Jake Shears

Jake Shears, born Jason F. Sellards on October 3, 1978, in Mesa, Arizona, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor who has worked across pop music, Broadway, and the West End. He grew up on San Juan Island, Washington, attending Friday Harbor High School before moving to Seattle at 18 to complete his secondary education at the Northwest School. He subsequently enrolled at Occidental College in Los Angeles, then transferred to Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts in New York City, where he studied fiction writing. During his early years in New York, he contributed music reviews to Paper magazine and wrote for the gay publication HX.

Shears met Scott Hoffman during a visit to Lexington, Kentucky, at age 19, and the two relocated to New York together a year later. In 2001, they founded Scissor Sisters as a performance art project, performing in Williamsburg, Brooklyn venues including Luxx. After working with the record label A Touch of Class on tracks including "Comfortably Numb" and "Filthy/Gorgeous," the band broke through in the United Kingdom and Ireland, closing 2004 with the best-selling album of the year in the UK. The band entered an indefinite hiatus in 2012. The video for "Filthy/Gorgeous" was directed by John Cameron Mitchell, whom Shears had met at a gathering of the Radical Faeries.

Alongside his work with Scissor Sisters, Shears accumulated a substantial list of collaborations. With Babydaddy, he co-wrote Kylie Minogue's single "I Believe in You" for her compilation Ultimate Kylie, and later co-wrote "Too Much" with Minogue and Calvin Harris for her number-one album Aphrodite. He performed with Erasure's Andy Bell on "Thought It Was You," appearing on Bell's 2005 album Electric Blue, and collaborated with Tiga on multiple tracks for the album Ciao!. In 2011, he and John Garden wrote the music for a stage adaptation of Tales of the City, directed by Jason Moore. He appeared on Amadou and Mariam's 2012 album Folila on the track "Metemya," and in 2013 provided backing vocals on "Keep Your Eyes Peeled" for the Queens of the Stone Age album ...Like Clockwork. That same year he duetted with Cher on "Take it Like a Man" for her album Closer to the Truth.

Shears launched his solo career in October 2017 with the single "Creep City." His self-titled debut solo album followed on August 10, 2018, receiving positive reviews and reaching number 20 on the UK charts. A second studio album, Last Man Dancing, was released on June 2, 2023, featuring collaborations with Kylie Minogue and Amber Martin as well as cameos from Jane Fonda and Iggy Pop; NME awarded it four out of five stars. In February 2018, he published his autobiography, Boys Keep Swinging. In March 2019, he joined Minogue's Golden Tour as a supporting act.

His Broadway credits include Kinky Boots and Tammy Faye. Shears made his Broadway debut in January 2018, starring as Charlie in Kinky Boots, a role he reprised at the Hollywood Bowl in July 2022. In September 2023, he made his West End debut playing the Emcee in a revival of Cabaret, with his final performance on March 9, 2024. In March 2025, it was announced that Shears would appear as Adam on In the Garden, a concept album and musical by the artist Boyfriend, scheduled for release on May 9, 2025. The project also features Billy Porter as narrator, Big Freedia as God, and Peaches as the Serpent.

In his personal life, Shears came out as gay to his parents at 15 and participated in Dan Savage's It Gets Better Project in 2010. He was in a relationship with Chris Moukarbel from 2004 to 2015.