Lucas Grabeel

Lucas Grabeel
Lucas Grabeel singing "Bop to the Top" in High School Musical: The Concert.
Background information
Birth name	Lucas Stephen Grabeel
Born	November 23, 1984 (1984-11-23) (age 25) Springfield, Missouri, U.S.
Genres	Pop, Dance-pop
Occupations	Actor, singer, songwriter, director, producer
Years active	2004–present
Labels	Walt Disney Records, Gooniez Productions, 14341 Productions
Website	www.LucasGrabeel.org

Lucas Stephen Grabeel (pronounced /ˈɡreɪbiːl/ "GRAY-beel"; born November 23, 1984) is an American actor, singer, songwriter, director and producer. He is perhaps best known for his role as Ryan Evans in Disney Channel Original Movie's 2006 High School Musical and its sequels, High School Musical 2 (2007) and High School Musical 3: Senior Year (2008), and as Ethan Dalloway in the third and fourth instalments of the Halloweentown series, Halloweentown High (2004), and Return to Halloweentown (2006).

Biography

Early life and career development

Grabeel was born in Springfield, Missouri on November 23, 1984, to Stephen Grabeel and Jean Harman.^[1] He attended Logan-Rogersville elementary, middle and high school before transferring to and graduating from Kickapoo High School in Springfield in 2003. He also played drums for a local church and initiated a men's a cappella singing group at Kickapoo High school. He can also play the guitar and accordion; and can dance in the styles of jazz, ballet, hip-hop and tap.^[2] While in Rogersville, Missouri, he regularly attended Harmony Baptist Church, where he was a part of the children’s and youth groups.^[3]

Following graduation, he moved to Los Angeles to become an actor. Two months after moving from home to L.A., Grabeel landed his first commercial and soon after, he landed his first film role in the third instalment of the Halloweentown series; the Disney Channel Original Movie: Halloweentown High as the character Ethan Dalloway. He reprised his role in the fourth instalment, Return to Halloweentown.

2006–2008: High School Musical

His biggest, and his best known, role was playing the part of Ryan Evans, the fraternal twin brother of Sharpay Evans (played by Ashley Tisdale), in the Emmy Award-winning made-for-television Disney movie High School Musical. He reprised his role in the sequels High School Musical 2 and the motion picture High School Musical 3: Senior Year. In 2007, he joined co-stars Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Tisdale, Corbin Bleu and Monique Coleman on the 51 date High School Musical: The Concert. In early 2009, Billboard believed that Grabeel and Tisdale’s track I Want It All should be nominated for an Oscar in the Best Original Song category however, the song did not make the final shortlist.^[4] During his time in High School Musical, Grabeel (along with his co-stars) had a total of six tracks chart in the Billboard Hot 100.^[5][6][7][8] Furthermore, he and Tisdale are the first artists to début in the Billboard Hot 100 with two simultaneous new entries in one week.^[9]

Musical projects

Apart from his involvement in the High School Musical soundtracks, Grabeel also recorded a track called You Know I Will for the Fox and the Hound 2 soundtrack. He also recorded his own version of the Michael Bolton track Go the Distance, from Disney's Hercules, for DisneyMania 5. In 2007 Grabeel co-wrote and recorded a song called You Got It.^[10] The song was released on iTunes on August 19, 2007^[11] and a music video was released on his official website. Grabeel also recorded the song Trash Talkin' (another original song) which was released November 15, 2008 on YouTube.^[12]

Other appearances

Grabeel has made TV guest appearances on TV series such as Boston Legal, 'Til Death, Veronica Mars and Smallville, where he portrayed a young Lex Luthor. In 2006, he was offered a guest role on an episode of The Suite Life of Zack & Cody but when the script called for him to kiss co-star Ashley Tisdale, the role went to High School Musical co-star, Zac Efron, due to Grabeel and Tisdale’s brother-sister dynamic established in High School Musical. In 2007, he filmed the movie, The Adventures of Food Boy with Brittany Curran, as the lead Ezra. Other film projects Grabeel was involved with includes the animated film, At Jesus' Side, where he voiced a dog called Jericho.^[13] He also filmed the independent film, Alice Upside Down,^[14] as the character of Lester McKinley, based on the "Alice book series" by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. In 2008, he also appeared in the movie Milk, a biopic about the slain gay rights activist Harvey Milk. Grabeel played a friend and supporter of Milk, photographer Danny Nicoletta. He also appeared in the 2008 Walt Disney Pictures film College Road Trip as Scooter, which features other Disney stars Raven-Symoné, Brenda Song and Margo Harshman. He also stars in the independent movie Lock and Roll Forever alongside Ore Ska Band.^[15]

He also participated in the first ever Disney Channel Games and co-captained the green team along with Ashley Tisdale, Mitchel Musso, Miley Cyrus, Emily Osment and Kyle Massey. In June 2007, he returned to repeat his captaincy of the green team with Dylan Sprouse, Miley Cyrus, Monique Coleman and Brandon Baker.

In early 2009, he appeared at the Southland Theatre Artists Goodwill Event (S.T.A.G.E.), an AIDS charity event, in Beverly Hills performing George and Ira Gershwin’s I Can't Be Bothered Now.^[16][17]

Other projects: 14341 Productions

In 2007 Grabeel founded a production company called 14341 Productions. His role within involves overseeing many projects from writing, directing and executive producing. They have produced projects such as the short films The Real Son, Smoke Break; the music videos, Get Your Ass On and You Got It. They also produced a TV pilot called Regarding Beauregard which was Grabeel's first directorial debut. They are currently working on a short film, The Adventures Of Chuckle Boy, and have just released a short film, The Dragon.^[18] They debuted their work at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival.^[19]

Current projects

Early in 2009, Grabeel was voted Most Likely to Do Big Things in 2009 by MTV and had an exclusive interview with them. He mentions the release of another music video for his track Get Your Ass On.^[20] He also mentioned his latest movie project, The Legend of the Dancing Ninja, where he is to play the lead Tokyo Jones alongside David Hasselhoff.^[21] He is also soon to begin his role on stage as Matt in the Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones musical, The Fantasticks with Eric McCormack and Harry Groener.^[22]

Filmography

Discography

High School Musical Soundtracks

Other songs

Awards

• Grabeel's short film The Real Son won the Gold Medal For Excellence in 2007.^[23]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Lucas Grabeel

• Official Lucas Grabeel Website
• 14341 Productions Official Site
• Lucas Grabeel at the Internet Movie Database