How can you not love Ben Platt? He’s an incredibly talented actor, singer and songwriter who won a Tony, an Emmy and a Grammy for his role in the Broadway musical “Dear Evan Hansen.” When Platt won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical he was 23-years-old, which made him the youngest person to win that award.
Platt is currently starring on Broadway in “Parade.” In “Parade,” Platt plays Leo Frank, a Jewish man who was superintendent of a pencil factory in Atlanta, Georgia. In 1913 Frank was wrongly convicted of the rape and murder of Mary Phagan, a 13-year-old factory employee. In 1915, after his death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment, Frank was lynched by an angry mob. Today, researchers agree that Frank didn’t murder Phagan – his conviction and lynching were the result of antisemitism. Phagan was likely murdered by a janitor at the factory. Leo Frank’s case was the inspiration for the creation of the Anti-Defamation League, as well as the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan. When Neo-Nazis disrupted the opening of “Parade” on Broadway in 2023, Platt said in a video that he shared on Instagram: “It was definitely very ugly and scary but a wonderful reminder of why we are telling this story and how powerful art and theater can be.”
In addition to his work on Broadway, Platt has been in films, including the “Pitch Perfect” series. Platt is also starring, with his best friend Beanie Feldstein (see “Beanie Feldstein and Jackie”), in Richard Linklater’s film adaptation of “Merrily We Roll Along,” which is being shot over 20 years. And he stars in the Netflix series “The Politician,” for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe Award.
Platt comes from a family that takes Judaism seriously. He grew up at the Conservative movement’s Sinai Temple in Los Angeles. He and all four of his siblings went to the Conservative Movement’s Camp Ramah in California and they all attended Ramah Israel Seminar for a summer while in High School. Platt often talks publicly about how much he loved Ramah.
Platt met his bestie Beanie Feldstein at a Bat Mitzvah. And like Feldstein, the theme for Platt’s Bar mitzvah celebration was theater.
In addition to being proudly Jewish, Ben is proudly gay. In January 2020, he began a relationship with actor and singer Noah Galvin, to whom he became engaged in November 2022. Interestingly, it was Galvin who replaced Platt in the role of Evan Hansen on Broadway when Platt left the show. Galvin, who plays Dr. Asher Wolke in the television series “The Good Doctor,” explains that he was “raised both Jewish and Catholic, going to CCD, Hebrew School and church,” but that he now identifies as Jewish.
Platt and Galvin have a Labradoodle named George.
