18 Things to Know About Jewish Actor Ben Platt

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Ben Platt

You may know Ben Platt from his originating role in the musical Dear Evan Hansen. Or as the awkward magician with the voice of an angel in Pitch Perfect. Or as Beanie Feldstein’s BFF. However you know Ben Platt, you probably love him. We do, too, and with his debut album coming out, we figured it was time for 18 things to know about Platt:

1. Ben Platt was born in Los Angeles; he has four siblings. His dad, Marc Platt, is a movie, TV, and theater producer. (He has produced a loooong list of things, from Legally Blonde and Rent Live!). His parents raised their kids with a traditional Jewish upbringing to “protect them from Marc’s world, to teach them to be committed to a community larger than themselves and to live a grounded life.”

2. He attended the Jewish Camp Ramah in California. For Platt, Ramah was “the first place that I was allowed to decide for myself what kind of Jew I would be.”

3. “I played Sky Masterson four times in ‘Guys and Dolls’ in my childhood, and one of those was at my Jewish summer camp, Camp Ramah in California, and we do all of our productions there in Hebrew, so I can give you a little bit of ‘Luck Be A Lady,’ in Hebrew,” Platt told Seth Meyers in 2016.

4. Platt publicly came out as gay in the music video for his song “Ease My Mind” (off his debut album, Sing To Me Instead which will be released on March 29). He came out to his family when he was 12.

5. And on the note of his debut album, Sing To Me Instead, Platt said, “It’s completely me. I’m getting to share without any filter of character or writing. But I really am loving that feeling.”

6. How could we write about Ben Platt without writing about Beanie Feldstein? They met at a bat mitzvah, and then Ben joined Beanie’s school in 9th grade.

7. Beanie also explained they both had theater-themed bar and bat mitzvahs, because of course.

8. In December 2016, he originated the role of Evan in Dear Evan Hansen. He won the Tony for the role.

9. Ben met Beyoncé:

This is a big deal because Ben loves Beyoncé:

We could keep going. There are so many. This article could be 18 Ben Platt Tweets About Beyoncé, honestly.

10. He also played Elder Arnold Cunningham in The Book of Mormon on Broadway from 2014 to 2015.

https://www.instagram.com/p/xdSBNaPNa1/

11. “As a kid, I wanted to do an original musical and get a Tony, and so the fact that that happened is such a freeing thing,” Ben said. “Now I can sort of go down another path and see where that leads.”

12. The five things Ben Platt loves:

13. After Charlottesville, he tweeted in Hebrew, “We need to spread love.” He re-tweeted it after the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting.

14. “I have my own issues with anxiety and self-love, just like everybody does,” Ben Platt said in a New York Times profile in 2017. “So I don’t want to suggest that just because I’ve been given this role [in Dear Evan Hansen], I know how to fix other people’s problems. I want to honor what’s happening, the way people are responding, but — I’m still trying to understand where to draw the line.”

15. He is set to star in a Netflix musical comedy series called The Politician, created by Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk, and Ian Brennan.

16. He would be in Hufflepuff. (SAME, Ben!!!)

17. Here’s this Instagram, just cause:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BDRNrZFPNRv/

Also this tweet:

And this one:

18. And, how could we forget his amazing Yom Kippur song!?!? (Warning: it will get stuck in your head year-round.)

Ben, you’re the best.

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