Chris Colfer

Actor

• Born: May 27, 1990
• Place of Birth: Fresno, California

Contribution: Chris Colfer is a Golden Globe Award-winning American actor and author best known for his portrayal of Kurt Hummel in the musical comedy series Glee.

Background

Christopher Paul Colfer was born on May 27, 1990, in Fresno, California. Soon after he was born, he and his family moved to Clovis in the San Joaquin Valley. As he grew up, he helped care for his sister, Hannah, who has epilepsy.

When Colfer was eight years old, he performed as Snoopy in a local play. The performance helped him realize that he wanted to one day become an actor, a goal his parents fully supported.

Later, when he attended Clovis East High School, Colfer became involved in many extracurricular activities. He was a member of the speech and debate team, the drama club, the writers’ club, and the school’s literary magazine. Though he excelled in these activities, Colfer was ostracized by his classmates because he was different. He loved theater and was dedicated to developing his creative interests, such as writing and directing a musical spoof of Sweeney Todd called Shirley Todd in his senior year.

In a 2012 interview with the New York Times, Colfer related how he had been bullied in school for being gay, though he had not yet come out as gay at the time. Other students would vandalize his locker and property and tease him about his high voice.

Acting Career

By the time he was thirteen, Colfer acquired a talent agent, and, over the course of several years, he and his mother frequently drove eight hours to Los Angeles so he could audition for acting roles.

In 2009, he landed an audition with his idol, television writer and producer Ryan Murphy, who was developing a new series for FOX called Glee, which would revolve around a high school glee club and the lives and struggles of its teenaged members. Because Colfer was such a big fan of Murphy and his work, he was more nervous during this audition than any other he had done. Colfer sang “Mr. Cellophane” from the musical Chicago, and though his audition went well, he did not get the part he wanted. Instead, Murphy cast him as Kurt Hummel, a confident and funny member of the show’s glee club. Though Murphy intended for the character to be gay, he did not want Colfer to feel used and exploited, so he let him create his own take on Hummel, advising him instead to focus on the character’s wit and charm.

Glee premiered in the fall of 2009 and was well received by audiences and critics. Further success came in the form of musical covers sung by the members of the Glee cast. The performances were released as singles to radio stations, and the cast’s cover of Journey’s song “Don’t Stop Believin’” rose higher on the pop music charts than the band’s actual 1981 recording.

The fourth episode of Glee was a vital one to Colfer’s character, as it features Kurt coming out as gay to his father. Colfer’s performance in the episode was highly praised, and this episode foreshadowed Colfer’s own public coming out a few months later at the age of nineteen.

The success and popularity of Glee brought Colfer significant public notice, and in 2009 he was cast in a short comedy film entitled Russel Fish: The Sausage and Eggs Incident. Glee continued to perform well critically and commercially until its end in 2015, and in 2010, Colfer was nominated for an Emmy Award for outstanding supporting actor. More awards came his way in the years to come, with another Emmy nomination in 2011 and a Golden Globe win that same year.

Colfer went on to act in several supporting roles in films over the next few years. In 2010, he voiced a small part in the animated film Marmaduke, and in 2012 he appeared in a supporting role in a production of 8, a play written by screenwriter Dustin Lance Black about Hollingsworth v. Perry, a 2012 federal court case that later led to the repeal of Proposition 8, which had banned same-sex marriages in California.

In 2012, Colfer also wrote and starred in the feature film Struck by Lightning, in which he played a high school student who is killed by lightning and then relates the story of his life. The film was not well received and made little at the box office. Though Colfer stood proudly by his efforts on the film, he has admitted that he often became frustrated following the film’s release because critics did not take his work seriously. He next appeared in two episodes of the comedy series Hot in Cleveland, in 2014 and 2015, and in the comedy film Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie in 2016. After appearing in two episodes of Julie's Greenroom in 2017, Colfer provided the voice of Kosy in the animated series Ridley Jones (2021-2022).

Writing Career

In 2012, Colfer wrote a companion book to Struck by Lightning called Struck By Lightning: The Carson Phillips Journal. The same year, he published the children’s fantasy novel The Land of Stories: The Wishing Well, which reached the top of the New York Times bestseller list for two weeks. The second and third books—The Enchantress Returns and A Grimm Warning—in what became the Land of Stories series followed in 2013 and 2014, respectively. The series was received so well by critics that Colfer wrote three more books for the series by 2017, as well as several companion stories and a picture book.

In addition to his Land of Stories Series, Colfer published the stand-alone young adult novel Stranger than Fiction in 2017. He next published A Tale of Magic... another children's fantasy novel, in 2019. The first novel in a new series based in the Land of Stories universe that also includes A Tale of Witchcraft... (2020) and A Tale of Sorcery... (2021), A Tale of Magic... debuted at the top of the New York Times bestseller list. Colfer later launched a new children's book series in 2024 with the publication of Roswell Johnson Saves the World!

Impact

Colfer knew early on that he wanted to entertain and worked hard to achieve success in acting. He eventually found his niche as the witty and falsely arrogant Kurt Hummel on Glee, which propelled him to instant stardom. The character’s own coming out on the show acted as a kind of forebear to Colfer’s own, and since then he has excelled in various projects as a comfortable, confident, openly gay actor who is most at home when he is performing.

Personal Life

Colfer practices with Japanese sai weaponry. His skill in their use was written into an episode of Glee.

Bibliography

"Chris Colfer." IMDb, 2024, www.imdb.com/name/nm3182094. Accessed 19 Sept. 2024.

"Chris Colfer." Internet Speculative Fiction Database, 2024, isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ch.cgi?175038. Accessed 19 Sept. 2024.

Colfer, Chris. Interview by Todd VanDerWerff. “Chris Colfer.” AV Club. Onion, 7 June 2010. Web. 2 July 2013.

Fernandez, Maria Elena. “Chris Colfer’s Journey from Small Town to ‘Glee.’” Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 8 Sept. 2009. Web. 2 July 2013.

Rosen, Christopher. “Chris Colfer, ‘Struck by Lightning’ Writer & Star, On Facing Those Who Don’t Take Him Seriously.” Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 8 Jan. 2013. Web. 2 July 2013.

Schulman, Michael. “The Many Hats of Chris Colfer.” New York Times. New York Times, 21 Dec. 2012. Web. 2 July 2013.

Stack, Tim. “Chris Colfer Makes Some Noise.” Entertainment Weekly 12 Nov. 2010: 46–48. Print.