Darren Everett Criss (born February 5, 1987) is an American actor, singer-songwriter, musician, composer, internet personality, and one of the founding members of Team StarKid, a theater production company. He played Harry Potter in the musicals A Very Potter Musical and A Very Potter Sequel, and currently portrays Blaine Anderson, an openly gay student, in the TV series Glee. Unable to participate in Starship, he wrote the music and lyrics when he was in L.A. filming Glee.
Early life and education
Darren Criss at the HP7 premire day.
Criss was born in San Francisco. His mother, a native of Cebu in the Philippines, is of Chinese, Spanish, and Filipino descent, and his father has Irish ancestry. He attended Stuart Hall for Boys and then later graduated from Saint Ignatius College Preparatory. In 2009, Criss obtained a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Performance degree from the University of Michigan.
Criss is a classically trained violinist who began playing at the age of five. He later taught himself guitar, piano, cello, mandolin, harmonica and drums. He played drums in a band with his brother, Chuck, until Chuck moved to New York City to develop his music career (and subsequently joined the indie rock group Freelance Whales).
Career
Theatre
Criss made his professional stage debut at the age of ten, in 42nd Street Moon's 1997 production of Fanny in the role of Cesario. The next year, Criss played Mauro in the same company's production of the Richard Rodgers and Stephen Sondheim musical Do I Hear a Waltz?, followed by Babes in Arms in 1999, in which he played Beauregard Calhoun.
Criss is part owner of Team StarKid, a theater production company that was formed by students at the University of Michigan. His roles with Team StarKid include "Harry Potter" in the YouTube viral musicals A Very Potter Musical and A Very Potter Sequel. Both productions are musical-comedies based on the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling.
Television
His early television career includes roles on the television series Eastwick and Cold Case.
On November 9, 2010, Criss joined the cast of Glee in the episode "Never Been Kissed" as Blaine Anderson, a gay student at rival school Dalton Academy and lead singer of Dalton's Glee club, The Warblers. He is currently a main character in season three and plays the boyfriend of main character Kurt Hummel, played by Chris Colfer. Glee creator Ryan Murphy stated, "Darren has a major, major arc... He sort of becomes Kurt's mentor and then maybe love – Kurt had to leave his own school because of bullying and goes to an all-boys academy and finds acceptance because that school has a zero-tolerance no-bullying policy. So Kurt really admires him and respects him. He plays someone who's one year older than Chris' character, so he's the old pro".
Internet
Criss in November 2010 Criss started out as the host of That Media Show, a San Francisco production which discussed Hollywood, filmmaking and visual effects.
Criss played the role of "Toby Phillips" in the web series Little White Lie(2007), produced by Team StarKid. 
Criss currently voices the character of "Leopold Bonar" from the Funny or Die web series Life of Leopold.
Music
Before starting on Glee, Darren sang his own renditions of some Disney songs at a Maggiano's restaurant every Thursday. On his youtube canal called Iclemyer he uploaded videos of him singing: "Part Of Your Word" , "Belle", "Duck Tales","I'll Make A Man Out Of You" , "Reflection" and also "The Muse".
Criss is credited as one of the primary songwriters and composers, along with A.J. Holmes and Carlos Valde s, for Team StarKid musical productions. He has contributed songs to A Very Potter Musical (2009), Me and My Dick (2009), the web-series Little White Lie (2007), and composed all the songs and music for A Very Potter Sequel (2010), its companion album A Very StarKid Album(2010), and Starship (2011). The Starshipalbum was released on April 29, 2011. It reached No.1 on Billboard Top Cast Album Chart, No.2 on iTunes Sou ndtrack Chart, No.4 on iTunes Albums Chart, and No.134 on Billboard 200 Chart.
Criss released a self-produced EP called Human on iTunes in the summer of 2010. It debuted at No. 30 on Billboard's Top Heatseekers Albums and has reached the iTunes Top 20 Alternative charts. He is currently signed with Sony Music Entertainment.
Criss frequently collaborates and performs with fellow Michigan alum, New York-based singer/songwriter Charlene Kaye. He sings on her songs "Skin and Bones" and "Dress and Tie", and is featured in her music videos for "Skin and Bones" "Dress and Tie" and "Magnolia Wine."
Criss has contributed to the Glee soundtrack as lead singer of the "Warblers", an
all-male acapella singing group (all backing vocals and arrangements are done by Tufts University's Beelzebubs). His first song o
Darren Criss portraying Blaine on Glee (Singing "When I Get You Alone"
n Glee, "Teenage Dream", hit No.1 on the Billboard charts, selling 214,000 singles in its first week and outselling the original in its first week of digital sales. It was the first time a Glee track had reached the No.1 spot, and is the fastest selling Glee track to date. He followed with other songs he sang in later episodes; "Hey, Soul Sister", "Baby, It's Cold Outside," "Bills, Bills, Bills," "When I Get You Alone," (pictured on the right) "Silly Love Songs," "Animal," "Candles," "Misery", "Somewhere Only We Know" and "Raise Your Glass;" most of which have reached the top ten on iTunes. The album Glee: The Music Presents the Warblers, released on April 19, 2011, reached No.2 on iTunes and the Billboard 200 Charts.