| Raúl Esparza | |
|---|---|
| Born | October 24, 1970 Wilmington, Delaware |
| Spouse | Michele Esparza (married 1993, separated 2000, divorced 2008) |
| Website | |
| http://raulesparza.com/ | |
Raúl Eduardo Esparza (born October 24, 1970) is an American stage actor, singer, and voice artist noted for his award winning performances in Broadway shows. He has received Tony nominations for his role as a vibrant and flamboyant Philip Salon in the Boy George musical Taboo in 2004, an empty man devoid of connection in the musical comedy Company in 2006, a lazy and snarky man in Harold Pinter's The Homecoming, and an aggressive volatile movie producer in David Mamet's Speed the Plow. He played the role of Riff Raff on Broadway in the revival of "The Rocky Horror Show" and the role of Caractacus Potts in the Broadway musical Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
He has been nominated in all Tony categories for which an actor is eligible but has yet to win. He has performed musicals by Andrew Lloyd Webber, Stephen Sondheim, Kander and Ebb, Boy George and the Sherman Brothers and has performed in plays by David Mamet, Harold Pinter, William Shakespeare, Tom Stoppard, and more. He is widely regarded for his versatility on stage. His work on film includes Sidney Lumet's Find Me Guilty and Wes Craven's My Soul To Take. His television credits include roles on "Medium" and Pushing Daisies. He has recorded the audiobook for Stephen King's Under the Dome and sings in concerts all over the country.
Contents |
Born in Wilmington, Delaware to Cuban American parents and raised in Miami, Florida, Esparza graduated from Belen Jesuit in 1988[1] and later received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Drama from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.
Esparza first drew attention with his performance in the 2000 Broadway revival of The Rocky Horror Show, which won him the Theatre World Award. Additional Broadway credits include Cabaret (2001), Taboo (2003), Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (2005) and Sondheim's Company (2006). He received a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actor in a Musical and a Drama Desk Award for his performance in the musical Taboo. Esparza's performance in Company earned him a second Tony nomination, this time for Best Actor in a Musical, as well as his second Drama Desk award. Beginning in November 2007, Raúl appeared in Harold Pinter's play The Homecoming and was Tony-nominated for Best Featured Actor in a Play. In 2008, he played Charlie Fox in the revival of David Mamet's Speed-the-Plow co-starring Jeremy Piven and Elisabeth Moss on Broadway.[2] His performance in Speed-the-Plow earned him a Tony nomination for Best Actor in a Play, making him the second performer after Boyd Gaines to be nominated in all four acting categories a performer is eligible for at the Tonys, although he has yet to win one.
He appeared on Broadway in a limited-engagement revival of Tom Stoppard's Arcadia, which began previews at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on Friday, February 25, 2011 and opened on March 17, 2011.[3]
In 1999, Esparza portrayed Che in the national tour of Evita, opposite Natalie Toro. The tour was intended to land on Broadway, but failed to do so. In 2001, he appeared off-Broadway in tick, tick... BOOM! by Jonathan Larson, garnering a Drama Desk Award nomination as Outstanding Actor in a Musical. He appeared in two Stephen Sondheim musicals, Sunday in the Park with George and Merrily We Roll Along at the 2002 Kennedy Center Sondheim Celebration.[4] He also appeared as The Arbiter in The Actors Fund of America Concert of Sir Tim Rice's Chess in September 2003.[5]
In the summer of 2009, he starred in a production of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night at the Delacorte Theater with Anne Hathaway, from June 25 through July 12.[6]
He starred as Hapgood in the City Center Encores! staged concert production of Anyone Can Whistle from April 8 to 11, 2010. He played opposite Sutton Foster as Fay and Donna Murphy as the Mayoress.[7]
In 2007 he had a recurring role on the TV show Pushing Daisies as traveling salesman Alfredo Aldarisio, a role originally given to Paul Reubens.
In 2009, he recorded the audiobook Under the Dome by US author Stephen King. He has done previous narration for The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer,[8] and The Book of Unholy Mischief by Elle Newmark.[9]
In January 2010, he performed alongside Lucie Arnaz, Desi Arnaz Jr. and Valarie Pettiford at the 92Y's Lyrics and Lyricist event honoring Desi Arnaz and His Orchestra, "Babalu: The American Songbook Goes Latin".[10]
In 2010, Esparza appeared as Abel Plenkov in the Wes Craven film My Soul to Take, formerly titled 25/8.[11]
Esparza was the subject of a New York Times profile in which he revealed that he was bisexual and that he had same-sex relationships. Married to Michele Esparza, his high school girlfriend, since 1993, they had been separated "off and on", the actor has said, since 2000 and quietly divorced in 2008. They still remain extremely close friends. In 2006 Esparza said that he was involved with an unnamed male actor.[12]
| Preceded by Brian Conley |
Actor to portray Caractacus Potts 2005 |
Succeeded by Tim Flavin |
|
||||||||
|
||||||||