Darren Criss

The Origin Online

Darren Criss didn't wait for an agent to knock on his door. In 2009 he was a University of Michigan student who wrote parody songs with his group of friends. Together they recorded A Very Potter Musical on a ridiculous budget and posted it on a platform that was just beginning to professionalize. Millions of views later, the actor playing Harry Potter already had a fan base before he ever set foot on a television set.

That amateur phenomenon led to the creation of StarKid Productions. It was an independent structure that let him experiment with composition and writing without the pressures of the conventional industry. Criss soon understood that control over the original material was the only way not to be an interchangeable actor.

And the gamble paid off.

The leap to mainstream television

In 2010 he joined the cast of Glee for a short arc. He played Blaine Anderson, and his first performance singing Teenage Dream broke sales records on the U.S. digital charts. The executive producers saw that Criss's charisma was a financial asset, and they kept him on the series until its finale in 2015.

But youth fame is often a trap. Many actors from his generation got stuck in the teen idol archetype. Criss decided his path lay on the New York stage and in characters with far sharper edges than those of a high school student.

There was no turning back.

A complete break from Versace's killer

Ryan Murphy called him back in 2018 for a project that had nothing to do with the halls of McKinley High. In The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story he played the killer Andrew Cunanan. It was a physically and psychologically demanding role that forced critics to erase the good-guy image he had carried for nearly a decade.

He won an Emmy and a Golden Globe for that performance. He was the first actor of Filipino descent to win these honors in their main categories. That victory gave him the freedom to choose his projects, a level of independence few television actors achieve within the Los Angeles studio system.

Because Criss has always preferred the risk of live performance to the comfort of the camera.

A Refuge on the Stage

In 2015, he had already starred in Hedwig and the Angry Inch on Broadway. That role required a complete physical transformation and a vocal range that very few performers in today's industry can handle. Later, in 2022, he returned to the stage in David Mamet's American Buffalo, sharing the stage with Sam Rockwell and Laurence Fishburne.

His work as a businessman also takes up part of his professional schedule. In 2015 he founded Elsie Fest, a music festival in New York dedicated to musical theater lovers. The event has drawn thousands of people every year by blending pop culture with the technical rigor of Broadway scores.

In 2024, he premiered the musical Maybe Happy Ending at the Belasco Theatre. The production featured high-tech set design that incorporated digital projections and basic robotics on stage. Criss's contract for this show was signed for an initial six-month period, with an option to extend based on weekly box office.