Rory O'Malley

Rory James O'Malley, born December 23, 1980, in Cleveland, Ohio, is an American actor and activist whose Broadway career spans from 2005 to 2016. Raised by a single mother of Irish ancestry, O'Malley grew up Catholic and attended Saint Ignatius High School in Cleveland. In 1997, he was recognized as a YoungArts alumnus, and in 2003 he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in acting from Carnegie Mellon University, where he formed lasting friendships with fellow students Josh Gad and Leslie Odom Jr.

Before reaching Broadway, O'Malley built his stage experience in regional and Los Angeles productions. He played Charlie Brown in a 2004 Falcon Theatre production of Snoopy! The Musical in Los Angeles, running from June 24 to July 18 of that year. He subsequently starred as Richie Cunningham in both the 2006 Los Angeles premiere of Happy Days and the 2007 Goodspeed Opera House production of the same show. In October 2008, he appeared as Charles Bingley alongside Colin Donnell and Laura Osnes in the then Broadway-bound musical Pride and Prejudice at the Eastman Theatre in Rochester, New York. His regional credits also include Kiss of the Spider Woman, in which he played the Marxist revolutionary Valentín Arregui, Charley's Aunt as Charley Wykeham, and Santa Claus Is Coming to Motown as Kris Kringle. His first Off-Broadway appearance came in the 2009 revival of Newsical, directed by Mark Waldrop.

O'Malley made his Broadway debut in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, where he replaced actors in the roles of Leaf Coneybear, William Barfee, and Douglas Panch. He went on to appear in the Broadway productions of She Loves Me Not, 8, and Hamilton, in addition to originating the role of Elder McKinley in The Book of Mormon, which opened on Broadway on March 24, 2011. For that performance, O'Malley received both a Tony Award nomination for Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical at the 65th Tony Awards and a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical. He also received a Drama Desk nomination in 2014. Beginning April 11, 2016, O'Malley replaced Jonathan Groff in the role of King George III in the original Broadway production of Hamilton, holding the role through January 16, 2017, before continuing in the part on the national tour.

Between his Broadway engagements, O'Malley appeared Off-Broadway as Frank Hoover in Little Miss Sunshine at Second Stage Theatre from October to December 2013. He also participated in Dustin Lance Black's play 8, a reenactment of the federal case that overturned California's Proposition 8. On screen, he had a cameo in the 2004 film On the Run and appeared in the 2006 film adaptation of Dreamgirls, also performing the song "Cadillac Car" on the film's soundtrack. In 2018, he became a series regular on Lifetime's American Princess.

O'Malley co-founded the gay rights activist organization Broadway Impact in 2009 alongside Gavin Creel and Jenny Kanelos. The group organized large-scale equality rallies in New York City, conducted phone banking, and arranged transportation for 1,400 people to attend the National Equality March in Washington, D.C. Broadway Impact received the 2010 Human Rights Campaign Community Award, and O'Malley was among a team of twelve runners who raised $38,440 for the organization through the ING New York City Marathon. He has participated in numerous benefit concerts and events, including the August 2010 Sing for the Cure concert at Don't Tell Mama, the June 2011 Broadway Sings for Pride concert, and the 2011 Broadway Barks adopt-a-thon alongside Mary Tyler Moore and Bernadette Peters. In 2011, he was named a Givenik Ambassador. In October 2020, he joined other Broadway performers in a virtual voter education event sponsored by VoteRiders.

In his personal life, O'Malley came out as gay at the age of 19. He announced his engagement to Gerold Schroeder on July 21, 2013, and the two married on September 28, 2014. On November 22, 2018, O'Malley announced that he and Schroeder had adopted a newborn baby boy; the adoption of their son, Jimmy O'Malley, was finalized on September 7, 2019. O'Malley is also the creator and host of the podcast Living the Dream with Rory O'Malley, which he launched after joining the Hamilton cast, and serves as host of the Geffen Playhouse's Unscripted.