Brooks Ashmanskas

Growing up in Oregon, Brooks Ashmanskas gravitated towards theater as he grew up, starring in high school performances and landing his first professional role in a regional performance of "A Chorus Line" in the mid-1980s. After going east to Bennington College, Ashmanskas wound up breaking into the Broadway scene, first in the role of Bud Frump in the Matthew Broderick-starring 1995 revival of "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying." He became a mainstay in the theater world, bouncing between regional tours and stints on Broadway. In the early 2000s, he was a part of "The Producers" from Mel Brooks and the 2003 revival of "Gypsy" starring Bernadette Peters. His first Tony Award buzz started with his comedic performance in "Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me" in 2006, where he was nominated for Best Featured Actor in a Musical.

As his notoriety increased, Ashmanskas popped up in a few screen roles for the first time in his career, first in a brief arc on "All My Children" (ABC/TOLN 1970-2013) and later in the movie "Julie & Julia" (2009) and the TV show "The Good Wife" (CBS 2009-2016). Broadway roles kept coming during that period, but nothing stuck, as he bounced around short runs of everything from "Promises, Promises" in 2010 to "Bullets Over Broadway" in 2014. He struck gold with the role of Barry Glickman in "The Prom" as he was nominated for the Tony for Best Actor and the show itself notched six nominations in total.