In 2013, John Lloyd Young was appointed by Barack Obama to the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities. He was sworn in at the Supreme Court of the United States by Justice Elena Kagan.
Tony Award winner JOHN LLOYD YOUNG originated the role of “Frankie Valli” in Broadway’s Tony Award winning Best Musical and international hit, JERSEY BOYS. As Valli, Young garnered unprecedented accolades from New York and national media, including one of the most exciting New York Times reviews ever written for an actor making a Broadway debut. Mr. Young went on to win the Lead Actor Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Theatre World Awards, becoming the only American actor in history to win all four leading actor awards for a Broadway debut. Mr. Young sings lead vocals on the Platinum, Grammy Award-winning JERSEY BOYS Original Cast Album. Young’s other honors for JERSEY BOYS include a caricature at the world-famous Sardi’s Restaurant, being named Person of the Week by ABC World News Tonight, and being chosen for prestigious “Best of ” lists by Entertainment Weekly, Reader’s Digest and The New York Times.
Young returned to JERSEY BOYS on Broadway for several months in 2012 and 2013, and in early 2014 he made his West End debut in London opening JERSEY BOYS at the historic Piccadilly Theatre.
Young re-created his award-winning Broadway turn onscreen for director Clint Eastwood in Warner Brothers’ film adaptation of JERSEY BOYS, which premiered across the world in 2014.
A resident of Los Angeles, Young played to sold-out crowds of 17,000-plus as “Marius” in LES MISERABLES at the Hollywood Bowl, was the first-ever guest star invited to appear on Fox-TV’s Golden Globe- and Emmy-winning hit, GLEE; guest starred opposite Michael Chiklis on CBS’ drama, VEGAS; and played the title role in the family comedy film OY VEY, MY SON IS GAY, opposite Lainie Kazan.
In February 2013, Young made his debut at New York’s prestigious and famous Cafe Carlyle. Reviewing his performance, The New York Times wrote that Young “has a disciplined one-in-a-million high tenor shading into falsetto that he can direct through the stratosphere.”
Before JERSEY BOYS, Young was a New York theatre actor in plays including the New York-area premiere of Michael Healey’s THE DRAWER BOY, with Frasier‘s John Mahoney; and he was named one of the Best Featured Actors in a Play by the NJ Star-Ledger as “Danny Saunders” in Aaron Posner and Chaim Potok’s dramatic adaptation of THE CHOSEN, opposite Theodore Bikel, directed by David Ellenstein. New York Theatre: “Charlie” in Julia Jordan’s THE SUMMER OF THE SWANS for director Joe Calarco (Lucille Lortel Theatre), “Moritz” in the Douglas Langworthy translation of Wedekind’s SPRING AWAKENING; and nail-biting number theorist “Claudio” in Rinne Groff’s THE FIVE HYSTERICAL GIRLS THEOREM, for Obie-winning Target Margin Theatre, directed by David Herskovits.
Mr. Young has played Carnegie Hall, the White House, Lincoln Center, New Year’s Eve in Times Square, Radio City Music Hall, the New York City Marathon, San Francisco’sFeinstein’s at the Nikko, Yankee Stadium, Dodgers Stadium, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, McCarter Theatre Center, New York’s Town Hall, and the Hollywood Bowl. Young performed for our returning troops at Washington, D.C.’s John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts with country star Lorrie Morgan, The Beach Boys and the National Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Marvin Hamlisch; and he frequently sings the “National Anthem” at L.A.’s Staples Center for the 2012 and 2014 Stanley Cup Hockey Champions, the L.A. Kings.
Television: CBS’s VEGAS, FOX’s GLEE, NBC’s LAW & ORDER, and appearances on CBS TV’s Late Show with David Letterman, ABC’s Live with Regis and Kelly and Live with Kelly and Michael, PBS’s The Tavis Smiley Show, A&E’s Breakfast with the Arts, Entertainment Tonight, Celebrity Jeopardy, Extra, Access Hollywood, and several times on NBC’s Today Show (including Katie Couric’s highly-rated farewell). On radio he has appeared on NPR’s Here and Now and All Things Considered.
Young debuted his visual art in a show at Grammy-winning songwriter Allee Willis’s home, Willis Wonderland, in May 2010. The show, “Food for Thought” acted as a fundraiser for AIDS Project Los Angeles, was a popular success, and was covered by the Los Angeles Times. Mr. Young’s art is represented by the Hamilton-Selway Fine Art Gallery in Hollywood, CA. His first art commission was for the famed Beverly Hills, CA restaurant, Spago.
Mr. Young’s debut album, “My Turn…” is available for download on iTunes and for order on cdbaby.com and Amazon.com. The entirely-acoustic album seeks to re-create in the recording studio classic 60s R&B songs in much the same way they were originally recorded, before the advent of sampling and Autotune. The album is Executive Produced by Dona R. Miller and Mr. Young’s Under the Skyway Productions, and produced by London producer Arthur Baker and by Tommy Faragher of Fox’s hit show, GLEE, whose cover of “Teenage Dream” was the first song from the hit show to reach #1 on the Billboard Charts.
Young enthusiastically supports charities including Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, amfAR, Paul Newman’s Hole in the Wall Gang, The United Service Organization (USO), The American Cancer Society, AIDS Project Los Angeles (APLA), The Actors Fund of America and is a proud, 20-year member of The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Young is a graduate of Brown University.