Mario Cantone

Mario Cantone is an American comedian, actor, writer, singer, and television host born on December 9, 1959, in Massachusetts. He was raised in Stoneham after his Italian-American family relocated there when he was two years old. The fourth of five children, he was born to Mario Sr., a Boston restaurant owner, and Elizabeth (née Pescione), who had sung with big bands in her youth and died when Cantone was 21. He graduated from Stoneham High School in 1978 and went on to earn a degree from Emerson College in 1982, where he formed a friendship with fellow comedian Denis Leary. After moving to New York City in 1983, he took a job selling chocolate at Trump Tower, where he entertained customers with impressions, before briefly working as a jewelry salesman. He left that position to pursue comedy full time.

Cantone launched his professional career as the host of Steampipe Alley, a children's television program that aired on WWOR-TV from 1988 to 1993. His stand-up work became known for impressions of entertainment figures including Liza Minnelli, Judy Garland, Bette Davis, Bruce Springsteen, and Jim Morrison, as well as original songs. Much of his comedy draws on his Italian-American upbringing. His first impression, performed at a junior high school talent show, was of Julia Child.

Cantone made his Broadway debut in 1995, stepping into the role of Buzz in Terrence McNally's Tony Award-winning play Love! Valour! Compassion!, replacing Nathan Lane. Later that same year he appeared in a revival of The Tempest with Patrick Stewart. In 2002 he created and wrote An Evening With Mario Cantone, a one-man show he brought to Broadway. The following year he starred as Gidger in Richard Greenberg's The Violet Hour, a role written specifically for him; the production received mixed reviews and closed after 54 performances. In 2004 he played Samuel Byck in Stephen Sondheim's Assassins, a revival that had originally been scheduled for the 2001 Broadway season before being postponed following the September 11 attacks. That same year Cantone wrote and starred in his second one-man show, Laugh Whore, which ran from October 24, 2004, to January 2, 2005, at the Cort Theatre. The show earned a Tony Award nomination for Best Special Theatrical Event and an Outer Critics Circle nomination for Outstanding Solo Performance. Showtime recorded the December 11, 2004 performance, which premiered on the network on May 28, 2005, marking the first Broadway production Showtime aired as a comedy special. Cantone also appeared in Celebrity Autobiography, and his Broadway activity spans from 1995 to 2019.

On television, Cantone is widely recognized for portraying Anthony Marentino, Charlotte York's wedding planner, in the HBO series Sex and the City from 2000 to 2004, and he reprised the role in the revival series And Just Like That from 2021 to 2025. He also played Terri in the ABC drama Men in Trees from 2006 to 2008. His voice work includes the character of talent scout Mikey Abromowitz in the 2007 animated film Surf's Up and Sunsilk advertising campaigns. He appeared in Comedy Central roasts of Joan Rivers and Denis Leary, and was featured in a segment of Chappelle's Show. He served as a regular guest and later guest co-host on The View beginning around 2003, and was among the judges at the Miss America 2014 pageant. In 2022 he competed on season eight of The Masked Singer as "Maize," being eliminated on "Andrew Lloyd Webber Night" alongside Gloria Gaynor.

In October 2011, Cantone married his partner of 20 years, musical theater director Jerry Dixon, in a ceremony officiated by pastor Jay Bakker.