Brooks Ashmanskas

Brooks Ashmanskas is an American actor born on June 14, 1969, in Salem, Oregon, who grew up in Beaverton, outside of Portland. Of Lithuanian descent, he graduated from Bennington College and is openly gay. His career spans Broadway, Off-Broadway, regional theatre, and limited film and television work, including an appearance in the 2022 Netflix series Uncoupled.

Ashmanskas began his theatrical career in the mid-1990s, appearing in the Off-Broadway original production of Songs for a New World in 1995. He went on to perform in the original Broadway production of Dream in 1997 and the Broadway revival of Gypsy: A Musical Fable in 2003. Beginning in 2004, he joined The Producers as a replacement Carmen Ghia, at times sharing the stage with Roger Bart, the role's originator, who played Leo Bloom. His Broadway credits from this period also include Little Me and On the Twentieth Century.

In 2006, Ashmanskas played multiple characters in the Broadway production of Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me, earning both a Tony Award nomination for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical and a Drama Desk Award nomination. He continued accumulating Broadway credits with the 2007 revival of The Ritz, in which he played Chris, and two productions in 2010: the revival of Promises, Promises, where he portrayed Mr. Dobitch, and the revival of Present Laughter. He appeared in the Broadway production of Bullets Over Broadway in April 2014, followed by Something Rotten! in March 2015 and Shuffle Along, or, the Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed in 2016.

Ashmanskas originated the role of Barry Glickman in the Broadway production of The Prom, which opened in October 2018 at the Longacre Theatre. The performance earned him a 2019 Tony Award nomination for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical. In 2025, he originated the role of Nigel Davies, the show's director, in the Broadway production of Smash, receiving both a Tony Award nomination and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Performance in a Musical.

His regional theatre work includes an Arena Stage production of Animal Crackers in 1999, Present Laughter and She Loves Me at the Huntington Theatre Company in Boston in 2007 and 2008 respectively, and a production of Burn This as Larry at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles in 2011. She Loves Me subsequently transferred to the Williamstown Theatre Festival, where Ashmanskas also appeared in Knickerbocker in 2009 and the new musical Johnny Baseball in 2013. He played John Adams in 1776 at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., in 2012, and appeared in God of Carnage as Alan the same year. In 2008, he participated in a staged concert presentation of Broadway: Three Generations at the Kennedy Center, performing in Girl Crazy and Bye Bye Birdie. Off-Broadway, he starred in the title role of Clive at the Acorn Theatre in a New Group production running from January through March 2013.