Darren Criss is an American actor, musician, singer-songwriter, and composer with a $5 million net worth. Criss is probably best known for his role on the TV show “Glee,” but he has also been in a wide range of other projects since then. These things include plays on Broadway, movies, and TV shows. Criss is also a talented and well-known musician who has made several recordings, both on his own and with his band.

Darren Criss’s career in entertainment started in 2010 when he got his first big role on “Glee.” He then started a musical theatre company and put out an album of his songs that did surprisingly well on the charts. Later, Darren played the killer Andrew Cunanan in the second season of “American Crime Story.” This got him an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie and a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Miniseries or Television Film.

Early Years

Darren Everett Criss was born in San Francisco on February 5, 1987. His father is a well-known investor and art supporter, and his mother is from Cebu, Philippines, and has Chinese, Filipino, and Spanish roots. His father was born in Pittsburgh and comes from Europe. This makes Criss Eurasian. In 2020, for “American Crime Story,” he was the first Asian American actor to win an Emmy for acting.

His family moved to Hawaii in 1988, and Darren lived there for four years. He moved back to San Francisco and went to several Roman Catholic schools there. He went to the University of Michigan after he graduated. Then, in 2009, he got his Bachelor of Fine Arts. He had studied theatre performance as his major and musicology and Italian as his minors.

 

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Criss was very interested in the arts from a very young age. He began taking violin lessons when he was five years old, and he kept taking them for the next 15 years. He also learned how to play the piano, guitar, mandolin, harmonica, and drums during this time. During high school, he was in charge of the school orchestra and started his band. At age 15, he started to learn how to write music and write his songs.

He also showed that he was good at the performing arts. He got into the American Conservatory Theater when he was 10 years old. He was in a lot of school plays when he was in high school. He did a lot of acting and directing for a student-run theatre group at the University of Michigan, where he went to school. During college, he also went to Arezzo, Italy, for a summer to study Italian theatre.

Career

Darren’s first job as an actor was on stage. He got a part in a play called “Fanny” when he was 10 years old. When plays like “Do I Hear a Waltz?” and “Babes in Arms” were put on, she made more appearances. During his teens, he went on to play parts in plays like “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Criss acted in plays like “A Few Good Men” and “Pride and Prejudice” when he was in college.

After Darren graduated from college, he and his friends started a musical theatre company called StarKid Productions. The company then made musical comedies like “A Very Potter Musical,” “A Very Potter Sequel,” and “A Very Potter Senior Year.”

Darren Criss played Harry Potter in all of these shows and helped write the music and lyrics. At first, these plays were put on at the University of Michigan. Later, recordings of them were put online. Since then, a lot of people have watched these videos on YouTube.

Criss then started to be in several TV shows, starting in 2009 with “Eastwick.” After that, he was in an episode of “Cold Case” before he got his big break in 2010 on the second season of “Glee.” In the series, Criss played the role of Blaine Anderson, who became a big topic of conversation as the series went on.

Criss also made his Broadway debut during this time. In 2012, he was in “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying” for the first time. Later, he had another role on Broadway in “Hedwig and the Angry Inch,” which later went on tour to San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Criss also made his movie debut in 2012 with the comedy “Girl Most Likely,” which was shown for the first time at the Toronto International Film Festival.

 

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Kristen Wiig and Matt Dillon were also in this movie. In the second season of “American Crime Story,” which came out in 2017, he played serial killer Andrew Cunanan. His performance was praised by many people, and he won several awards. In 2019, he joined the cast of “Royalties,” and it was also announced that he would be joining the cast of a Netflix show called “Hollywood.”

Darren has been working hard on a music career on the side of his acting career. The first thing he did was put out an EP called “Human” in 2010. This “soul-folk” album did pretty well, and he later got a record deal with Sony Music Entertainment.

Darren Criss Wife

Darren Criss has a wife. Mia Swier is the name of his wife. In 2006, these two people met through mutual friends. In 2010, they began going out together.

They had been together for about seven and a half years. In January 2018, they told Mia they were going to marry. On February 16, 2019, he married her.

Real Estate

In 2019, it was said that Criss had paid $3.025 million for a home in Hollywood Hills, California. The house is 4,700 square feet and has blonde floors, three bedrooms, and strong gates.

There is a play structure, a swimming pool, and a spa in the yard. Darren used to own a Los Feliz bungalow with 1,700 square feet that he bought for $1.2 million in 2012. This house also had a swimming pool and three bedrooms. Criss put this “starter home” on the market for $1.697 million in 2020.