Unpacking The Glee Curse: Where Is The Cast Of Glee Now?
The hit NBC show Glee came to an end in 2015. The show made us laugh, it made us cry, and it made us sing along to a whole bunch of covers of our favorite songs. Some of the former Glee cast has gone on to do amazing things. I mean, look at Darren Criss. That guy just won every acting role you can possibly win. One actress even won their season of Dancing With The Stars. Others, however, didn't fare too well after Glee went off-air. Find out where all of your favorite stars went when Glee left the silver screen.
Lea Michele
After Glee ended Lea Michele released some successful studio albums, starred on Scream Queens, wrote a New York Times best-selling memoir, and oh yeah, she got engaged. Lea Michele is setting the date to marry her fiancé Zandy Reich, the president of the clothing brand AYR.
Lea Michelle got her start on Broadway and maybe she'll make her way back there someday- we can only hope. She's come a long way since her days as Rachel Berry.
Cory Monteith
What we're calling the Glee curse begins with the death of Cory Monteith. Monteith, who played Finn Hudson on the show, struggled with substance abuse issues for most of his life. While he was on Glee, he began a romantic relationship with Lea Michele and managed to get sober for a while.
Unfortunately, Cory died of a drug overdose in 2013. Glee was still airing at the time, and the show addressed the death of the character with a full episode dedicated to Finn and Cory.
Amber Riley
Amber Riley played Mercedes Jones on Glee. After the actress left Glee or at least stopped appearing on the show as a regular cast member, she joined the seventeenth season of Dancing with the Stars and won.
In January 2014, Riley and her sister Ashley launched a plus-size online clothing boutique called Rileyland Fashions. In 2015 she appeared in NBC's live presentation of The Wiz and in 2016 she recorded a bunch of songs for Todrick Hall's visual album Straight Outta Oz.
Dianna Agron
Dianna Agron has been pretty busy since Glee ended. She's mostly been involved with music video production and she even starred in one of Sam Smith's music videos.
In late 2015, she became engaged to Winston Marshall from the band Mumford & Sons. They got married on October 15, 2016, in Morocco. Dianna has also been involved in a bunch of humanitarian projects. She recently worked with the UN to help Syrian refugees in Europe.
Darren Criss
Darren Criss has been super busy since his stint on Glee ended. I would argue that he's had the most success post-Glee. For those of you who are hardcore Darren Criss fans, you already know that before Glee, Criss played Harry Potter in the Starkid production A Very Potter Musical. That video is YouTube gold and I highly recommend it.
Darren Criss recently played Andrew Cunanan in American Crime Story: The Assassination Of Gianni Versace. He won multiple awards for his performance including an Emmy, a Golden Globe, and a SAG Award.
Harry Shum Jr.
Harry Shum Jr. has taken on a few significant roles since he stopped playing Mike Chang on Glee. Perhaps his most significant role was that of Charlie Wu in Crazy Rich Asians. It looks like there's going to be a sequel to Crazy Rich Asians that features a romance between Charlie and Astrid.
Harry married his longtime partner, Shelby Rabara in 2015, and in 2018 the pair announced that they were expecting a baby girl.
Jonathan Groff
Jonathan Groff played Jesse St. James on Glee from 2010 to 2015. Jesse was a recurring character on the show, but not a series regular, so while Glee was still running, Jonathan was able to take on other projects. He provided the voice of Kristoff in Disney's hit film Frozen, and he had a small role in American Sniper.
Groff also played King George III in the original stage production of Hamilton.
Jenna Ushkowitz
After Glee ended, Jenna Ushkowitz appeared in several Broadway plays including Hair, Waitress, and The Wedding Singer. She's also appeared in a few small movies and in Katy Perry's "Swish Swish" music video.
In 2018 she won a Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical co-producing a show called Once On This Island. Jenna seems to be sticking to her Broadway roots and we're definitely not mad about it. This lady knows her way around a stage.
Blake Jenner
Since playing Ryder Lynn on Glee, Blake Jenner has had starring and supporting roles in Everybody Wants Some!!, The Edge of Seventeen, and American Animals.
Jenner got engaged to his former Glee co-star Melissa Benoist in 2013 and the couple reportedly married in 2015. However, that same year, Benoist said that they had been married "longer than anybody knows." Melissa filed for divorce in 2016 and the divorce was finalized in 2017.
