Ben Platt

Biography

Ben Platt (born in Los Angeles in 1993) is an American actor and singer, best known for originating the title role of Evan Hansen in the Broadway musical Dear Evan Hansen. Trained in musical theater from childhood, he reached a wider audience through the Pitch Perfect films and the Netflix series The Politician. His career moves between the stage, film, television and music.

Platt was born in Los Angeles into a family linked to show business: his father, Marc Platt, is a film, television and theater producer whose credits include the musical Wicked. He studied at the Adderley School for Performing Arts and at Harvard-Westlake, graduating in 2011. He was accepted to Columbia University but left after seven weeks to fulfill a contract with The Book of Mormon, in which he played Elder Arnold Cunningham in Chicago and later on Broadway.

He had been performing since the age of nine, with roles in The Music Man at the Hollywood Bowl and in youth productions of Les Misérables. In 2012 he played Benji Applebaum in Pitch Perfect, a role he reprised in the 2015 sequel, and then appeared in Ricki and the Flash and Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk. His performance in Dear Evan Hansen, first Off-Broadway and then on Broadway from 2016, won him the Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical in 2017.

In music, he signed with Atlantic Records in 2017 and released his debut studio album, Sing to Me Instead, in 2019, followed by Reverie (2021) and Honeymind (2024). On television he starred in The Politician, for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe. In 2023 he returned to Broadway in the revival of Parade, earning further Tony and Grammy nominations. His legacy so far lies in combining singing and acting in musical theater, with a career that keeps alternating between stage, screen and records.

Key films

• Pitch Perfect (2012): Benji Applebaum, a magic enthusiast, in the musical comedy about college a cappella groups.
• Pitch Perfect 2 (2015): reprises Benji in the sequel.
• Ricki and the Flash (2015): supporting role opposite Meryl Streep.
• Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk (2016): supporting role in Ang Lee's war drama.
• Dear Evan Hansen (2021): reprises his stage role in the film adaptation of the musical that made him famous.