian/Bi People's Choice Awards "Favorite Music Duo or Group" (shared with Glee
Glee (TV series)
Glee is an American musical comedy-drama television series that airs on Fox in the United States, and on GlobalTV in Canada. It focuses on the high school glee club New Directions competing on the show choir competition circuit, while its members deal with relationships, sexuality and social issues...

 Cast) (2011)
Nominated - People's Choice Award for Favorite TV Comedy Actor (2012)
2010 Marmaduke
Marmaduke (film)
Marmaduke is an American live action film adaptation of Brad Anderson's comic strip Marmaduke. The film centers on a rural Kansas family and their pets – a Great Dane named Marmaduke and a Balinese cat named Carlos – as the family relocates to California.-Plot:Marmaduke is a Great Dane living in...

 
Drama Dog #2
Shrooms Dog #1
Beach Dog No.4
Feature Film
(voice only)
2011 The Cleveland Show
The Cleveland Show
The Cleveland Show is an American animated television series that premiered on September 27, 2009, as a part of the "Animation Domination" lineup on Fox in the United States...

Kurt Hummel
Kurt Hummel
Kurt Hummel is a fictional character and one of the male leads in the Fox musical comedy-drama series Glee. Series creators Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan initially conceived of him as a fashionable gay countertenor who is routinely bullied at school...

Season 2, Episode 11, "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Roberta?
How Do You Solve a Problem Like Roberta?
"How Do You Solve a Problem Like Roberta?" is the eleventh episode of the second season of the American animated television sitcom The Cleveland Show. It aired on Fox in the United States on January 16, 2011...

"
(Voice Role)
2011 Glee: The 3D Concert Movie
Glee: The 3D Concert Movie
Glee: The 3D Concert Movie is a 2011 American 3-D concert film directed by Kevin Tancharoen. It is based on the Fox television series Glee and features the cast performing during the Glee Live! In Concert! tour.-Synopsis:...

Kurt Hummel
Kurt Hummel
Kurt Hummel is a fictional character and one of the male leads in the Fox musical comedy-drama series Glee. Series creators Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan initially conceived of him as a fashionable gay countertenor who is routinely bullied at school...

/Himself
2011 The Little Leftover Witch Writer, Producer
2011 Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...

Himself (cameo) Appeared in the What Up With That
What Up With That
What Up With That is a recurring sketch on the NBC television series Saturday Night Live which first aired in 2009. It stars Kenan Thompson as DeAndre Cole, host of a talk show on BET...

 sketch, had no lines
2012 Struck by Lightning
Struck by Lightning (2012 film)
Struck by Lightning is an upcoming coming-of-age comedy written by and starring Chris Colfer and directed by Brian Dannelly . After being struck by lightning and killed, a young man recounts the way he blackmailed his fellow classmates into contributing to his literary magazine...

Carson Phillips Lead role, Writer, Producer

Discography

  • Glee: The Music, Volume 1
    Glee: The Music, Volume 1
    Glee: The Music, Volume 1 is the debut soundtrack album by the cast of the musical television series Glee, which airs on Fox in the United States. It features cover versions from the first nine episodes of the first season and was released on November 2, 2009 by Columbia Records and 20th...

     (2009)
  • Glee: The Music, Volume 2
    Glee: The Music, Volume 2
    Glee: The Music, Volume 2 is the second soundtrack album by the cast of the American musical television series Glee, featuring songs from episodes nine to thirteen of the show's first season. It was first released on December 4, 2009 in Australia by Columbia Records...

     (2009)
  • Glee: The Music, The Power of Madonna
    Glee: The Music, The Power of Madonna
    Glee: The Music, The Power of Madonna is the first extended play by the cast of the musical television series Glee. It contains eight songs from the season one Glee episode, "The Power of Madonna", which was a tribute episode dedicated to American recording artist Madonna...

     (2010)
  • Glee: The Music, Volume 3 Showstoppers
    Glee: The Music, Volume 3 Showstoppers
    -Sales and chart performance:The album debuted at number one on the American, Australian, Canadian, and Irish charts. It sold 136,000 copies in its first and 63,000 in its second week of release in the US, and saw the Glee cast beat the record previously set by The Beatles in 1966, for shortest...

     (2010)
  • Glee: The Music, Journey to Regionals
    Glee: The Music, Journey to Regionals
    Glee: The Music, Journey to Regionals is the second extended play by the cast of musical television series Glee. Containing six songs from the season one finale "Journey to Regionals", it was released on June 8, 2010, the same day the episode aired. Half of the tracks are cover versions of...

     (2010)
  • Glee: The Music, The Rocky Horror Glee Show
    Glee: The Music, The Rocky Horror Glee Show
    -Credits and personnel:Persons responsible for the project are as follows.*Adam Anders – arranger; engineer; producer; soundtrack producer; vocals*Alex Anders – engineer*Nikki Anders – vocals*Peer Åström – arranger; engineer; mixing; producer...

     (2010)
  • Glee: The Music, The Christmas Album
    Glee: The Music, The Christmas Album
    Glee: The Music, The Christmas Album is the fourth soundtrack album by the cast of the American musical television series Glee. The album was released on November 9, 2010 and accompanies the season two Christmas episode "A Very Glee Christmas", aired December 7, 2010. Dante Di Loreto and Brad...

     (2010)
  • Glee: The Music, Volume 4
    Glee: The Music, Volume 4
    Glee: The Music, Volume 4 is the fifth soundtrack album by the cast of the musical television series Glee, which airs on Fox in the United States. It was released on November 26, 2010, by Columbia Records and features cover version performances from the first half of the second season...

     (2010)
  • Glee: The Music, Volume 5
    Glee: The Music, Volume 5
    Glee: The Music, Volume 5 is the sixth soundtrack album by the cast of the musical television series Glee. Released on March 8, 2011 through Columbia Records, it was produced executively by Dante Di Loreto and Brad Falchuk. In addition to fourteen cover versions from its second season,...

     (2011)
  • Glee: The Music Presents the Warblers
    Glee: The Music Presents the Warblers
    Glee: The Music Presents the Warblers is the seventh soundtrack album by the cast of Glee, a musical comedy-drama television series that airs on Fox in the United States. Released through Columbia Records on April 19, 2011, it contains thirteen covers: eleven accompanying performances from the...

     (2011)
  • Glee: The Music, Volume 6
    Glee: The Music, Volume 6
    Glee: The Music, Volume 6 is the eighth soundtrack album by the cast of the American musical television series Glee, released on May 23, 2011 through the Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation and Columbia Records...

     (2011)
  • Glee: The 3D Concert Movie (Motion Picture Soundtrack) (2011)

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK