Joseph Mantello, born December 27, 1962, in Rockford, Illinois, is a talented American actor, director, and producer. He is of half Italian descent, with his mother Judy being of Italian heritage and his father Richard Mantello, an accountant, being of full Italian descent.
Mantello graduated from the North Carolina School of the Arts and, in 1984, moved to New York City, where he began his acting career. His early roles included performances in the plays "Walking the Dead" and "The Baltimore Waltz".
In 1993, he originated the role of Louis in the original Broadway production of Tony Kushner's "Angels in America". The production won both Tony and Drama Desk awards, and Mantello received nominations for both awards.
Mantello later transitioned to directing, winning the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play in 2003 for Richard Greenberg's "Take Me Out" and the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical in 2004 for Stephen Sondheim's "Assassins". He has since directed a wide range of shows on Broadway, including the hit musical "Wicked" and the play "The Boys in the Band", which was adapted into a film in 2020.
In addition to his directing work, Mantello has also returned to acting, appearing on Broadway in productions such as "The Normal Heart" and "The Glass Menagerie", as well as in television shows like "The Normal Heart" and "Hollywood", both of which were directed by his friend Ryan Murphy.
In 2018, Mantello was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame. He currently resides in New York City with his partner, Paul Marlow.
