Josh Groban is an internationally renowned singer, songwriter, and actor whose baritone voice is instantly recognizable and unparalleled among his peers. He has entertained fans across the globe with his multiplatinum albums and DVDs (selling more than 30 million worldwide), electrifying live performances, and comedic film and television appearances. Groban is the only artist who has had two albums land on Billboard’s list of 20 best-sellers of the last 10 years.
The 36-year-old Los Angeles native first broke through in 2001 with his self-titled 5x platinum debut, followed by 2003’s 6x platinum Closer, and 2006’s double-platinum Awake. In 2007, he became the best-selling recording artist of the year thanks to sales of Awake and his blockbuster 6x platinum, Grammy-nominated Christmas album, Noel — the best-selling album of 2007. At the end of 2010, Groban released the Rick Rubin-produced, gold-certified Illuminations. All That Echoes followed in 2013, debuting at No. 1 on the Billboard Top 200 chart, Groban’s first No. 1 debut and third chart-topper. Gold-certified All That Echoes racked up a host of positive reviews from major media outlets, including The New York Times, Billboard, Rolling Stone, and USA Today. His global arena tours routinely sell out, including his 2013 All That Echoes tour, which included 60 shows in Australia, New Zealand, Europe, and North America.
In April 2016 Groban released his seventh studio album, Stages — a collection of some of the greatest musical theater songs of all time, which Groban describes as “gorgeously arranged songs that have stood the test of time,” and which he was drawn to because of their combination of “incredible melody with an incredible story.” Recorded with producers Humberto Gatica and Bernie Herms in both Los Angeles and London’s Abbey Road (with a 75-piece orchestra), Stages features songs from Les Misérables, Carousel, Sunday in the Park with George, Sweeney Todd, Into the Woods, The Fantasticks, A Chorus Line, Phantom of the Opera, and others. The gold-certified Stages was nominated for a 2016 Grammy Award for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album.
Groban also released a CD/DVD package, entitled Stages Live, featuring performances recorded at the historic Los Angeles Theater in downtown L.A. for a PBS special entitled Josh Groban: Stages Live. The album has been nominated for a 2017 Grammy Award for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album. Last July, Groban embarked on an extensive North American tour to support Stages, entitled “Josh Groban: On Stage.”
Also in 2016, Groban made his Broadway debut starring in the new musical Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812, which opened to glowing reviews. The New York Times raved that “Josh Groban is absolutely wonderful…he invests his singing with the pain and frustration that define Pierre. And his acting is superb, as he all but trembles with the existential despair that courses through Pierre’s veins.” Time Out NY said: “Josh Groban plays the melancholy Pierre with intensity and a simply ravishing voice.” The musical received 12 nominations at the 2017 Tony Awards, including a nomination for Groban for Best Lead Actor in a Musical.
As an actor, Groban has also appeared on Glee, The Simpsons, The Office, CSI: NY, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, The Crazy Ones, as well as in the feature films Crazy, Stupid, Love, Coffee Town, and Muppets Most Wanted. In 2015, he hosted ABC’s unique singing competition Rising Star. Groban is also a popular television talk-show guest, appearing in various late-night comedic sketches with Jimmy Kimmel, co-hosting Live With Regis and Kelly with Kelly Ripa, and paying tribute to Oprah Winfrey during the final week of her long-running show.
An active arts education philanthropist and advocate, Groban is a member of Americans for the Arts Artists Committee, on whose behalf he testified before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on the Interior on the value of the arts during Arts Advocacy Day in 2009. In July 2011, Groban established the Find Your Light Foundation, which helps enrich the lives of young people through arts, education, and cultural awareness. It covers a wide array of possibilities, from providing instruments and funding for arts programs in schools to introducing people to the arts and culture around them through the use of technology.