Jose Llana

Jose Llana is a Filipino-American actor and singer born on May 5, 1976, in Manila, Philippines, who has performed on Broadway from 1996 through 2023. He immigrated with his family to Springfield, Virginia at age three, where he grew up in that suburb of Washington, D.C. He attended Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, Virginia, before enrolling at the Manhattan School of Music to study classical voice.

During his freshman year at Manhattan School of Music, Llana auditioned for the 1996 Broadway revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein's The King and I, earning the role of Lun Tha opposite Lou Diamond Phillips and Donna Murphy. That production marked his Broadway debut. He subsequently took on the role of Angel in Rent and played Jessie-Lee in Street Corner Symphony. In 2002, he starred as Wang Ta in the Broadway revival of Flower Drum Song alongside Lea Salonga. He portrayed Chip Tolentino in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee in 2005, a role for which he and his castmates received the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Ensemble Performance. Llana played El Gato in Wonderland: Alice's New Musical Adventure, which began Broadway previews on March 21, 2011, officially opened on April 17, 2011, and closed on May 15, 2011, after 31 previews and 33 performances. In 2023, he appeared in Here Lies Love on Broadway.

Llana's Off-Broadway work includes the role of Gabey in On the Town and Saturn Returns, both at The Public Theater, as well as Adam in Falling for Eve at The York Theater. He originated the role of Ferdinand Marcos in David Byrne and Fat Boy Slim's Here Lies Love, directed by Alex Timbers, beginning with a workshop production at Mass MoCA in North Adams, Massachusetts during the summer of 2012. The world premiere production opened at The Public Theater on April 2, 2013, and was extended four times through July 28, 2013. A commercial Off-Broadway production followed, opening at The Public Theater on May 1, 2014. His portrayal of Marcos earned him a 2014 Lucille Lortel Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Musical.

His regional theater credits include the title role in Candide, for which he received a Barrymore Award nomination for Best Actor, and Tin Man Wong in The Ballad of Little Jo at the Steppenwolf Theater, which brought him a Joseph Jefferson Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He also toured in Cameron Mackintosh's Martin Guerre as Guillaume, a production that originated at the Guthrie Theater and subsequently played the Kennedy Center. In December 2013, he co-starred as Bill Sikes in the Paper Mill Playhouse production of Oliver!. On June 18, 2015, it was announced that Llana would succeed Ken Watanabe in the role of the King of Siam in Lincoln Center's Tony Award-winning revival of The King and I, and he played the role for an eleven-week engagement from July 14 to September 29 of that year. On March 12, 2015, he made his Lincoln Center American Songbook Concert debut at the Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse in New York.

Beyond the stage, Llana appeared on HBO's Sex and the City alongside Margaret Cho and made a commercial debut as a computer salesman for Circuit City in 1999. He appeared in the 2005 Sony Pictures film Hitch opposite Will Smith and Eva Mendes, as well as the independent film Unconscious. In the Philippines, Llana is a best-selling recording artist who released his debut solo album, Jose, in 2004 on the VIVA Philippines label. He is married to Erik Rose, his partner of fifteen years.