Michael Urie
Encyclopedia
Michael Lorenzo Urie is an American
actor
, television producer
and director
, best known for his portrayal of Marc St. James
on the ABC dramedy
series Ugly Betty
.
community" on his website. While Urie's sexuality has long been speculated, his February 2010 interview in The Advocate
revealed that he identifies as "queer
", though, unlike other men, it never felt wrong when he was with women. In an interview with NPR
Urie describes what it's like to grow up gay.
As in Ugly Betty
, Urie is best friends with fellow cast member Becki Newton
. Both hosted the official show podcast.
He is of partly Scottish
and partly Italian
descent.
and Plano Senior High School
. Urie, while still a student at Juilliard performed in the world premiere of Love and Happiness (2001) at the Consolati Performing Arts Center, starring as a sixteen-year-old trying to get rid of his mother's boyfriend. In addition to this, he appeared in student productions of Sylvia (1998) and Locked Away (1999) at Quad C Theatre.
He also was the recipient of the 2002 John Houseman Prize for Excellence in Classical Theatre from the Juilliard School and his classical credits include Shakespeare, Jacobean drama, and commedia dell'arte.
Urie played the central character in the stage play WTC View
as well as in the film adaptation. He is currently finishing a short
documentary film
, Two Down that centers on high school speech and debate tournaments, for Frontal Lobe Productions.
He is on the board of Plum Productions and serves as its casting director. With the same company he has produced and appeared in Prachtoberfest and lowbrow (and a little bit tacky). As a freelance producer, he has worked on Like The Mountains and The Fantasticks
(Four Players Theatre). He also directed the latter production. His first time directing The Fantasticks
was as a high school student at Plano Senior High.
The character of "Marc St. James" on Ugly Betty was not initially intended as recurring; thus Urie was billed in the credits as a guest star. As originally conceived, Wilhelmina Slater
was to have a different assistant in each episode. However, Vanessa Williams
loved their chemistry, and Michael was signed on as a full time regular. He and the cast were nominated for Screen Actors Guild awards for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series in 2007 and 2008. The role earned Urie a Ewwy nomination for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series in 2009.
Patti LuPone
has appeared with Urie to play Marc's mother in one episode.
During the 2007-2008 Writers Guild of America strike Urie hosted TLC
's reality-based series
"Miss America
Reality Check." The program followed the contestants participating in the 2008 Miss America
Pageant.
Urie returns often to his theater roots, including his recent direction of a one-night celebrity performed staging of Howard Ashman
's unproduced musical "Dreamstuff". The musical was re-imagined by Howard's partners Marsha Malamet and Dennis Green
and performed one night only at Los Angeles' Hayworth Theatre as part of the Bruno Kirby
celebrity reading series. Eden Espinosa
starred in the show along with Fred Willard
, Vicki Lewis
, David Blue
and Luke Macfarlane
. He has also been on "Live With Regis and Kelly" and has also starred in the 2008 Disney blockbuster production Beverly Hills Chihuahua as the voice of Sebastian
On 29 October 2008, he appeared as a guest presenter on the British National Television Awards
, awarding for the Best Performance in a Serial Drama.
Urie originated the role of Rudi Gernreich
in the 2009 off-Broadway
play The Temperamentals
, about the foundation of the early LGBT
rights organization the Mattachine Society
. Urie received a Lucille Lortel Award
for Outstanding Lead Actor.
Urie has also started his own website for videoblogging and live chats.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
, television producer
Television producer
The primary role of a television Producer is to allow all aspects of video production, ranging from show idea development and cast hiring to shoot supervision and fact-checking...
and director
Television director
A television director directs the activities involved in making a television program and is part of a television crew.-Duties:The duties of a television director vary depending on whether the production is live or recorded to video tape or video server .In both types of productions, the...
, best known for his portrayal of Marc St. James
Marc St. James
Marcus "Marc" St. James is a fictional character in the American comedy-drama series Ugly Betty. He is played by Michael Urie...
on the ABC dramedy
Comedy-drama
Comedy-drama is a genre of theatre, film and television programs which combines humorous and serious content.-Theatre:Traditional western theatre, beginning with the ancient Greeks, was divided into comedy and tragedy...
series Ugly Betty
Ugly Betty
Ugly Betty is an American comedy-drama television series developed by Silvio Horta, which premiered on ABC on September 28, 2006, and ended on April 14, 2010. The series revolves around the character Betty Suarez and is based on Fernando Gaitán's Colombian telenovela soap opera Yo soy Betty, la fea...
