Taye Diggs

Biography

Diggs hails from Brooklyn, New York and was raised in Rochester, New York. In Rochester he attended The School of The Arts. He is the oldest of five children; he has two brothers and two sisters. Diggs received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in musical theater from Syracuse University. He performed many times at the popular Lakes Region Summer Theatre in Meredith, New Hampshire. Diggs's debut was in the ensemble cast of the five-time Tony Award-winning musical Carousel. In 1996, he got his big break, originating the role of the nasty landlord Benny in Jonathan Larson's Tony Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winning Rent. After Rent he appeared as Mr. Black alongside Menzel's Kate in Andrew Lippa's off-Broadway production of The Wild Party. Diggs also had a stint as Billy Flynn in the long-running Broadway revival of Chicago and temporarily filled in for Norbert Leo Butz (an original Rent standby) as the love interest of Menzel's character in Wicked. Diggs then moved from stage to television, with a role on the soap opera Guiding Light. In 1998, he made his film debut in How Stella Got Her Groove Back. The following year he accepted roles as a tantric sex god in Doug Liman's Go. Audiences could next see him as an AWOL groom in the coming-of-age drama The Wood. Malcolm D. Lee's The Best Man features Diggs as an author and groomsman to Morris Chestnut's character, the titular best man suffering from pre-wedding jitters. He also starred in the remake of William Castle's The House on Haunted Hill. Diggs portrayed the title character on the short-lived UPN television series Kevin Hill. He reprised the role of Benny for the 2005 Rent film. Diggs is featured on the following cast recordings: Carousel 1994 revival cast; Rent 1996 original Broadway cast; The Wild Party (Lippa version) original off-Broadway cast. He also sings on the Rent film soundtrack. In early 2006, Diggs guest-starred for several episodes as Will Truman's love interest, James, on the final season of Will & Grace. In May, ABC picked up his pilot, Day Break, in which he portrayed a detective trapped in the same day and forced to relive it to clear his name of murder; the show debuted in mid-November 2006, but was abruptly cancelled due to poor ratings. And although his film and television career continues to move forward, he still returns to the stage frequently. Most recently he was seen alongside James McDaniel in Charles Fuller's A Soldier's Play at Second Stage Theatre in New York. In Februrary 2007, it was announced that he would star opposite Kate Walsh in a potential spin-off of Grey's Anatomy