Austin P. McKenzie

Austin P. McKenzie, born August 24, 1993, is an American actor and singer who grew up in Mesa, Arizona. Beginning at age fifteen, he spent six summers volunteering at Lions Camp Tatiyee, a summer camp serving children and adults with mental and physical disabilities, which marked his first sustained contact with deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals. That experience shaped his academic path: he enrolled at Columbia College Chicago to study American Sign Language and Childhood Education, intending to become a special educator. He graduated in 2014 with a Bachelor's degree in American Sign Language and Vocal Performance. During his high school years, McKenzie had limited involvement in theatre and did not consider it a viable career.

Shortly after completing his degree, McKenzie submitted an audition tape to director Michael Arden and the creative team at Deaf West Theatre, seeking work as an ASL interpreter on their production of Spring Awakening. The team instead invited him to audition for the lead role of Melchior Gabor, which he was cast in and began rehearsing in mid-2014. Deaf West's production opened at a 99-seat theatre near Skid Row in Los Angeles on September 14, 2014, and ran through November 9, 2014, marking McKenzie's professional stage debut. At that point, he was the only hearing cast member able to communicate directly with his deaf and hard-of-hearing colleagues through ASL.

The production was remounted in 2015 at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, running from May 21 to June 14, 2015, with new cast additions including Andy Mientus, Krysta Rodriguez, Alex Boniello, and Alex Wyse. McKenzie reprised his role as Melchior and received a nomination for Best Leading Actor in a Musical at the Ovation Awards. That summer, the production was announced for a limited Broadway engagement at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre. McKenzie made his Broadway debut on September 8, 2015, and remained with the show through its closing on January 24, 2016, a run extended two weeks beyond its original schedule. The production received three Tony Award nominations, including Best Revival of a Musical, and McKenzie was honored with a Theatre World Award in 2016 for his performance.

Beyond the stage, McKenzie appeared in a guest role on the television series The 101 in 2015. In 2017, he starred in the ABC miniseries When We Rise, created by Dustin Lance Black and Gus Van Sant, portraying young LGBT activist Cleve Jones in a period piece chronicling the LGBTQ civil rights movement of the twentieth century. That same year, he appeared in the feature film Speech & Debate, released by Sycamore Pictures and Vertical Entertainment on April 7, 2017, and adapted from Stephen Karam's 2007 off-Broadway play. McKenzie played Howie, an openly gay teenager, alongside Sarah Steele and Liam James, with cameos from Darren Criss and Lin-Manuel Miranda and an original song performed by Kristin Chenoweth. McKenzie is bisexual and has been in a relationship with actor Kevin McHale, whom he met during the filming of When We Rise, since 2016.