Justin Paul | |
|---|---|
 Justin Paul in 2009 | |
| Background information | |
| Born | January 3, 1985 St. Louis, Missouri, U.S. |
| Occupation(s) | Composer, lyricist, singer |
| Member of | Pasek and Paul |
Justin Paul (born January 3, 1985) is an American theater and television composer and lyricist best known for his works The Greatest Showman , La La Land and Dear Evan Hansen , all of which he co-wrote with his songwriting partner, Benj Pasek.
Paul was born in Missouri, but raised in Connecticut. He attended Music Theatre of Connecticut School of Performing Arts, Coleytown Middle School, and Staples High School, both in Westport, Connecticut. While in public school, Justin was an active member of both Coleytown Company and Staples Players (his middle and high school theatre programs). He graduated from the University of Michigan in December 2006 with a BFA in Musical Theatre. [1]
He is the co-creator, with Benj Pasek of the song cycle Edges . Also with Pasek, he is one of the songwriters for the Disney Channel show Johnny and the Sprites . [2] Pasek and Paul won the Jonathan Larson Award in 2007. [3] [4] He also co-wrote and co-composed the musical Dogfight , which opened Off-Broadway at the Second Stage Theatre in July 2012. [5] He also composed the musical James and the Giant Peach with Benj Pasek.
Pasek and Paul wrote the lyrics for the film musical La La Land . The film was written and directed by Damien Chazelle, and stars Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling. [6] The film was the opening film at the 73rd Venice International Film Festival, on August 31, 2016. [7] The duo won the 2017 Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song for "City of Stars." [8] The pair received two Best Original Song nominations at the 89th Academy Awards, for "Audition (The Fools Who Dream)" and "City of Stars," alongside composer Justin Hurwitz; [9] the trio won for the latter. [10] The duo earned another Oscar nomination the following year for co-writing the song, "This Is Me", from The Greatest Showman (2017).
Pasek and Paul also wrote the original song "Runnin' Home to You" performed by Grant Gustin for the musical crossover episode of The Flash "Duet" between The Flash and Supergirl . [11]
Most recently, they have created and written the score for the stage musical Dear Evan Hansen which premiered at the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. in July 2015. [12] The musical, which has been called "striking for its moral complexity as well as its musical ambition", [13] which opened on Broadway in December 2016. At the 71st Tony Awards, it is nominated for nine awards including Best Musical, Best Score, Best Book of a Musical, and Best Actor in a Musical for Platt.
In 2022, they won the Tony Award for Best Musical for serving as producers for the Broadway production of Michael R. Jackson's Pulitzer Prize-winning musical A Strange Loop .
Paul is married. He and his wife have a daughter, born in 2016, and a son, born in 2018. [14] In July 2020, they welcomed their third child.
The Pauls are practicing Christians. [15]
| Year | Award | Category | Work | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | American Academy of Arts and Letters, Richard Rodgers Awards for Musical Theater | — | Honorees | |
| ASCAP Foundation Award | Richard Rodgers New Horizons Award | — | Honorees | |
| Songwriter's Fellowship Award | — | Honorees | ||
| 2013 | Tony Award | Best Original Score | A Christmas Story: The Musical | Nominated |
| Drama Desk Award | Outstanding Music | Nominated | ||
| Lucille Lortel Award | Outstanding Musical | Dogfight | Won | |
| Outer Critics Circle Award | Outstanding New Score | Nominated | ||
| 2016 | The Charles MacArthur Award for Outstanding Original New Play or Musical | Dear Evan Hansen | Nominated | |
| Drama Desk Award | Outstanding Lyrics | Won | ||
| Outer Critics Circle Award | Outstanding New Score | Nominated | ||
| Obie Award | Musical Theater, Music and Lyrics | Won | ||
| Hollywood Music in Media Award | Best Song in a Feature Film ("City of Stars") | La La Land | Won | |
| Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award | Best Music | Won | ||
| Critics' Choice Movie Award | Best Song ("City of Stars") | Won | ||
| Best Song ("Audition (The Fools Who Dream)") | Nominated | |||
| Phoenix Film Critics Society Award | Best Song ("City of Stars") | Won | ||
| Best Song ("Audition (The Fools Who Dream)") | Nominated | |||
