Chris Mann

Christopher Michael Mann was born on May 5, 1982, in Wichita, Kansas. He is an American singer and actor who has built a career spanning television competition, recording, touring, and Broadway performance. Mann graduated from Wichita Southeast High School in 2000 and subsequently enrolled at Vanderbilt University, where he studied at the Blair School of Music. He earned a degree in vocal performance in 2004 and was a member of the Sigma Nu Fraternity during his time there.

Following his graduation, Mann was cast in an Italian opera performed in Europe. After relocating to Los Angeles, he accumulated a range of studio and ensemble singing work, including an appearance as Dalton Academy Warbler #6 on an episode of Glee, performances at the Sundance Film Festival, and participation in the AFI Life Achievement Award ceremony in 2010. His studio contributions appear in the films Avatar, Tangled, Letters to Juliet, Sex and the City 2, The Smurfs, and 2012, as well as Glee: The 3D Concert Movie. He also recorded music with Heather Headley, performed alongside Katharine McPhee, and toured with both India Arie and Idina Menzel. His recording of "L.O.V.E." was featured in a commercial for the second season of Khloé & Lamar.

Mann gained widespread national attention in 2012 as a contestant on the second season of NBC's The Voice. During his blind audition, he performed Andrea Bocelli's "Because We Believe (Ama Credi E Vai)," drawing selections from both Christina Aguilera and Cee Lo Green. Mann chose to join Team Christina Aguilera. He secured his place in the live shows by defeating Monique Benabou in a duet of "The Power of Love." His live performances included Simon & Garfunkel's "Bridge over Troubled Water," Coldplay's "Viva la Vida," and "Ave Maria," each of which advanced him further in the competition. In the finale, Mann performed "You Raise Me Up" as a solo, sang "The Prayer" in a duet with Aguilera, and covered Aguilera's "The Voice Within." His final performance during the results show was "Bitter Sweet Symphony" by The Verve, performed alongside previously eliminated semi-finalists Lindsey Pavao and Katrina Parker. Mann finished the season in fourth place, having come first among Team Christina's members throughout the competition.

Later in 2012, Mann released a Christmas EP as a Walmart exclusive, followed by his debut full-length studio album, Roads, on October 30, 2012. Around the same time, he recorded a PBS concert special titled Chris Mann in Concert: A Mann for all Seasons, which premiered on WTVS on December 14, 2012, and aired nationally in March 2013. A second PBS special, Home for Christmas: The Chris Mann Christmas Special, premiered on WTVS on August 17, 2013. His second studio album, Constellation, was released on May 6, 2016.

Mann appeared on Broadway in 2013 in The Phantom of the Opera, in which he played the lead role of the Phantom. He subsequently toured with the North American production of the same show for two years. The 2015–2016 leg of that tour began on May 27, 2015, at the ASU Gammage Theatre in Tempe, Arizona.

In 2017, Mann was announced as a participant in The Voice: Neon Dreams, a Las Vegas live concert series featuring several alumni of The Voice, including season ten winner Alisan Porter, Mary Sarah, Matthew Schuler, and Matt McAndrew, with a band led by Michael Sanchez. The production was ultimately cancelled, as announced in October 2018. In 2020, Mann produced a series of COVID-19-themed musical parodies on YouTube, several of which went viral, including parodies of Adele's "Hello" and "Old Town Road."

Mann married Laura Perloe in 2013 at Maravilla Gardens in Camarillo, California. The couple's first child, a son named Hugo, was born in 2017. Their second son, Rocky, was born on January 11, 2021.