.
Personal life
In June 2009 Urie referred to himself as "a member of the LGBTLGBT
LGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the...
community" on his website. While Urie's sexuality has long been speculated, his February 2010 interview in The Advocate
The Advocate
The Advocate is an American LGBT-interest magazine, printed monthly and available by subscription. The Advocate brand also includes a web site. Both magazine and web site have an editorial focus on news, politics, opinion, and arts and entertainment of interest to LGBT people...
revealed that he identifies as "queer
Queer
Queer is an umbrella term for sexual minorities that are not heterosexual, heteronormative, or gender-binary. In the context of Western identity politics the term also acts as a label setting queer-identifying people apart from discourse, ideologies, and lifestyles that typify mainstream LGBT ...
", though, unlike other men, it never felt wrong when he was with women. In an interview with NPR
NPR
NPR, formerly National Public Radio, is a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to a network of 900 public radio stations in the United States. NPR was created in 1970, following congressional passage of the Public Broadcasting...
Urie describes what it's like to grow up gay.
As in Ugly Betty
Ugly Betty
Ugly Betty is an American comedy-drama television series developed by Silvio Horta, which premiered on ABC on September 28, 2006, and ended on April 14, 2010. The series revolves around the character Betty Suarez and is based on Fernando Gaitán's Colombian telenovela soap opera Yo soy Betty, la fea...
, Urie is best friends with fellow cast member Becki Newton
Becki Newton
Rebecca Sara "Becki" Newton is an American actress known for her role as Amanda Tanen on the television series Ugly Betty.-Early life:...
. Both hosted the official show podcast.
He is of partly Scottish
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
and partly Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
descent.
Career
Michael Urie graduated from Vines High SchoolVines High School
W. A. Vines High School is a free co-educational secondary school in Plano, Texas serving grades nine and ten. Wilson and Haggard Middle Schools feed into Vines. Founded in 1976, the school is part of the Plano Independent School District. Vines is accredited by the Texas Education Agency, which...
and Plano Senior High School
Plano Senior High School
Plano Senior High School is a public secondary school in Plano, Texas, USA, serving students in grades 11–12. The school is part of the Plano Independent School District, with admission based primarily on the locations of students' homes...
. Urie, while still a student at Juilliard performed in the world premiere of Love and Happiness (2001) at the Consolati Performing Arts Center, starring as a sixteen-year-old trying to get rid of his mother's boyfriend. In addition to this, he appeared in student productions of Sylvia (1998) and Locked Away (1999) at Quad C Theatre.
He also was the recipient of the 2002 John Houseman Prize for Excellence in Classical Theatre from the Juilliard School and his classical credits include Shakespeare, Jacobean drama, and commedia dell'arte.
Urie played the central character in the stage play WTC View
WTC View
WTC View is an American film released in 2005, based on the 2003 play of the same name by Brian Sloan, that traces the search for a roommate in the weeks following 9/11. Eric , a gay photographer, places an ad for a new roommate on September 10, 2001 for his apartment with a view of the World Trade...
as well as in the film adaptation. He is currently finishing a short
Short subject
A short film is any film not long enough to be considered a feature film. No consensus exists as to where that boundary is drawn: the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all...
documentary film
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
, Two Down that centers on high school speech and debate tournaments, for Frontal Lobe Productions.
He is on the board of Plum Productions and serves as its casting director. With the same company he has produced and appeared in Prachtoberfest and lowbrow (and a little bit tacky). As a freelance producer, he has worked on Like The Mountains and The Fantasticks
The Fantasticks
The Fantasticks is a 1960 musical with music by Harvey Schmidt and lyrics by Tom Jones. It was produced by Lore Noto. It tells an allegorical story, loosely based on the play "The Romancers" by Edmond Rostand, concerning two neighboring fathers who trick their children, Luisa and Matt, into...
(Four Players Theatre). He also directed the latter production. His first time directing The Fantasticks
The Fantasticks
The Fantasticks is a 1960 musical with music by Harvey Schmidt and lyrics by Tom Jones. It was produced by Lore Noto. It tells an allegorical story, loosely based on the play "The Romancers" by Edmond Rostand, concerning two neighboring fathers who trick their children, Luisa and Matt, into...
was as a high school student at Plano Senior High.