Melissa Benoist
Speaking of Melissa Benoist, she's kept herself pretty busy since Glee ended. She appeared in the film Whiplash in 2014, and she's currently playing the titular character on CBS's Supergirl. In 2018 she made her Broadway debut as Carole King in the musical Beautiful.
Melissa is now engaged to her Supergirl co-star Chris Wood. The couple recently worked together on a website that aims to de-stigmatize mental illness and mental health issues.
Chris Colfer
Chris Colfer is best known for playing Kurt Hummel on Glee. After Glee, Chris went on to write, produce, and star in his own movie called Struck by Lightning. Chris also guest starred on a bunch of television shows including Hot in Cleveland and Ru Paul's Drag Race.
Christ is steadily moving along in his career, but we'd like to see him do something very big in the very near future.
Matthew Morrison
This list covers what Glee stars are doing now, but we need to take a trip down memory lane to talk about the fact that Matthew Morrison actually dated Lea Michele back when they were both on Broadway, years before Glee happened. Morrison is eight years older than Michele.
Matthew is now married to Renee Puente, and in 2017, Puente gave birth to the couple's first child. Since Glee, Matthew starred in a Broadway production of Finding Neverland and he was a guest star on Grey's Anatomy.
Heather Morris
After playing Brittany on Glee, Heather Morris competed on season 24 of Dancing with the Stars. She also appeared in the Netflix series GLOW and on the Disney Chanel series Raven's Home.
Heather has two children with her husband, Taylor Hubbell. They started dating when Taylor was a college basketball player. Before they got married, Heather told Fitness magazine, "I want to marry him so bad. That's what I really care about. I want to marry Taylor and have kids with him. I love acting, but if it affects my relationship, then I won't continue doing it."
Jane Lynch
As you probably know, legendary comedian Jane Lynch played principal Sue Sylvester on Glee. Lynch was involved in a lot of huge film and television projects before Glee, but since Glee, she hosted the NBC game show Hollywood Game Night, and she debuted a cabaret show with Kate Flannery from The Office called See Jane Sing.
Jane was married to clinical psychologist Lara Embry in 2010, but the two got divorced in 2014.
Chord Overstreet
Chord Overstreet is best known for playing Sam Evans of Glee. In 2016, after Glee ended, Chord released his first official solo single called "Homeland." At this point, Chord is working on putting out an EP.
He's also done some voice acting work since Glee ended. He's lent his voice to shows like Regular Show and Be Cool, Scooby-Doo! Hopefully, we'll be seeing some more music from Chord in the future.
Kevin McHale
Kevin McHale played Artie Abrams on Glee. From 2014 to 2016 he hosted the British panel show Virtually Famous on E4. McHale is currently one of the four hosts of Sick of My Own Voice on Dash Radio.
On April 19th, 2018, McHale confirmed on Twitter that he's gay. He's been dating actor Austin P. McKenzie since 2016. His Twitter account is now full of adorable pictures of the two of them together.
Josie Jay Totah
Josie Totah played Myron Muskovitz on Glee in 2015. At the time Josie went by J.J. and hadn't yet come out as trans. On August 20th, 2018, Josie wrote an article published in Time in which she came out as a transgender female.
Since Glee, Totah appeared in the film Other People. She also played the son of Mindy Kaling's character in the NBC comedy Champions. That show was canceled after a few months on the air.
Justin Prentice
Justin Prentice played Darrell on Glee. Darrell was Becky's boyfriend for a few episodes, and he taught us all a lesson about judging people too quickly. We all liked Darrell, but we definitely don't like Prentice's other character, Bryce Walker on 13 Reasons Why.
All we can say is that Bryce is not a very good person. We don't want to spoil anything for those of you who haven't seen 13 Reasons Why yet.
Becca Tobin
Becca Tobin played Kitty Wilde on Glee. After Glee, she was in a few made-for-TV films, and she co-hosts the podcast The Lady Gang. In October 2018, Ladygang premiered as a talk show on the E! network.
Becca got engaged to entrepreneur Zach Martin in May 2016. They were married in a private ceremony that was officiated by Tobin's Glee co-star Jane Lynch. You can actually watch their whole wedding on YouTube.
Vanessa Lengies
Vanessa Lengies is a Canadian actress who played Sugar Motta on Glee. At first,Sugar had a tin ear and couldn't sing at all, but she gradually got better and eventually joined the New Directions.
