Taye Diggs

Taye Diggs, born Scott Leo Berry on January 2, 1971, in Newark, New Jersey, is an American actor and singer whose career spans Broadway, film, and television. He grew up in the South Wedge neighborhood of Rochester, New York, the oldest of five children. His mother, Marcia, was a teacher and actress, and his father, Andre Young, was a visual artist. When his mother married Jeffries Diggs, he took his stepfather's surname. His nickname, Taye, derives from a playful pronunciation of Scotty as "Scottay." He has two brothers, Gabriel and Michael, and two sisters, Christian and Shalom. He attended Allendale Columbia School in Rochester before transferring to School of the Arts, and earned a BFA in musical theater from Syracuse University College of Visual and Performing Arts in 1993.

Before his Broadway debut, Diggs performed at the Lakes Region Summer Theatre in Meredith, New Hampshire, and spent the summer of 1992 at the New London Barn Playhouse in New London, New Hampshire. He made his Broadway debut in 1994 as a member of the ensemble in the Tony Award-winning revival of Carousel, a credit that also produced a cast recording on which he appears. In 1995, he performed as a dancer in Sebastian's Caribbean Carnival at Tokyo Disneyland.

Diggs originated the role of the landlord Benny in Jonathan Larson's Rent when it opened on Broadway in 1996, a production that won both the Tony Award and the Pulitzer Prize. The show also starred Idina Menzel, who would later become his wife. He reprised the role of Benny for the 2005 film adaptation of Rent and appears on both the original Broadway cast recording and the film soundtrack. Following Rent, he appeared opposite Menzel in Andrew Lippa's off-Broadway production of The Wild Party at Manhattan Theatre Club, playing Mr. Black to her Kate, and is featured on that production's cast recording as well. He also temporarily stepped in for Norbert Leo Butz as Fiyero in Wicked, opposite Menzel's Elphaba.

Diggs filled in as Billy Flynn in the Broadway production of Chicago and played the Bandleader in the 2002 film adaptation of that show. His Broadway work continued with an appearance in Hedwig and the Angry Inch, in which he performed the title role at the Belasco Theatre from July 22, 2015, until the production closed on September 13, 2015. His Broadway credits across his career, spanning 1994 to 2019, also include Moulin Rouge! The Musical and the play Chicago.

His film career began with How Stella Got Her Groove Back in 1998, followed by roles in The Wood and Go in 1999. That same year, Malcolm D. Lee's The Best Man cast him as the title character, an author and best friend of the groom played by Morris Chestnut; he reprised the role in the 2013 sequel The Best Man Holiday. Additional film credits include the 1999 remake of House on Haunted Hill, Brown Sugar and Equilibrium in 2002, Malibu's Most Wanted in 2003, and Dylan Dog: Dead of Night in 2011. He also voiced Capper the cat in My Little Pony: The Movie in 2017.

On television, Diggs co-starred as Dr. Sam Bennett opposite Kate Walsh in Private Practice, the Grey's Anatomy spin-off, which ran for six seasons from 2007 to 2013. From 2014 to 2016, he starred alongside Kathleen Robertson in the TNT crime drama Murder in the First, which ran for three seasons. He joined the cast of All American in 2018, remaining with the series through 2023. Earlier television work included the UPN series Kevin Hill, a guest arc on the eighth season of Will & Grace as Will Truman's love interest James, and the ABC series Day Break in 2006, in which he played a detective reliving the same day to clear his name of murder. He also had a guest role on The West Wing as a Secret Service agent.

Diggs hosted the game show Hypnotize Me alongside hypnotist Keith Barry, an eight-episode series that aired on The CW in the summer of 2019 after originally being produced for FOX. He has appeared twice on Lip Sync Battle on the Paramount Network and is the show's only two-time winner, performing as Madonna in one appearance and competing in a Christina Aguilera tribute episode in another.

He is the author of four children's books, all illustrated by Shane Evans: Mixed Me! and Chocolate Me, both published in 2015, I Love You More Than... in 2018, and My Friend! in 2021. Diggs is also co-artistic director of the dance company Dre.dance, alongside fellow Broadway veteran and School of the Arts alumnus Andrew Palermo.

Diggs married Idina Menzel on January 11, 2003. Their son, Walker Nathaniel Diggs, was born on September 2, 2009. The couple separated in 2013, and their divorce was finalized on December 3, 2014.