The character of "Marc St. James" on Ugly Betty was not initially intended as recurring; thus Urie was billed in the credits as a guest star. As originally conceived, Wilhelmina Slater
Wilhelmina Slater
Wilhelmina Vivian Slater is a fictional character in the American dramedy series Ugly Betty. She is played by Vanessa Williams, who received a supporting actress award at the 2007 and 2008 NAACP Image Awards, a Best TV Villain award at the 2007 Teen Choice Awards and a supporting actress...
was to have a different assistant in each episode. However, Vanessa Williams
Vanessa L. Williams
Vanessa Lynn Williams is an American pop-R&B recording artist, producer, dancer, model, actress and showgirl. In 1983, she became the first woman of African-American descent to be crowned Miss America, but a scandal generated by her having posed for nude photographs published in Penthouse magazine...
loved their chemistry, and Michael was signed on as a full time regular. He and the cast were nominated for Screen Actors Guild awards for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series in 2007 and 2008. The role earned Urie a Ewwy nomination for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series in 2009.
Patti LuPone
Patti LuPone
Patti Ann LuPone is an American singer and actress, known for her Tony Award-winning performances as Eva Perón in the 1979 stage musical Evita and as Madame Rose in the 2008 Broadway revival of Gypsy, and for her Olivier Award-winning performance as Fantine in the original London cast of Les...
has appeared with Urie to play Marc's mother in one episode.
During the 2007-2008 Writers Guild of America strike Urie hosted TLC
TLC (TV channel)
TLC is an American cable TV specialty channel which initially focused on educational content. Since 1991 TLC has been owned by Discovery Communications, the same company that operates the Discovery Channel, Animal Planet and The Science Channel, as well as other learning-themed networks...
's reality-based series
Reality television
Reality television is a genre of television programming that presents purportedly unscripted dramatic or humorous situations, documents actual events, and usually features ordinary people instead of professional actors, sometimes in a contest or other situation where a prize is awarded...
"Miss America
Miss America 2008
Miss America 2008, the 87th Miss America pageant, was held at the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino in Las Vegas on January 26, 2008.The pageant was broadcast live on TLC from the Theatre for the Performing Arts at the Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino, only the third time that the pageant has been...
Reality Check." The program followed the contestants participating in the 2008 Miss America
Miss America
The Miss America pageant is a long-standing competition which awards scholarships to young women from the 50 states plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands...
Pageant.
Urie returns often to his theater roots, including his recent direction of a one-night celebrity performed staging of Howard Ashman
Howard Ashman
Howard Elliott Ashman was an American playwright and lyricist. Ashman first studied at Boston University and Goddard College and then went on to achieve his master's degree from Indiana University in 1974...
's unproduced musical "Dreamstuff". The musical was re-imagined by Howard's partners Marsha Malamet and Dennis Green
Dennis Green
Dennis "Denny" Green is an American football head coach for the Sacramento Mountain Lions of the United Football League...
and performed one night only at Los Angeles' Hayworth Theatre as part of the Bruno Kirby
Bruno Kirby
Bruno Kirby was an American film and television actor. He was perhaps best known for his roles in the Hollywood films City Slickers, When Harry Met Sally..., Good Morning, Vietnam, The Godfather Part II and Donnie Brasco.-Early life:Kirby was born Bruno Giovanni Quidaciolu, Jr. in New York City,...
celebrity reading series. Eden Espinosa
Eden Espinosa
Eden Erica Espinosa is an American singer and stage actress, who is best known for her performances as Elphaba for the Broadway, Los Angeles and San Francisco productions of the musical Wicked....
starred in the show along with Fred Willard
Fred Willard
Fred Willard is an American actor, comedian, and voice over actor, best known for his improvisational comedy skills. He is known for his roles in the Christopher Guest mockumentary films This is Spinal Tap, Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show, A Mighty Wind, and For Your Consideration as well as...
, Vicki Lewis
Vicki Lewis
Vicki Lewis is an American film, stage, television and voice actress best known for her role as Beth in the NBC sitcom NewsRadio.-Personal life:...
, David Blue
David Blue (actor)
David Blue is an American actor, writer, producer and director. He is best known for his portrayal of Cliff St. Paul on Ugly Betty and Eli Wallace on the Syfy series Stargate Universe.-Early life:...
and Luke Macfarlane
Luke MacFarlane
Thomas Luke Macfarlane , better known as Luke Macfarlane, is a Canadian actor and musician.-Early life:Macfarlane was born in London, Ontario, Canada. His father, Thomas , was the Director of Student Health Services at the University of Western Ontario, and his mother, Penny, is a mental health...
