Shuler Hensley

Shuler Hensley (b. March 6 1967, Atlanta, Georgia) is a Tony Award-winning American singer and actor.

Background and early life

The youngest of three children, Hensley grew up in Marietta, Georgia. His father, Sam Hensley is a former Georgia Tech football star, retired civil engineer and former state senator. His mother, Iris Antley Hensley, was the Artistic Director of the Georgia Ballet, and Shuler had an early start in show business at the age of four when he appeared as Fritz in her production of The Nutcracker.

He was educated at The Westminster Schools and attended the University of Georgia on a baseball scholarship. After attending a recital by Jessye Norman and being cast as Judge Turpin in a college production of Sweeney Todd, he decided to leave university after his sophomore year in order to study voice at the Manhattan School of Music where he majored in opera and graduated in 1989. From there he went to the Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia, and obtained his Master's Degree in 1993.

Career

His stage career began in the early 1990s with roles such as Pitkin in On the Town, Joe in The Most Happy Fella, and Miles Gloriosus in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, He has also sung in the Gilbert and Sullivan operettas Pirates of Penzance and Patience and in the operas Carmen, Faust, La bohème and Don Giovanni. And in addition to an early Oklahoma! casting as Jud Fry at the North Shore Music Theatre, Boston, Shuler also played Curly at the Skylight Opera Theatre, Milwaukee.

In 1996, he went to Hamburg, Germany to perform the title role in The Phantom of the Opera in German.

Oklahoma!

In 1998, he was cast as Jud Fry for London's National Theatre production of Oklahoma!. The revival was a huge success and Hensley received wonderful personal notices ([1]) as well as the Olivier Award.

He continued to play the role when the show transferred to the West End (1999), the only United States native in the cast, and then to Broadway (2002-2003) where he won the Tony for his performance. He also won the 2002 Drama Desk Award and the Outer Critics Circle Award for the same role.

Broadway

In between, Hensley played Inspector Javert for a year in the Broadway production of Les Misérables (2000-2001).

He appeared in the country-rock and blues musical, The Great American Trailer Park Musical (2004-2005) and in May 2006, he opened in the David Henry Hwang-Phil Collins Disney musical Tarzan as Kerchak.

Films and television

Hensley has appeared in:

• Someone Like You (2001)
• The Bread, My Sweet (2001) (also known as A Wedding for Bella)
• Van Helsing (2004) (as Frankenstein's monster)
• Opa! (2005)
• The Legend of Zorro (2005).

His television appearances include Monday Night Mayhem (2002) and the series Law & Order: Criminal Intent and Ed.

Family

Hensley is married to Paula DeRosa and they have two children.

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