| Satellite Award | Best Original Song ("City of Stars") | Won | ||
| Best Original Song ("Audition (The Fools Who Dream)") | Nominated | |||
| Houston Film Critics Society Award | Best Original Song ("City of Stars") | Won | ||
| Best Original Song ("Audition (The Fools Who Dream)") | Nominated | |||
| Golden Globe Award | Best Original Song ("City of Stars") | Won | ||
| 2017 | Academy Award | Best Original Song ("City of Stars") | Won | |
| Best Original Song ("Audition (The Fools Who Dream)") | Nominated | |||
| Tony Award | Best Original Score | Dear Evan Hansen | Won | |
| 2018 | Grammy Award | Best Musical Theater Album | Won | |
| Best Song Written for Visual Media ("City of Stars") | La La Land | Nominated | ||
| Hollywood Music in Media Award | Best Song in a Feature Film ("This Is Me") | The Greatest Showman | Nominated | |
| Critics' Choice Movie Award | Best Song ("This Is Me") | Nominated | ||
| Golden Globe Award | Best Original Song ("This Is Me") | Won | ||
| Academy Awards | Best Original Song ("This Is Me") | Nominated | ||
| Primetime Emmy Award | Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics ("In The Market For A Miracle") | A Christmas Story Live! | Nominated | |
| 2020 | Laurence Olivier Award | Best Original Score or New Orchestrations | Dear Evan Hansen | Won |
| 2022 | Tony Award | Best Musical | A Strange Loop | Won |
| International | |
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| National | |
| Artists | |
| Other | |
Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, known together as Pasek and Paul, are an American songwriting duo and composing team for musical theater, films and television. Their works include A Christmas Story, Dogfight, Edges, Dear Evan Hansen, and James and the Giant Peach. Their original songs have been featured on NBC's Smash and in the films La La Land, for which they won both the Golden Globe and Academy Award for Best Original Song for the song "City of Stars", and The Greatest Showman. Their work on the original musical Dear Evan Hansen has received widespread critical acclaim and earned them the 2017 Tony Award for Best Original Score. In 2022, they won the Tony Award for Best Musical for serving as producers for the Broadway production of Michael R. Jackson's Pulitzer Prize-winning musical A Strange Loop.
Benj Pasek is an Oscar, Tony, Grammy, Golden Globe, and Olivier-award winning composer, lyricist, and producer best known for his works The Greatest Showman and Dear Evan Hansen, all of which he co-wrote with his songwriting partner, Justin Paul.
Michael Greif is an American stage director. He has won three Obie Awards and received four Tony Award nominations, for Rent, Grey Gardens, Next to Normal, and Dear Evan Hansen.
Taylor Hunt Trensch is an American stage and film actor.
Jeremy Michael Jordan is an American actor and singer. He has performed on Broadway, in television and film, in concert, as well as in other theatrical productions.
Benjamin Schiff Platt is an American actor, singer, and songwriter. Platt, the son of film and theater producer Marc Platt, began his acting career in musical theater as a child and appeared in productions of The Sound of Music (2006) and The Book of Mormon (2012–2015), rising to prominence for originating the title role in Broadway coming-of-age musical Dear Evan Hansen (2015–2017). His performance in the latter earned him multiple accolades, including a Tony, Daytime Emmy, and Grammy Award. At age 23, Platt became the youngest solo recipient of the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical for his performance in Dear Evan Hansen. Platt reprised the role of Evan Hansen in the 2021 film adaptation of the musical, produced by his father. He then played Leo Frank in the 2022 New York City Center Gala production of Parade, which transferred to Broadway in 2023 and earned him another nomination for the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical.
Dear Evan Hansen is a musical with music and lyrics by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, and a book by Steven Levenson. The musical follows Evan Hansen, a high school senior with social anxiety, "who invents an important role for himself in a tragedy that he did not earn".
The 71st Annual Tony Awards were held on June 11, 2017, to recognize achievement in Broadway productions during the 2016–17 season. The ceremony was held at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, and was broadcast live by CBS. Kevin Spacey served as host.
