John Barrowman

John Scot Barrowman, born on 11 March 1967 in Mount Vernon, Glasgow, is a Scottish-American actor, singer, presenter, author, and comic book writer. The youngest of three children, he spent his first eight years in Glasgow before his father, an employee of the Caterpillar heavy machinery company, relocated the family to Joliet, Illinois in 1975 to manage a Caterpillar tractor factory in Aurora. Barrowman attended Joliet West High School, where music and English teachers proved formative influences: his music tutor cultivated his passion for performance, while his English teacher placed him in a gifted program and coached him for statewide speech competitions. Among his high school classmates who also participated in theater were Anthony Rapp and Andy Dick. After mocking from classmates prompted him to shed his native Scottish accent, Barrowman developed a General American accent. Between 1983 and 1986 he performed in high school productions including Oliver!, Camelot, Hello, Dolly!, Li'l Abner, and Anything Goes. He graduated in 1985 and later became a naturalized U.S. citizen while retaining British citizenship.

His post-secondary education took him through the University of Iowa, DePaul University, and two summer seasons performing at the Opryland theme park in Nashville, Tennessee, before he enrolled at the United States International University in San Diego in January 1988 to study performing arts. A student exchange program brought him back to the United Kingdom in the summer of 1989 to study Shakespeare, and he remained there to begin his professional career. His mother had been a singer who also worked in a record shop, a background that likely contributed to his early immersion in music and performance.

Barrowman's professional stage career began in October 1989 in London's West End, playing Billy Crocker in Cole Porter's Anything Goes at the Prince Edward Theatre alongside Elaine Paige and Bernard Cribbins. He went on to take the title role of Domingo Hernandez in Matador at the Queen's Theatre in 1991, followed by Raoul in The Phantom of the Opera at Her Majesty's Theatre in 1992, Claude in Hair at the Old Vic in 1993, and Chris in Miss Saigon at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in 1993. He played Joe Gillis in Sunset Boulevard at the Adelphi Theatre from 1994 to 1995, a role he would later reprise briefly on Broadway. In 1994 he also participated in a production of Godspell, serving as soloist on the songs "We Beseech Thee" and "On the Willows." He served as lead vocalist on a rendition of Strike Up the Band in the 1996 Royal Albert Hall celebration Who Could Ask for Anything More? A Celebration of Ira Gershwin. His origination of the role of Cal Chandler in The Fix, directed by Sam Mendes, earned him a nomination for the 1998 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Musical; he repeated the performance in Cameron Mackintosh's 1998 gala concert Hey, Mr Producer! In 1999 he played Beast in Beauty and the Beast at the Dominion Theatre, and his most recent West End credit came in the 2009 production of La Cage aux Folles. In the early 2000s he returned to the role of Billy Crocker in a revival of Anything Goes.

Barrowman's Broadway career spanned 1994 to 1999. He appeared in Sunset Boulevard on Broadway, reprising his West End portrayal of Joe Gillis, and starred as Barry in the Stephen Sondheim revue Putting It Together. His work on Broadway reflected a career that moved fluidly between London and New York across that period.

Beyond the stage, Barrowman built a substantial television profile. Before establishing himself in British television, he appeared in the American dramas Titans and Central Park West. His most prominent television roles came through the BBC: he portrayed Captain Jack Harkness in the 2005 revival of Doctor Who, continuing in that role through 2010 and returning in 2020 and 2021, and reprised the character throughout the run of the spin-off series Torchwood from 2006 to 2011. Both his Doctor Who work and his role in Torchwood earned him a BAFTA Cymru nomination. He also produced and appeared in the BBC entertainment program Tonight's the Night and contributed to CBBC programming in its earlier years. In the United States, he starred as Malcolm Merlyn in the Arrowverse, appearing in Arrow and Legends of Tomorrow from 2012 to 2019. His film credits include the musical biopic De-Lovely in 2004 and the musical comedy The Producers in 2005.

Barrowman served as a judge on Andrew Lloyd Webber's television talent series How Do You Solve a Problem like Maria?, Any Dream Will Do, and I'd Do Anything, drawing on his theatrical background. He appeared as a contestant on the first series of the celebrity ice skating program Dancing on Ice and later joined its judging panel for the 2020 and 2021 series. He hosted the BBC One quiz show Pressure Pad in 2013 and 2014. In 2006 he was voted Stonewall's Entertainer of the Year.

As a recording artist, Barrowman released the album Another Side in 2007 and Music Music Music in 2008, both of which charted on the UK Albums Chart. His self-titled album John Barrowman followed in 2010 and reached number 11 on that chart, his highest chart position to date. He has also appeared on numerous musical theatre recordings. As an author, he published two memoirs, Anything Goes in 2008 and I Am What I Am in 2009, both co-written with his older sister Carole, who became a university professor. The siblings also collaborated on a series of young-adult fantasy novels beginning with Hollow Earth, followed by Bone Quill in 2013 and Book of Beasts in 2014. A second trilogy, The Orion Chronicles, comprised Conjuror in 2016, Nephilim in 2017, and Inquisitor in 2018. Barrowman has additionally worked as a comic book writer.