Chris Colfer Biography

Christopher Paul Colfer (born May 27, 1990)is an American actor, singer, and author. He gained international recognition for his portrayal of Kurt Hummel on the television musical Glee (2009–2015). Colfer’s portrayal of Kurt received critical praise for which he has been the recipient of several awards, including Best Supporting Actor in a Series, Miniseries or Television Film at the 2011 Golden Globe Awards, and three consecutive People’s Choice Awards for Favorite Comedic TV Actor in 2013, 2014, and 2015. In April 2011, Colfer was named one of the Time 100, Time‘s list of the 100 most influential people in the world.

Colfer wrote, starred in, produced, and novelized his first film, Struck by Lightning, which debuted at the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival. He also wrote The New York Times bestselling Land of Stories series of YA books, starting with The Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell. As of September 2019, he has published fifteen books.

Early life and education

Colfer was born in Clovis, California, to Karyn and Timothy Colfer. He is of Irish ancestry and has stated: “I’m very Irish, my family is all Irish and St. Patrick’s day in my house is crazy.” As a child, he was confined to a hospital bed for three months following lymph node surgery, which left a scar on his neck and which he credits as one of the difficult experiences that made him interested in fictional worlds.

When Colfer was seven, his younger sister was diagnosed with severe epilepsy; he said, “She’d have these horrid, horrid epileptic fits in the middle of the night.”He “craved attention” from his parents, but it was diverted to his sister’s health. He knew he wanted to be an actor, but as a coping mechanism he retreated into his imagination and writing fairy tales.

At an early age, Colfer showed a passion for writing. He was “born wanting to be a storyteller”, using both writing and acting as ways to entertain people and escape reality. His grandmother was his first editor, advising and encouraging him in elementary school when he first attempted to write a fairytale-inspired novel, which would later become The Land of Stories. In 2012, Colfer dedicated his first published novel to her, and quoted her: “Christopher, I think you should wait until you’re done with elementary school before worrying about being a failed writer.”

Colfer was bullied so severely in middle school that he needed to be home schooled for half of 7th grade and 8th grade. When he attended Clovis East High School, he was involved with the speech and debate program, and he won “champion titles”, including placing ninth in the State Competition for Dramatic Interpretation. He was also active in the drama club, the FFA, “was president of the Writer’s Club, editor of the school’s literary magazine, and captain of Destination ImagiNation”. As a high school senior, he wrote, starred in, and directed a spoof of Sweeney Todd entitled “Shirley Todd”, in which all of the roles were gender-reversed. One of his real in-school experiences was later turned into a sub-plot for his character on Glee, when the high school teachers denied him the chance to sing “Defying Gravity” from the musical Wicked because it is traditionally sung by a woman.

Career

The first show Colfer acted in was a community theatre production of West Side Story. He then appeared in The Sound of Music as Kurt von Trapp, which later inspired the naming of his Glee character.

At age 18, Colfer starred as Russel Fish in Russel Fish: The Sausage and Eggs Incident, a short film in which an awkward teenager must pass a Presidential Physical Fitness test or fail gym class and lose his admission to Harvard University.