. He has also been on "Live With Regis and Kelly" and has also starred in the 2008 Disney blockbuster production Beverly Hills Chihuahua as the voice of Sebastian
On 29 October 2008, he appeared as a guest presenter on the British National Television Awards
National Television Awards
The National Television Awards is a British television awards ceremony, broadcast by the ITV network and initiated in 1995. The National Television Awards are the most prominent ceremony for which the results are voted on by the general public. Because of the way the awards are decided, winners are...
, awarding for the Best Performance in a Serial Drama.
Urie originated the role of Rudi Gernreich
Rudi Gernreich
Rudi Gernreich was a Austrian-born American fashion designer and gay activist.-Biography:Born in Vienna, Gernreich fled Austria at age 16 due to Nazism, and later migrated to the United States, settling in Los Angeles, California...
in the 2009 off-Broadway
Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway theater is a term for a professional venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, and for a specific production of a play, musical or revue that appears in such a venue, and which adheres to related trade union and other contracts...
play The Temperamentals
The Temperamentals
The Temperamentals is a 2009 play by Jon Marans. It chronicles the founding of the Mattachine Society, the first sustained LGBT rights organization in the United States, and the love affair of two of its founding members, Harry Hay and Rudi Gernreich...
, about the foundation of the early LGBT
LGBT
LGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the...
rights organization the Mattachine Society
Mattachine Society
The Mattachine Society, founded in 1950, was one of the earliest homophile organizations in the United States, probably second only to Chicago’s Society for Human Rights . Harry Hay and a group of Los Angeles male friends formed the group to protect and improve the rights of homosexuals...
. Urie received a Lucille Lortel Award
Lucille Lortel Awards
The Lucille Lortel Awards recognize excellence in New York Off-Broadway theatre. The Awards are named for Lucille Lortel, an actress and theater producer, and have been awarded since 1986...
for Outstanding Lead Actor.
Urie has also started his own website for videoblogging and live chats.
Filmography & Television
| Year | Title | Role |
| 2011 | The Decoy Bride The Decoy Bride The Decoy Bride is an upcoming British romantic comedy film written by comedian Sally Phillips and Neil Jaworski, and starring David Tennant, Alice Eve and Kelly MacDonald. The film is being made by Ecosse Films.-Plot:... |
Steve Korbitz |
| 2010 | Celebrity Ghost Stories Celebrity Ghost Stories Celebrity Ghost Stories is a television show on BIO & A&E Network. It is a reality show that interviews various celebrities who have witnessed paranormal events at certain points in their lives.-Season 1 - ::... |
Himself |
| 2006–2010 | Ugly Betty Ugly Betty Ugly Betty is an American comedy-drama television series developed by Silvio Horta, which premiered on ABC on September 28, 2006, and ended on April 14, 2010. The series revolves around the character Betty Suarez and is based on Fernando Gaitán's Colombian telenovela soap opera Yo soy Betty, la fea... |
Marc St. James |
| 2008–2009 | Mode After Hours | Marc St. James |
| 2008 | Beverly Hills Chihuahua Beverly Hills Chihuahua Beverly Hills Chihuahua is a 2008 family comedy film produced by Walt Disney Pictures. It is directed by Raja Gosnell and released on October 3, 2008... |
Sebastian |
| Tangled Web | Husband | |
| 2005 | WTC View | Eric |
Theatre
| Year | Title | Role |
| 2009 | The Temperamentals The Temperamentals The Temperamentals is a 2009 play by Jon Marans. It chronicles the founding of the Mattachine Society, the first sustained LGBT rights organization in the United States, and the love affair of two of its founding members, Harry Hay and Rudi Gernreich... |
Rudi Gernreich Rudi Gernreich Rudi Gernreich was a Austrian-born American fashion designer and gay activist.-Biography:Born in Vienna, Gernreich fled Austria at age 16 due to Nazism, and later migrated to the United States, settling in Los Angeles, California... |
External links
- MichaelUrie.net - Urie's personal website
- Entertainment Weekly interview with Michael Urie and the actors who portray TV assistants Lloyd (EntourageEntourage (TV series)Entourage is an American comedy-drama television series that premiered on HBO on July 18, 2004 and concluded on September 11, 2011, after eight seasons...
) and Kenneth (30 Rock30 Rock30 Rock is an American television comedy series created by Tina Fey that airs on NBC. The series is loosely based on Fey's experiences as head writer for Saturday Night Live...
). - Interview from Broadway World (August 21, 2007)
- Michael's Twitter Profile