Cole Escola

Cole Escola, born November 25, 1986, in Clatskanie, Oregon, is an American comedian, actor, singer, and playwright of Finnish and Norwegian descent. Escola grew up in difficult circumstances; at age six, their father forced the family out of their mobile home at gunpoint, after which Escola, their mother, and their brother lived in government housing. Escola participated in community theater during childhood and appeared in high school productions of Fiddler on the Roof, Les Misérables, and Little Shop of Horrors. After graduating from R. A. Long High School in 2005, Escola relocated to New York City to study humanities at Marymount Manhattan College, leaving after one year. During that period, Escola supported themselves by performing at children's birthday parties, working at the Scholastic bookstore, working at a vegan bakery, and working as a sex worker.

Escola's early stage career centered on cabaret performance. Between 2008 and 2012, they appeared regularly in the Our Hit Parade cabaret series and later performed monthly solo shows at the Duplex Cabaret Theatre. Escola appeared in Scott Wittman's 2012 cabaret production Jukebox Jackie at La MaMa and played an unborn fetus in Bridget Everett's 2014 cabaret show Rock Bottom at Joe's Pub. On June 14, 2017, their hour-long solo show Help! I'm Stuck premiered at Joe's Pub, where it subsequently played numerous sold-out engagements. In 2013, Escola played Roland Maule in the Two River Theater revival of Noël Coward's Present Laughter.

Escola wrote and starred in Oh, Mary!, in which they portrayed First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln. The production, directed by Sam Pinkleton and also featuring Conrad Ricamora and James Scully, began its run at the Lucille Lortel Theatre in 2024 before transferring to Broadway in July of that year. The transfer marked Escola's Broadway debut as both an actor and a playwright. At the 2024 Outer Critics Circle Awards, Escola received the John Gassner Award for the work, and the production was also recognized with a Theatre World Award in 2024. Oh, Mary! was named a finalist for the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. At the 2025 Tony Awards, Escola won Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play for the role, becoming the first openly non-binary performer to win a Tony Award in that category. Escola had received two Tony nominations in total for their work on the production.

Escola's television career began in 2008, when they met comedian Jeffery Self in New York. The two began producing surreal, semi-scripted YouTube videos under the name Very Good Looking (VGL) Gay Boys, which accumulated over 100,000 views and led to coverage in New York magazine and a development deal from Logo TV. Their series Jeffery & Cole Casserole premiered on Logo on June 19, 2009, ran for two seasons, and has been described as a cult classic by Vice magazine. From 2015 to 2017, Escola played Matthew on the Hulu series Difficult People, a role that creator Julie Klausner wrote with them in mind. Escola also appeared in recurring roles on Mozart in the Jungle, Girlboss, and At Home with Amy Sedaris, where they played the character Chassie Tucker. In 2020, Escola appeared as Chip (The Twink) on the HBO Max series Search Party, with the character becoming a series regular in season four. Additional television credits include voicing The Secret Keeper on the Cartoon Network series Craig of the Creek and voicing a gargoyle in an episode of What We Do in the Shadows in 2021. Escola was announced in 2025 for the role of Bon Clay in the third season of the Netflix series One Piece.

In October 2024, Escola was included on the TIME 100 Next list. Escola came out as non-binary in 2021. They are also currently writing a Miss Piggy film in collaboration with producers Emma Stone and Jennifer Lawrence.