Lucas Grabeel

Lucas Grabeel
Grabeel in November 2016
Born	Lucas Stephen Grabeel (1984-11-23) November 23, 1984 Springfield, Missouri, United States
Residence	Mill Valley, California, US
Occupation	Actor director producer singer
Years active	2004–present
Musical career
Genres	Pop
Instruments	Vocals guitar
Labels	Road Dawg Records

Lucas Stephen Grabeel (/ˈɡreɪbiːl/ GRAY-beel; born November 23, 1984) is an American actor, director, producer, singer and songwriter. He is best known for roles such as, Ryan Evans in the High School Musical film series, as Ezra Chase in The Adventures of Food Boy (2008) and as Ethan Dalloway in the third and fourth installments of the Halloweentown series: Halloweentown High (2004) and Return to Halloweentown (2006). He also appeared as a young Lex Luthor and Conner Kent in the television series Smallville. He played Toby Kennish in the ABC Family/Freeform drama Switched at Birth. He provides the voice of Deputy Peck in the Disney Junior TV series Sheriff Callie's Wild West.

Early life

Grabeel was born in Springfield, Missouri on November 23, 1984, the son of Jean (née Harman) and Stephen Grabeel.^[1] Before transferring to and graduating from Kickapoo High School in Springfield in 2003, he attended Logan-Rogersville Elementary, Middle and High School. He also played drums for a local church and initiated a men's a cappella singing group at a high school. At school, he found passions in the guitar and the accordion while also enjoying dance. He can dance in the styles of jazz, ballet, hip-hop and tap.^[2] While in Rogersville, Missouri, he regularly attended Harmony Baptist Church, where he was a part of the children's and youth groups.^[3] During the summer of 2002, He attended the Missouri Fine Arts Academy (MFAA) at Missouri State University. In a letter written to protest eliminating MFAA, Grabeel stated, "I wouldn't be where I am at if it weren't for my time at MFAA." His time there, as he refers to it, is what led him to move to LA and pursue an acting career.

Following his graduation, Grabeel moved to Los Angeles to become an actor. After two months living there, Grabeel landed his first television role in a commercial for toothpaste and then eventually went to star in other commercials for Lego and Hot Wheels.

Career

2004–08: Beginning and High School Musical

Grabeel (left) and Corbin Bleu (right) in the High School Musical: The Concert, in 2007.

In 2004, he starred in his first film role as Ethan Dolloway in the third installment of the Halloweentown series Halloweentown High. He subsequently reprised this role in the series' fourth installment Return to Halloweentown. Grabeel has made television guest appearances in TV series such as Boston Legal, 'Til Death, Veronica Mars. On Smallville, he portrayed a young Lex Luthor. In 2006, he was cast in the role of Ryan Evans, the fraternal twin brother of Sharpay Evans (played by Ashley Tisdale), in the Emmy Award-winning made-for-television Disney movie High School Musical. He reprises his role in the television sequels High School Musical 2 and High School Musical 3: Senior Year. In 2007, he joined co-stars Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Tisdale, Corbin Bleu and Monique Coleman on the 51-date High School Musical: The Concert. In early 2009, Billboard believed that Grabeel and Tisdale's track "I Want It All" should be nominated for an Oscar in the Best Original Song category however, the song did not make the final shortlist.^[4] During his time in High School Musical, Grabeel (along with his co-stars) had a total of six tracks chart in the Billboard Hot 100.^[5][6][7][8]

Furthermore, he was the first artist to debut in the Billboard Hot 100 with two simultaneous new entries in one week.^[9] While with Disney Channel, Grabeel also participated in the first ever Disney Channel Games and co-captained the green team along with Ashley Tisdale, Mitchel Musso, Miley Cyrus, Emily Osment and Kyle Massey. A year later, he returned to repeat his captaincy of the green team with Dylan Sprouse, Miley Cyrus, Monique Coleman and Brandon Baker. Other film projects Grabeel was involved with include the animated film, At Jesus' Side, where he voiced a dog named Jericho.^[10] He also filmed the independent film, Alice Upside Down,^[11] as the character of Lester McKinley, based on the "Alice book series" by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. Aside his involvement in the High School Musical soundtracks, Grabeel has recorded a song called "You Know I Will" for the soundtrack of The Fox and the Hound 2 and also recorded his own version of the Michael Bolton track "Go the Distance", from Disney's Hercules, for DisneyMania 5.

In 2007, Grabeel co-wrote and recorded a song called "You Got It"^[12] which was released in the iTunes Store on August 19, 2007^[13] while its accompanying music video was released on his official website. Grabeel also recorded another original song called "Trash Talkin'" which was released November 15, 2008 on YouTube.^[14] In 2008, he also appeared in the movie Milk, a biopic about the slain gay rights activist Harvey Milk. Grabeel played a friend and supporter of Milk, photographer Danny Nicoletta. He also appeared in the 2008 Walt Disney Pictures film College Road Trip as Scooter, which features other Disney stars Raven-Symoné, Brenda Song and Margo Harshman. He also stars in the independent movie Lock and Roll Forever alongside Ore Ska Band.^[15] Grabeel also guest starred in an episode of The Cleveland Show.

2009–present: Switched at Birth and other projects

Early in 2009, Grabeel was voted Most Likely to Do Big Things in 2009 by MTV and had an exclusive interview with them. He mentions the release of another music video for his track Get Your Ass On.^[16] He also mentioned his latest movie project, The Legend of the Dancing Ninja, where he played the lead Tokyo Jones alongside David Hasselhoff.^[17] In May 2009 he portrayed the role on stage of Matt in the Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones musical, The Fantasticks with Eric McCormack and Harry Groener at UCLA's Freud Playhouse.^[18] Grabeel also sings in the iTunes show I Kissed a Vampire, in which, he stars. In early 2009, he appeared at the Southland Theatre Artists Goodwill Event (S.T.A.G.E.), an AIDS charity event, in Beverly Hills performing George and Ira Gershwin's "I Can't Be Bothered Now".^[19][20] He also recorded and released a new track titled '135n8' in early 2014 with the music video being uploaded to his YouTube account.

In 2011 he appeared in 10th season of Smallville as Alexander Luthor / Connor Kent, a hybrid clone with Lex Luthor and Clark Kent's DNA. In 2007, he filmed the movie, The Adventures of Food Boy with Brittany Curran, as the lead, Ezra Chase. Since the summer of 2011, Grabeel has been starring in the ABC Family drama Switched at Birth, in which he plays the brother of one of the two girls that were mistakenly switched at birth in the hospital.^[21] In March 2012 I Kissed A Vampire was released in the US where Lucas stars alongside Drew Seeley and Adrian Slade.^[22] In January 2014 he provided his first-ever voice over role for an animated series, Deputy Peck on Sheriff Callie's Wild West. He has also played the character of Gustav in Dragons; Defenders of Berk

Other ventures

In 2007, Grabeel founded a production company called 14341 Productions. His role within involves overseeing many projects from writing, directing and executive producing. The company have produced projects such as the short films The Real Son, Smoke Break; the music videos for "Get Your Ass On" and "You Got It". They also produced a TV pilot called Regarding Beauregard which was Grabeel's directorial debut. They are currently working on a short film, The Adventures of Chuckle Boy, and have just released a short film The Dragon.^[23] Their work debuted at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival.^[24]

Filmography

Discography

Extended play

Singles

As main artist

As featured artist

Other appearances

Other charted songs

Awards and nominations

Notes

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lucas Grabeel.

• Lucas Grabeel on IMDb