Trent Kowalik

Trent Matthias Kowalik, born February 22, 1995, in Wantagh, New York, is an American actor, singer, dancer, and music producer. He is the son of Lauretta Kowalik, an organist and pianist at St. Raphael's Roman Catholic Church in East Meadow, New York, and Michael Kowalik, a surveyor. He has three older sisters.

Kowalik began dance training at age three at Dorothy's School of Dance in Bellmore, New York, and took up Irish dancing at age four. By age six he was competing at the Open Championship level, the highest tier of competition, with the Inishfree School of Irish Dance. In April 2006, at age eleven, he won the youngest male age group at the World Irish Dancing Championship in Belfast. He is a five-time undefeated North American Champion and a World Champion, and holds multiple national titles in Scotland, England, and Ireland. His dance training has also encompassed ballet, tap, jazz, and lyrical styles. In 2013 he graduated from the Pre-Professional Division of The Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School at American Ballet Theatre, and in June 2018 he graduated from Princeton University, where he was a member of Princeton University Ballet and BodyHype Dance Company.

Kowalik made his theatrical debut on December 17, 2007, playing Billy in Billy Elliot the Musical at the Victoria Palace Theatre in London, with his final West End performance on June 7, 2008. He was then announced on April 22, 2008, alongside David Álvarez and Kiril Kulish, as one of three boys cast to share the role of Billy in the Broadway production. Kowalik made his Broadway debut in that production on October 8, 2008, with his final New York performance on March 7, 2010.

On June 7, 2009, Kowalik, Álvarez, and Kulish jointly received the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical, marking the first time the award had been given to more than one performer in the same category in a single year. Kowalik became one of the youngest recipients in that category. At the ceremony he performed "Angry Dance" as the Billy representative for the production, which received fifteen Tony nominations in total, including Best Musical, and won ten. In addition to the Tony Award, Kowalik received a Theatre World Award in 2009 for his Broadway work.