
Age: 39
male
Darren Everett Criss (born February 5, 1987) is an American actor, singer, and songwriter. He rose to fame starring on the television series Glee (2010–2015) and received Emmy and Golden Globe acting awards for his leading role as spree killer Andrew Cunanan in The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story (2018). He has also appeared on Broadway and in film and has released several musical albums. A founding member and co-owner of StarKid Productions, a musical theater company based in Chicago, Criss first garnered attention playing the lead role of Harry Potter in, and writing most of the music and lyrics for, StarKid's musical production of A Very Potter Musical. Criss has also starred on Broadway as a replacement in both How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and Hedwig and the Angry Inch. In 2015, Criss co-founded Elsie Fest which is touted as "New York City's first outdoor music festival celebrating tunes from the stage and screen". In March 2017, Criss debuted his indie pop band Computer Games along with his brother Chuck Criss. In addition to his music endeavors, Criss starred in the second installment of Ryan Murphy's American Crime Story. Subtitled The Assassination of Gianni Versace (2018), Criss's portrayal of spree killer Andrew Cunanan received acclaim from critics, and earned him an Emmy win for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie and a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Miniseries, or Television Film.

Darren Criss

Rogers Brackett
for Rogers Brackett in JAMES BYRON DEAN
Suggested by nickienicks

In 1955, a young man drives into legend - and leaves behind a life no one fully understood. James Byron Dean is a haunting, nonlinear portrait of James Dean, tracing his meteoric rise and unraveling identity across the final years of his life. Moving between his fractured Indiana childhood, his restless search for meaning in New York, and his volatile ascent in Hollywood, the series explores how a quiet, searching actor became the defining symbol of rebellion for a generation. Through intimate and often conflicting relationships - with confidant William Bast, tragic love Pier Angeli, and the powerful forces of the studio system - Dean is shaped, challenged, and ultimately consumed by the very image that makes him famous. Directors like Elia Kazan and Nicholas Ray see brilliance in his unpredictability, while Hollywood executives and gossip columnists begin crafting a myth that grows beyond his control. As Dean delivers raw, era-defining performances in East of Eden, Rebel Without a Cause, and Giant, the line between actor and role dissolves. Off-screen, his life becomes a patchwork of longing, reinvention, and contradiction - romanticized by the media, misunderstood by those closest to him, and driven by a need for connection he can never quite satisfy. Told through shifting perspectives and memory fragments, James Byron Dean reveals not just the man, but the making of an icon. By the time his life ends at just 24, the world has already begun rewriting him - transforming a restless young actor into an enduring symbol of youth, defiance, and the beauty of burning out too soon.