Ben Platt

Ben Platt Bio

Benjamin Schiff Platt, known professionally as Ben Platt, is an American actor, singer, and songwriter whose career spans Broadway, film, television, and recorded music. Born on September 24, 1993, in Los Angeles, California, Platt first gained wide recognition for originating the title role in the Broadway musical Dear Evan Hansen, a performance that earned him the Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical in 2017. He later expanded his reach with film roles in the Pitch Perfect series and a starring turn in the Netflix series The Politician, while also building a parallel career as a recording artist with Atlantic Records and Interscope Records. Platt is regarded as one of the most versatile performers of his generation in contemporary American entertainment.

The son of film and theater producer Marc Platt and philanthropist Julie Platt, Benjamin Schiff Platt grew up surrounded by creative and civic life in Los Angeles. He began performing as a child and, by his early twenties, had already become the youngest solo recipient of the Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical at age 23. In addition to his stage work, Platt has released three studio albums, headlined international tours, and continued to take on screen projects that showcase his range as a dramatic and musical performer.

Early Life and Background

Benjamin Schiff Platt was born on September 24, 1993, in Los Angeles, California, the fourth of five children of Julie Platt and Marc Platt. His father, Marc Platt, is a producer whose credits include Wicked, Legally Blonde, Into the Woods, La La Land, and Mary Poppins Returns. His mother, Julie Platt, has served as chair of the Board of Trustees of the Jewish Federations of North America, an organization that oversees 146 Jewish Federations across the United States and Canada. Platt and his family are Jewish, and he has two sisters and two brothers, including the actor Jonah Platt.

Platt attended the Adderley School for Performing Arts in Pacific Palisades, where he appeared in productions of Bye Bye Birdie and Into the Woods. He later attended Harvard-Westlake School in Los Angeles, graduating in 2011. Platt then enrolled at Columbia University in New York, where he joined the campus a cappella group Nonsequitur, but he left school after seven weeks to honor his contract with the Chicago production of The Book of Mormon. His early years in Pacific Palisades and his family’s deep ties to the entertainment and philanthropic worlds helped shape his path toward a career in musical theater.

Path to Acting

Platt began his professional acting career as a child in musical theater. At nine years old, he played Winthrop Paroo in a production of The Music Man at the Hollywood Bowl alongside Kristin Chenoweth. At eleven, he appeared in a brief national tour of Caroline, or Change, by Jeanine Tesori and Tony Kushner. By the time he was seventeen, he was playing Jean Valjean in a Kidz Theater production of Les Misérables, demonstrating an early command of demanding dramatic roles.

In 2012, Platt was cast as Elder Arnold Cunningham in the Chicago production of The Book of Mormon, which premiered at the Bank of America Theatre on December 19, 2012. Critics praised his performance as a standout, and the production ran until October 6, 2013. Platt then transferred with the show to Broadway at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre, where he reprised his role from January 7, 2014, to January 6, 2015. This transition from regional theater to Broadway marked his arrival on the national stage and set the foundation for his later breakthrough.

Ben Platt Career

Early Career (2002–2014)

Platt’s earliest screen credit came in 2012, when he appeared in the musical comedy Pitch Perfect as Benji Applebaum, a magic-loving college student, in an ensemble that included Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson, and Anna Camp. The film was a major commercial success and earned him a nomination at the 2013 Teen Choice Awards in the Choice Movie Scene Stealer category. During this same period, he was balancing his time between his studies at Columbia University and a high-profile run in The Book of Mormon.

His early theater work also included a collaboration on a workshop of Alice by Heart, a new musical by Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater inspired by Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. By the end of 2014, Platt had built a résumé that combined film, regional theater, and a Broadway credit, giving him the credibility to be considered for more prominent roles in major new musicals.

Breakthrough (2015–2017)

In 2015, Platt originated the title role of Evan Hansen in the musical Dear Evan Hansen at the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. The show premiered on July 9, 2015, and the production’s strong reception led to a transfer to Off-Broadway at Second Stage Theatre in 2016, where it played a sold-out run beginning May 1, 2016. Platt and the creative team then brought the show to Broadway, opening at the Music Box Theatre in December 2016.

Critics described Platt’s Broadway performance as historic and among the greatest leading male performances in a musical. For Dear Evan Hansen, he won the Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical at the 71st Tony Awards on June 11, 2017, becoming the youngest solo recipient of the award at age 23. He also won a Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album, a Daytime Emmy Award, the Drama League Distinguished Performance Award, the Obie Award for Distinguished Performance by an Actor, and the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Musical. He played his final Broadway performance as Evan Hansen on November 19, 2017.

During this same period, Platt reprised his role as Benji Applebaum in Pitch Perfect 2 in 2015 and appeared in the films Ricki and the Flash and Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk. He signed a record deal with Atlantic Records in 2017 and, in 2018, performed Leonard Bernstein’s Somewhere at the 60th Annual Grammy Awards alongside Justin Goldner and Adele Stein.

Notable Works and Milestones

Platt’s signature work remains Dear Evan Hansen, the role that defined his Broadway career and earned him his most prestigious honors. His 2023 Broadway revival performance as Leo Frank in Parade earned him a second Tony Award nomination for Best Leading Actor in a Musical and a Grammy nomination. He also starred as Payton Hobart in the Netflix comedy-drama The Politician beginning in 2019, earning a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actor in a Television Series Musical or Comedy for the show’s first season.

Ben Platt Award Nominations

Across his career, Benjamin Schiff Platt has received several major award nominations for his work on stage and screen. He earned a Tony Award nomination for Best Leading Actor in a Musical for his portrayal of Leo Frank in the 2023 Broadway revival of Parade. For his starring role as Payton Hobart in the Netflix series The Politician, he received a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actor in a Television Series Musical or Comedy. Platt was also nominated at the 2013 Teen Choice Awards in the Choice Movie Scene Stealer category for his work in Pitch Perfect, and he received a Golden Raspberry Award nomination for Worst Actor for his reprisal of Evan Hansen in the 2021 film adaptation of Dear Evan Hansen.

Ben Platt Awards Won

Platt has won a collection of the most respected awards in American theater and recording. He won the Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical in 2017, the Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album in 2018 for the Dear Evan Hansen Original Broadway Cast Recording, and a Daytime Emmy Award for his Broadway performance. He also received the Drama League Distinguished Performance Award in 2017, becoming the youngest winner in the history of that award, as well as the Obie Award for Distinguished Performance by an Actor and the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Musical for the Off-Broadway run of Dear Evan Hansen in 2016.

Ben Platt Family

Benjamin Schiff Platt comes from a large and accomplished family rooted in entertainment and civic leadership. His father, Marc Platt, is a film, television, and theater producer whose credits include Wicked, Legally Blonde, Into the Woods, La La Land, and Mary Poppins Returns. His mother, Julie Platt, is a philanthropist who has chaired the Board of Trustees of the Jewish Federations of North America. Platt has four siblings, including the actor Jonah Platt, and the family identifies as Jewish.

Personal Life

Platt is gay. He told his family when he was twelve years old and publicly came out in 2019. He began a relationship with actor Noah Galvin on January 12, 2020, having first met him in 2015, and the couple announced their engagement on November 25, 2022. They were married over the Labor Day weekend on September 1, 2024. Platt has been open about supporting civic causes, and in April 2025 he publicly expressed support for fellow actor Hannah Einbinder’s speech at the Human Rights Campaign’s Visibility Award while affirming that his Jewish identity is not defined by Israel.