After Glee, Lengies was cast as Kacey, a bubbly cocktail waitress, in the sitcom Mixology, but ABC canceled the show after one season. She was later promoted to the main cast on FOX's 2016 drama Second Chance. Vanessa came out a queer, bisexual, and genderfluid on her own documentary miniseries in 2017.
Naya Rivera
Naya Rivera has taken on some small TV and movie roles since she played Santana on Glee. Her personal life has been a bit more eventful. Rivera started dating Big Sean in 2013. They got engaged that same year, but they ended their relationship in 2014.
In 2020, it was reported that Rivera had gone missing off the coast of Ventura and was presumed dead. Several days later, a body was recovered and was quickly confirmed to be her.
Alex Newell
Alex Newell played Wade "Unique" Adams on Glee. Since the show ended, Alex has built a pretty impressive music career. In 2017, Alex made their Broadway debut playing the role of Asaka in the revival of Once On This Island, a show that was produced by their Glee co-star Jenna Uskowitz.
For those of you who are confused, Alex Newell identifies as a cis gender-nonconforming person. They just like to dress in drag sometimes.
Jacob Artist
Jacob Artist is best known for playing Jake Puckerman on Glee. Since then, he's played Brandon Fletcher on Quantico, Todd Connors on American Horror Story: Roanoke, and Wes Blaker on The Arrangement.
Yes, his last name is actually Artist, so it seems to be fate that he launched his career in the entertainment industry. Jacob is close friends with Becca Tobin who played Kitty Wilde on Glee. She shows up in a lot of his Instagram pictures.
Idina Menzel
Idina Menzel played Rachel's biological mother, Shelby Corcoran on Glee. She was only on the show for a few episodes, but she really did make an impact. Idina Menzel is a huge Broadway star best known for her roles in Rent and Wicked.
After Glee, Idina went on to voice Elsa in Disney's Frozen. She also appeared in Rent: Live in 2019. There's a good chance we're going to keep seeing Idina on the Broadway stage for years to come.
Jayma Mays
Jayma Mays played Mr. Schu's love interest, Emma Pillsbury, on Glee. After Glee, she played Debbie in The Millers and she starred in a few episodes of Drunk History.
Mays met her husband Adam Campbell on the set of Epic Movie in 2006. In November 2016, she gave birth to their first son. We loved Jayma on Glee and we can't wait to see what else she does in the future.
Laura Dreyfuss
Laura Dreyfuss had a pretty small role on Glee. She played Madison McCarthy, the twin sister of Mason McCarthy. Madison and Mason had a very close relationship. Almost too close, some would say.
Laura would later go on to play Zoe in the hit Broadway musical Dear Evan Hansen. Laura originated the role of Zoe, and we've yet to see anyone play Zoe better than she can. The actress won a bunch of awards for her performance. Recently, Laura had a small role on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.
Jessalyn Gilsig
Jessalyn GIlsig played Terri Schuester on Glee, who is Mr. Will Schuester's ex-wife. Since appearing on the show, Jessalyn had a recurring role on Scandal and she played Siggy on the show Vikings.
Gilsig is Canadian and became an American citizen in 2013. We may have had issues with Terri on Glee, but surely Jessalyn is a wonderful person. It's probably safe to assume that she's a better person than Terri.
Dot-Marie Jones
Dot-Marie Jones played Coach Beiste on Glee. She was actually nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy for her portrayal of the character.
This bodybuilder-turned-actress has kept on acting since appearing on Glee. She's been in episodes of Two Broke Girls, Modern Family, Jane the Virgin, and American Horror Story: Cult. Jones is a lesbian and she married her partner Bridgett Casteen on December 21, 2013.
Mike O'Malley
Mike O'Malley played Kurt's father, Burt Hummel on Glee. O'Malley was a pretty prolific actor before the show, but after appearing in Glee he played Charles Porter in Sully and Daniel Sullivan in Concussion.
He's also been in episodes of Parenthood, Bojack Horseman, The Good Place, and Raising Hope. O'Malley now lives in Los Angeles with his wife Lisa and their three children: Fiona, Seamus and Declan.
Mark Salling
The Glee curse strikes again. While many of the actors on Glee went on to create meaningful and memorable art, Mark Salling went down a different path. In December of 2015, Salling was arrested for possessing some pretty awful things. In 2017, he pled guilty to that charge and faced four to seven years in prison.
Before Salling could be formally sentenced, he was found dead from an apparent suicide by hanging near his home.
