Justin Guarini

Justin Guarini, born Justin Eldrin Bell on October 28, 1978, in Columbus, Georgia, is an American singer, songwriter, and actor. His father, Eldrin Bell, is African American and served as Chief of Police of Atlanta and later as chairperson of the Clayton County Commission in Clayton County, Georgia. His mother, Kathy Pepino Guarini, is Italian American and worked as a journalist for WTVM TV in Columbus and subsequently for CNN. Guarini was raised primarily by his mother and stepfather, physicist Jerry Guarini, in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia, where he attended Central Bucks High School East.

His musical training began at age four, when he was accepted into the Atlanta Boy Choir. Following his family's relocation to Pennsylvania in 1985, he joined the Archdiocese of Philadelphia Boys Choir. During his school years he sang in choirs and from 1996 to 2000 served as lead soloist in an award-winning a cappella group called The Midnight Voices, which released an independent album in 1999 with proceeds directed to a music scholarship fund at Central Bucks High School East in Buckingham, Pennsylvania. His high school and college theatre credits included lead roles in The Mystery of Edwin Drood, The Little Prince, The Pirates of Penzance, The Taming of the Shrew, and Once on This Island. In addition to voice, Guarini plays piano, guitar, and banjo. He studied vocal performance and theater studies at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia before relocating to New York City, where he attended the School for Film and Television and worked in nightclubs while auditioning for theater.

In April 2002, Guarini successfully auditioned for the first season of American Idol. Judge Simon Cowell told him at an early audition, "Justin, you know, occasionally you're very privileged when you do a competition like this to hear somebody undiscovered who has a voice like yours." Guarini finished as runner-up to Kelly Clarkson in September 2002. Before the American Idol Tour began, he was the only contestant invited to appear on The Oprah Winfrey Show. Shortly after his Idol run, he was offered a role in the Broadway production of The Lion King, which he declined. He also turned down a contract from an independent record label, as the show's rules prohibited participants from holding existing record deals. Following the competition, he signed with 19 Management and secured a record deal with RCA Records.

Guarini's self-titled debut album was released in June 2003, selling 146,000 copies, and he co-starred with Kelly Clarkson in the film From Justin to Kelly the same year. RCA dropped him in December 2003. In 2004, he participated in the pre-Broadway New York Stage and Film Powerhouse Theater workshop of Good Vibrations at Vassar College, a role that included singing, dancing, acting, and guitar playing; he was subsequently offered a place in the original Broadway production but declined. He co-produced his second album, Stranger Things Have Happened, an independently released collection of reinvented jazz standards, through his own production company, Justice Entertainment, Ltd., in December 2005. From 2007 to 2011, TV Guide Network signed him as permanent co-host of Idol Wrap and Idol Tonight, with his on-air duties expanding to include guest hosting, movie premiere specials, and awards show coverage including the Grammy Awards and Emmy Awards. In May 2008, he released an acoustic EP titled Revolve, comprising three songs co-written and co-produced with Shaun Ingram.

Guarini married Reina Capodici on September 26, 2009, as reported in People magazine. Their first child was born on April 26, 2011, and their second on February 25, 2013.

His Broadway career spans 2003 to 2023 and encompasses a range of productions. He made his Broadway debut in 2010 playing Carlos in the musical adaptation of Pedro Almodóvar's film Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. The following year he played Will, one of the three male leads in Green Day's rock musical American Idiot, from March 1, 2011, through the production's closing night on April 24, 2011. In 2013, he was cast as Paris in a modern Broadway production of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, which was subsequently released in movie theaters as a live-filmed stage play. From February 25 to December 14, 2014, he joined the Broadway cast of Wicked in the role of Fiyero. In 2016, he was cast in In Transit, the first a cappella Broadway musical, with book, music, and lyrics by Kristen Anderson-Lopez, James-Allen Ford, Russ Kaplan, and Sara Wordsworth. He also starred in Once Upon a Time on Broadway.

Beyond Broadway, Guarini appeared in regional productions of Rent, Chicago, Company, and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. In 2012, he originated a role in Ghost Brothers of Darkland County, playing one of two feuding brothers, at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia. In 2015, he voiced George Bailey in a stage production of It's a Wonderful Life, A Live Radio Play, and appeared in the New York City Center Encores presentation of Paint Your Wagon, playing an outcast Mexican miner. That same year he starred in the original musical Moonshine: The Hee Haw Musical, which premiered at the Dallas Theater Center from September 2 through October 11, 2015. In 2016, he appeared in Mamma Mia. He also served as executive producer for the 2015 revival of Side Show and held executive producer duties for the Times Square Tony Awards Simulcast in 2015, having participated in the event in 2014 as well. Guarini additionally participates in Equity staged readings, including The Awakening of Angel DeLuna, and performs at Broadway and stage-related benefit events.