Tituss Burgess Biography

Tituss Burgess (born February 21, 1979) is an American actor and singer. He has appeared in four Broadway musicals and is known for his high tenor voice. He is a main cast member on the Netflix original series Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, for which he received a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series in 2015.

Personal life

Burgess, an only child, was born and raised in Athens, Georgia.

He attended Cedar Shoals High School where he was active in the theatre program. He graduated from the University of Georgia with a BA in music.

Burgess is openly gay.

Career

Burgess made his Broadway debut in the musical Good Vibrations as Eddie in 2005, and then appeared in Jersey Boys in 2005 as Hal Miller. He originated the role of "Sebastian the Crab" in the musical The Little Mermaid in 2007 and went on to the role of Nicely-Nicely Johnson in the revival of Guys and Dolls in 2009.

He has also performed in several regional theater productions, including The Wiz and Jesus Christ Superstar.

Burgess performed at the "Broadway for Obama" benefit concert held at the State Theatre Center for the Arts in Easton, Pennsylvania on October 20, 2008. He performed at the "Broadway After Dark" benefit concert on October 26, 2008 in New York City. He performed in a solo concert at Birdland in New York City on July 27, 2009. In 2009, he was one of the performers on the R Family Vacations Summer Cruise from July 11 through July 18.

In October 2009, he was featured on an episode of the popular web show The Battery's Down. He appeared in Season 5 of 30 Rock as D'Fwan, a member of Tracy Jordan's wife's entourage. He reprised the role in Season 6.

In March 2013, Burgess performed "And I Am Telling You..." from the Broadway musical Dreamgirls at Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS fundraising concert Broadway Backwards.

Burgess was the first male actor ever to be cast in the role of The Witch in Into the Woods in a 2015 production by DreamCatcher Theatre which performed in Miami's Carnival Studio Theater at the Adrienne Arsht Center.

On March 6, 2015, Netflix released the first season of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt which stars Burgess in a main role as Titus Andromedon, Kimmy's roommate. Burgess received universal acclaim for his performance, with The New York Times stating that the role was tailor made for him. For his performance in the first season, he received a nomination for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series at the 2015 Critics' Choice Television Awards for his performance and an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series at the 2015 ceremony.

In June of 2016, Burgess reprised his role of "Sebastian the Crab" during the Hollywood Bowl concert event of The Little Mermaid.

Theatre credits

Date	Title	Role	Venue/Location
	The Wiz		Regional
	Jesus Christ Superstar	Judas	Regional
Feb. 2 - Apr. 24, 2005	Good Vibrations	Eddie	Broadway
Nov. 6, 2005 - Jul. 31, 2006	Jersey Boys	Hal Miller	Broadway
Nov. 3, 2007 - Dec. 7, 2008	The Little Mermaid	Sebastian	Broadway
Mar. 1 - June 14, 2009	Guys and Dolls	Nicely-Nicely Johnson	Broadway
2015	Into the Woods	The Witch	Arsht Center, Miami, Florida

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2014	Are You Joking?	Hank Trenton
2016	The Angry Birds Movie	Photog (voice)

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2009	The Battery's Down	Mr. Z	2 episodes
2011	A Gifted Man	Larry the Guard	Episode: "In Case of Discomfort"
2011-2012	30 Rock	D'Fwan	4 episodes
2012	Blue Bloods	Priest	Episode: "The Life We Chose"
2013	Royal Pains	Kristoff	Episode: "Bones to Pick"
2015-present	Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt	Titus Andromedon	Series Regular, 26 episodes Webby Award for Best Actor Gold Derby TV Award for Best Comedy Supporting Actor Nominated"?Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series Nominated"?Gold Derby TV Award for Breakthrough Performer of the Year Nominated"?Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series
2016	Match Game	Himself	Regular panellist
2017	Julie's Greenroom

Video games

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2014	Grand Theft Auto V	Barber	Credited under "Local Population"

Discography

• Jersey Boys (2005) Original Cast Recording
• Here's To You (2006) Studio Album
• Here's To You (2006) debut solo album, available on iTunes
• Disney's The Little Mermaid (2008) Original Cast Recording
• Keys (2008) Scott Alan
• Thirteen Stories Down (2010) Jonathan Reid Gealt
• Comfortable (2012) Studio Album

Awards and nominations

Year	Nominated work	Association	Category	Result	Ref.
2008	The Little Mermaid	Broadway.com Audience Award	Favorite Featured Actor in a Musical
2015	Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt	Webby Award	Best Actor
2015	Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt	Critics' Choice Television Award	Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series
2015	Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt	Gold Derby TV Award	Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy
2015	Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt	Emmy Award	Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series
2015	Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt	Dorian Award	TV Performance of the Year, Actor