Rannells was born in Omaha, Nebraska, to Charlotte and Ronald Rannells. He is the fourth of five siblings, with three sisters and an older brother. His ancestry is Polish and Irish. Rannells attended Our Lady of Lourdes grade school in Omaha, and then Creighton Preparatory School, an all-boys Roman Catholic school in Omaha. His family lived in the Hanscom Park neighborhood in Omaha. As a child, he took classes at the Emmy Gifford Children's Theater and performed at the Omaha Community Playhouse and the Firehouse Dinner Theatre and the Dundee Dinner Theatre. Rannells was 11 when he acted in his first play. He did community theater with fellow Omahan and Creighton Prep alumnus Conor Oberst. He did voice-over work and commercials, including a 1996 Grease spoof with Amy Adams. Rannells moved to New York City in 1997 after high school, studying theater at Marymount Manhattan College for two years before he started auditioning full-time and began landing roles.
Career
Rannells played the character James in Pokémon Live! from September 2000 to August 2001, which he is embarrassed about, joking in 2019 that he would have rather starred in a porn film or snuff film instead and that he only took the job for the pay. For about three years, from 2001–04, he worked with 4Kids Entertainment, a New York City animation production company, where his Omaha voice-over work served him well. He also directed a small number of video games, "Kirby" and "Sonic the Hedgehog." As a voice actor, Rannells appeared in several 4Kids and DiCtelevision programs and video games, such as Yu-Gi-Oh!. Before winning his first Broadway role, Rannells had parts in a number of regional theater productions, including Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Miss Saigon, and Thoroughly Modern Millie. For his turn as Hedwig at the Zachary Scott Theater Center in Austin, Texas, in 2002, he won best actor in a musical at the B. Iden Payne Awards in September 2002, which honor outstanding achievements in Austin theater. In 2006, he won the role of Link Larkin in the Broadway production of Hairspray. This was his first Broadway show, what he considers his big break. Rannells followed this with some regional performances. Rannells played Bob Gaudio in the First National Tour of Jersey Boys. His last performance with the tour was on December 6, 2008, in Toronto. In January 2009, he reprised the role of Gaudio in the musical's Broadway production. Rannells originated the role of Elder Price in The Book of Mormon, a musical written by South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone and Avenue Q composer Robert Lopez. For his performance, he was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical. He won the Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album for his performance in the musical's . His last performance was June 10, 2012. Rannells played a stripper in the 2012 filmBachelorette and played a lead character, Bryan Collins, in the 2012-13 television series The New Normal. Rannells played the recurring role of Elijah on the HBO television series Girls. Rannells temporarily replaced Jonathan Groff in the role of King George III in Hamilton on Broadway from October 27 to November 29, 2015, while Groff fulfilled pre-arranged filming commitments. Rannells played the role of "Whizzer Brown" in the Broadway revival of Falsettos directed by James Lapine. He was joined by Christian Borle and Stephanie J. Block who played Marvin and Trina, respectively. The musical ran from October 27, 2016, to January 8, 2017.
Personal life
Rannells is openly gay. Rannells has said he has known he is gay since high school. He came out to his family when he was eighteen, and by then they had already figured it out. He also came out to his theater friends, but not at the all-boys Catholic school. As of 2014, he lives in New York City after temporarily residing in Los Angeles to film The New Normal. Since 2019, he has been in a relationship with actor Tuc Watkins.
