Reeve Carney

Reeve Jefferson Carney was born on April 18, 1983, and raised in the West Village neighborhood of Manhattan alongside his brother Zane and sister Paris. He comes from a family with deep roots in performance: his father, John, wrote songs for commercials, his mother, Marti, worked as a singer, actress, and jewelry designer, and his grand-uncle was Academy Award-winning actor Art Carney. From an early age, Carney demonstrated musical aptitude, learning piano as a young child and singing in radio and television commercials. At age eight, he performed live at Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall with Peter, Paul and Mary. Two years later, he recorded "Childhood" with the New York City Children's Choir, a track that appeared on Michael Jackson's 1995 album HIStory.

Carney pursued formal music training at the Academy of Music at Alexander Hamilton High School in Los Angeles, where he studied alongside his brother Zane and future bandmates Aiden Moore and Jon Epcar. He subsequently enrolled at the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music, majoring in studio jazz guitar. He began playing guitar at age twelve, and by fifteen was performing professionally at B. B. King's nightclub in Los Angeles. In 2004, he released his first solo EP, Looking Glass, and performed alongside musicians including Jonny Lang. At twenty-two, he signed with Interscope Records and formed the jazz-infused rock band Carney, comprising himself on vocals, songwriting, and guitar, his brother Zane on guitar, Aiden Moore on bass, and Jon Epcar on drums. The band released the EP Nothing Without You in 2008 and their debut album, Mr. Green Vol. 1, in May 2010. In 2009, the band toured with The Veronicas on their Revenge Is Sweeter world tour, and on July 30, 2011, they opened for Arcade Fire and U2 in Moncton, Canada, on the final date of the U2 360° Tour.

Carney's acting career began in childhood. He appeared in a small role in The Saint of Fort Washington in 1993, and in 1999 played the young Ishmael Chambers in Snow Falling on Cedars, a performance that earned him Best Performance in a Feature Film at the 21st Young Artist Awards in 2000. After focusing primarily on music for several years, he returned to acting when director Julie Taymor cast him as Ferdinand in her 2010 film adaptation of Shakespeare's The Tempest. Taymor also recommended Carney for the lead role of Peter Parker and Spider-Man in the Broadway musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark. During auditions, the show's musical composers Bono and The Edge were struck by his vocal ability, and he was cast in the role. The production began previews in November 2010, and Carney's bandmates performed in the pit orchestra. He played his final performance as Spider-Man on September 15, 2013, after three years in the role. During his time with the show, he recorded the single "Rise Above 1" with Bono and The Edge in 2011, an adapted song from the musical's score. He also contributed to the Broadway's Carols for a Cure albums in 2011, featuring "St. Nicholas Sky" with T.V. Carpio, and in 2013 with "A Savior is Born."

Beyond Broadway, Carney wrote songs for film soundtracks including The Tempest in 2010 and The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 2 in 2012. In 2012, he appeared as Taylor Swift's love interest in her music video for "I Knew You Were Trouble," a project Swift initiated as a fan of his band. In 2014, he joined the cast of the Showtime series Penny Dreadful as Dorian Gray, a role he held across the show's three seasons from 2014 to 2016. While filming the final season of Penny Dreadful, he was cast as Riff Raff in Fox's two-hour musical television film The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let's Do the Time Warp Again, which premiered on October 20, 2016, and for which he recorded three songs on the soundtrack. That same year, Carney released his debut solo album, Youth Is Wasted, which he wrote and produced himself, followed by the Reeve Carney Fall Tour 2016 and the Youth Is Wasted Tour in 2017. Three songs from the album and the album itself received six nominations at the 16th Annual Independent Music Awards; "Think of You" won Best Song in the Acoustic category, "Resurrection" won Best Song in the Rock or Hard Rock category, and the album won Best Album in the Adult Contemporary category.

In 2017, Carney joined the Citadel Theatre production of Hadestown as Orpheus, reuniting with Spider-Man co-stars Patrick Page and T.V. Carpio. He continued with the production through its run at the Royal National Theatre in 2018 and then originated the role on Broadway, where the show began previews on March 22, 2019, and opened on April 17, 2019. Carney departed the role on November 19, 2023, after six years with the production. He also appeared in the Broadway play The Great Gatsby. In 2021, it was announced that Carney had signed on to portray Jeff Buckley in a biographical film tentatively titled Everybody Here Wants You, a project supported by Buckley's mother, Mary Guibert, who serves as co-producer and has described it as the only official dramatization of Buckley's story.

Carney's stage work has extended beyond Broadway. In early 2025, he reprised the role of Orpheus for his West End debut in a limited engagement of Hadestown from February to March, appearing opposite original Broadway cast members Eva Noblezada, Patrick Page, Amber Gray, and André de Shields. He subsequently joined the West End revival of Cabaret as the Emcee on September 22, 2025, opposite Noblezada as Sally Bowles, for a limited engagement running through January 2026.

In his personal life, Carney entered a relationship with Hadestown co-star Eva Noblezada in 2019. The two announced their engagement on March 14, 2025, and married seven months later in New Orleans, Louisiana.