Rachel Bay Jones is an American actress and singer. She has played the roles of Catherine in the 2013 Broadway revival of Pippin and Evan Hansen's mother, Heidi Hansen, in Dear Evan Hansen. The latter earned her an Emmy Award, a Grammy Award, and the 2017 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical.
Dear Evan Hansen: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is the soundtrack album to the 2021 film of the same name, released on September 24, 2021, by Interscope Records. Based on the eponymous stage musical by Steven Levenson, Benj Pasek, and Justin Paul, the film is directed by Stephen Chbosky, with Levenson writing the screenplay and stars Ben Platt in the title role, reprising his role from the stage performance.
Dear Evan Hansen: Original Broadway Cast Recording is the cast album to the 2015 musical Dear Evan Hansen, with music and lyrics by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, and a book by Steven Levenson. The recording stars Ben Platt, Rachel Bay Jones, Laura Dreyfuss, Jennifer Laura Thompson, Michael Park, Mike Faist, Will Roland and Kristolyn Lloyd. The album was produced by Alex Lacamoire, Pasek and Paul, and featuring musicians include Rob Jost, Adele Stein, Justin Smith, Ben Cohn, Jamie Eblen, Dillon Kondor, Justin Goldner, Christopher Jahnke and Todd Low. The album was released by Atlantic Records on January 27, 2017, and featured at #8 on the Billboard 200, making the highest debut for a cast album after Camelot (1961). It also topped the Internet Albums chart. It further received the Best Musical Theater Album award at the 60th Annual Grammy Awards.
William Frederick Roland is an American actor and singer, best known for originating the role of Jared Kleinman in the Broadway musical Dear Evan Hansen, for which he received a Grammy and Daytime Emmy Award. On film, he is known for his role in the drama film One Penny. Most recently, he played the lead role of Jeremy Heere in the musical Be More Chill both off-Broadway and on Broadway.
Steven Levenson is an American playwright and television writer. He won the 2017 Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical for Dear Evan Hansen.
"Waving Through a Window" is the second song from Act 1 of the 2015 musical Dear Evan Hansen, which premiered on Broadway in 2016. Benj Pasek and Justin Paul wrote both the music and lyrics for the song, which serves as the main protagonist Evan Hansen's "I Want" song. It has since become the signature tune of the character, one of the musical's most famous songs and an anthem for those who have felt depressed and alone and show a desire for connection.
"You Will Be Found" is the Act 1 finale of the 2015 musical Dear Evan Hansen, which premiered on Broadway in 2016. Benj Pasek and Justin Paul wrote both the music and lyrics to the song.
Justin Goldner is an American music producer, songwriter, arranger and session musician based in New York City, originally from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
"Sincerely, Me" is a song from Act 1 of the 2015 musical Dear Evan Hansen, which premiered on Broadway in 2016. Benj Pasek and Justin Paul wrote both the music and lyrics to the song, whose title takes its name from the phrase with which the musical's main protagonist, Evan Hansen, ends his daily letters to himself.
"Only Us" is a song from Act 2 of the 2015 musical Dear Evan Hansen, which premiered on Broadway in 2016. Benj Pasek and Justin Paul wrote both the music and lyrics to the song.
Two soundtrack albums were released for the 2022 Christmas-themed musical comedy film Spirited: an original soundtrack and an original score. Republic Records released both the albums on November 18, 2022, the same day as the film’s release on Apple TV+. The soundtrack features original songs from the film written by the songwriting duo Benj Pasek and Justin Paul and performed by the ensemble cast members: Will Ferrell, Ryan Reynolds, Octavia Spencer, Sunita Mani, Tracy Morgan and Patrick Page. The second album features the motion picture score composed by Dominic Lewis.
Evan Hansen is the titular character and main protagonist of the Broadway musical Dear Evan Hansen by Steven Levenson, Benj Pasek and Justin Paul. A bullied 17-year-old high schooler with social anxiety and depression, who lives with his single mother Heidi Hansen after she divorced from his father Mark Hansen ten years before, he attempts to find the acceptance and love he has been lacking in his life. On his journey to be found, he discovers the consequences of risking it all for the chance to be heard.
