Jeffrey Carlson

Jeffrey S. Carlson (June 23, 1975 – July 6, 2023) was an American actor and singer who worked in theater, film, and television. Born in Long Beach, California, he was named Jeffrey by his mother, who was a fan of the daytime soap opera All My Children and its character Jeff Martin. Carlson earned a Bachelor of Arts in dramatic art from the University of California, Davis in 1997, then trained at the Juilliard School in New York City as part of the Drama Division's Group 30 from 1997 to 2001. He was also a member of the Guthrie Experience at the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Carlson made his Broadway debut in 2002 in Edward Albee's The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?, followed by the Broadway revival of Tartuffe in 2003. He then took on the role of Marilyn in Taboo, the Boy George musical, which ran in 2003 and 2004. His performance in Taboo earned him a nomination for the 2004 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical.

In August 2006, Carlson joined the cast of the long-running daytime soap opera All My Children, initially playing a British rock star named Zarf. He returned to the role in late November 2006, and the storyline developed to reveal that Zarf was a transgender woman named Zoe Luper, who was also a lesbian. All My Children received a GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Daily Drama in 2007 in connection with that storyline. His other television work included appearances on Law & Order: SVU and Plainsong, a CBS Hallmark Hall of Fame production, and he was featured in a PBS American Masters documentary on the Juilliard School. His film credits include The Killing Floor, Hitch, Backseat, and Nowhere to Go But Up.

Carlson maintained an extensive regional theater career alongside his screen work. At the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C., he played the title role in Alfred de Musset's Lorenzaccio and returned in June 2008 to play Hamlet. He came back to the Shakespeare Theatre Company in 2016, with a reprisal in 2018, to portray Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet, a performance for which he received the Emery Battis Award. At the Yale Repertory Theatre he played the title role in Richard II, and at McCarter Theatre Center he appeared in Romeo and Juliet as Romeo and in Candida. Additional regional credits include The Miracle Worker at Charlotte Repertory Theatre, The Importance of Being Earnest at Paper Mill Playhouse, and Golden Age at both the Philadelphia Theatre Company and The Kennedy Center. He also participated in the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's National Playwrights Conference and the Cape Cod Theatre Project.

In Chicago, Carlson worked at the Goodman Theater in Stage Kiss during the 2010–2011 season and Measure for Measure during the 2012–2013 season. At Chicago Shakespeare Theater he played the title role in Edward II and appeared in Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2, a production that subsequently transferred to the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon as part of their Complete Works season. His New York off-Broadway credits include Antony and Cleopatra at Theatre for a New Audience, Bach at Leipzig at New York Theatre Workshop, Manuscript at the Daryl Roth Theatre, Last Easter at MCC Theater, and Thief River at Signature Theatre Company. In 2012 he appeared opposite Angelica Page in the romantic screwball comedy Psycho Therapy at the Cherry Lane Theater.

Carlson was the recipient of the 2004 Marian Seldes/Garson Kanin Fellowship and was named a Beinecke Fellow in both 2007 and 2016. He died on July 6, 2023, at the age of 48. The medical examiner determined the cause of death to be idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy.