Emmy-nominated actor, producer, director, and host Michael Urie is sure to enjoy a never-ending run on his proverbial 15 minutes of fame, with his ever-flourishing work on stage, screen, and behind-the-scenes. On Broadway, Urie is currently appearing in Oh, Mary! (through September 28) as Mary Lincoln’s teacher, and recently starred as Prince Dauntless in Once Upon a Mattress, for which he earned a Drama Desk Award and was nominated for an Outer Critics Award. Equally well-known for his groundbreaking role as Marc St. James on the ABC TV series Ugly Betty, Urie can now be seen in the first two seasons of the award-winning AppleTV+ dramedy series Shrinking, for which he was nominated for a 2025 Emmy and earned the 2025 Critics’ Choice Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series.
For his acclaimed work Off-Broadway, Urie has won an Obie, three Drama Desk, and two Lucille Lortel Awards. He most recently appeared Off-Broadway as William Shakespeare in Jane Anger, played more than six hundred performances in the solo comedy Buyer & Cellar, and at the beginning of 2020, during the early days of the Covid pandemic, put on a livestream performance of the play from his living room, raising nearly $300,000 for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. His other acclaimed Broadway credits include the revival of the Monty Python musical comedy Spamalot, Chicken & Biscuits, the Tony-nominated revival of Torch Song, Grand Horizons, and the revival of How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. In addition to his acting, he directed Bright Colors and Bold Patterns and produced Happy Birthday Doug, both written and performed by Drew Droege and captured for BroadwayHD, and is the co-founder of Pride Plays, which celebrates and elevates LGBTQIA+ voices in the theater.
Urie, a longtime artistic collaborator of Red Bull Theater, will soon take the stage as the titular lead in the company’s limited Off-Broadway engagement of a powerful new version of Shakespeare’s Richard II, adapted and directed by Craig Baldwin and set in 1980s Manhattan. Performances are scheduled to begin on Tuesday October 28, with opening night set for Monday, November 10.
While preparing for his upcoming role, Michael graciously made time in his non-stop schedule to answer our quick questions about himself and his career.
1. What is it about Shakespeare?
Michael: 400 years ago, he wrote about us. Sure, he wrote about wood nymphs and ghosts and English Kings and Roman Emperors, but inside all of those plays are characters who tick the way we tick. His characters may have bigger problems than we have, and they may not talk like we talk – but we are made of the same stuff and at our core have the same humanity.
2. What do you find most relatable about your character?
Richard and I are both lousy with money.
3. What three emotions do you feel when you first step onto the stage?
Euphoria, comfort, anticipation.
4. What’s the most fabulous thing about performing live?
The surprise; the audience does not know what we’re about to do. Even if they think they do or have seen it before, they can never know quite how this performance will go.
5. What’s the most memorable reaction you’ve ever gotten from an audience member?
The reactions we get in Oh, Mary! are chock full of that kind of giddy surprise, the roar of laughter at something they just did not see coming. But, the best was probably when I was in Romeo and Juliet at the Folger (circa 2005, I think). We were doing a very cool version, messy, with a modern sensibility, and playing it very lightly until it got violent. I was Mercutio and got lots of laughs, and after the fight with Tybalt when I am wounded, we really played it off as a scratch that very suddenly turned bad and I bled out and died quickly. It went from raucous fun to horrible tragedy in a matter of seconds – super thrilling. We did some student matinees for local high schoolers, and I’ll never forget a performance where we had them in the palm of our hands – laughing and squealing and cheering – and then when I died . . . I swear they didn’t know it was coming. They freaked out, devastated. That was awesome.
6. Which do you find more challenging, stage or screen, drama or comedy?
Doing drama on camera is probably the most challenging for me because you’re very often not in control of the environment and don’t get much, if any, rehearsal, and I find authentically showing pain or sadness for the camera (which doesn’t lie) takes a lot of focus.
7. What’s your first creative memory?
When I was nine years old, Tim Burton’s Batman came out and blew my mind. At that point, the campy old 1960s Batman was playing regularly on TV (Pow! Zoom!) and I loved it. I also loved Pee Wee’s Big Adventure and Beetlejuice (both by Burton). In Batman, here was Michael Keaton (aka Beetlejuice!) in a movie directed by Beetlejuice and Pee Wee director – and none of these projects were remotely similar (sure, you could argue commonalities but still!). I was nine and suddenly understood versatility and knew that’s what I wanted to do. It didn’t hurt that my dad looked like Jack Nicholson, who played The Joker.
8. Who’s been the biggest inspiration in your career?
Gosh, that’s tough . . . I mean the aforementioned Tim Burton certainly jumpstarted my early ambitions, and I would still watch Keaton and Nicholson do anything . . . But credit for credit, milestone for milestone, Kevin Kline has to be the actor I’ve most admired and hoped to emulate.
9. Is there a dream role or show you’d like to play in the future?
I mean, Richard was certainly on that bucket list. There are lots of Shakespeare roles I still wanna tackle (Leontes, Bottom, Malvolio, Benedict). Getting to do a new hit (and queer) comedy on Broadway like Oh, Mary! is something I would love to do again.
10. What three things do you always have in your dressing room?
A record player and selection of LPs, a table runner my mom made, and Celsius.
11. What three things do you always carry with you?
Listerine strips/spray, extra contact lenses, and deodorant.
12. What three words would you use to describe yourself?
Lucky, curious, relentless.
13. What do you do for fun when you’re not working?
Work is fun! But Ryan [Spahn, Michael’s partner] and I love to go to special “sight unseen” movies at AMC where we have no idea what movie we’re seeing.
14. What do you love most about NYC?
It’s impossible to be bored.
15. What’s the best thing about being famous?
OMG, haha! When I moved to LA to start work on Ugly Betty, I had no car and no money. A car dealership laughed at me when I tried to buy a car, so I asked them to go to ABC.com/uglybetty and I promised that I was the gay guy standing next to Vanessa Williams. And I got financing! In work, it’s being able to skip some of the crappy steps you have to climb as an actor. Usually if I’m up for a job, I’m already vetted and I’m REALLY in consideration.
Thanks, Michael, for sharing a fabulous 15 minutes with us; I can’t wait to see you in Richard II!
Richard II plays Tuesday, October 28-Sunday, November 30, 2025, at Red Bull Theatre, performing at the Astor Place Theatre, 434 Lafayette Street, NYC. For tickets (starting at $49), go online.
