Grant Gustin

## Introduction:

Thomas **Grant Gustin** (born January 14, 1990) is an American actor, singer, and dancer. He is known for his role as Barry Allen / the Flash (based on the DC Comics character of the same name) on the CW series *The Flash* and *Arrow*, both in the Arrowverse television franchise, and his role as Sebastian Smythe on the Fox series *Glee*.

## Early life:

Thomas Grant Gustin was born in Norfolk, Virginia. He is the son of Tina Haney, a pediatric nurse, and Thomas Gustin, a college professor.[1][2] During his high school years, he attended the Governor's School for the Arts program in Norfolk for musical theater. He also went to Hurrah Players Incorporated which is a theater organization in Virginia. In 2008, he graduated from Granby High School and went on to attend the BFA Music Theater Program at Elon University in North Carolina for two years.[3] He has been friends with actor Chris Wood since college.

## Career

Gustin left school to take the role of Baby John in the Broadway Revival Tour of *West Side Story*, and performed with the tour from its opening on September 30, 2010, through September 23, 2011.[3][5][6]

On November 8, 2011, he debuted on the television series *Glee* as Sebastian Smythe, an openly gay member of the Dalton Academy Warblers.[3] Gustin won the recurring role of Sebastian, a promiscuous and scheming character, after "an exhaustive, weeks-long casting search". He originally auditioned for a role as a tap dancer, but did not get the part. However, Ryan Murphy kept him in mind.[7] He began filming the role early on Monday, September 26, 2011, after having finished his final *West Side Story* performance the Friday night [8] In January 2012, Naya Rivera (as her character Santana Lopez) and Gustin (as Smythe) performed "Smooth Criminal" as a duet in the season three episode "Michael", backed by musical duo 2Cellos. The song was filmed in a similar environment as the 2Cellos music video, in a room surrounded by empty chairs as the two musicians play. This cover debuted and peaked at number 26 at *Billboard* Hot 100, number 10 at *Billboard* Digital Songs, and number 28 at *Billboard* Canadian Hot 100 chart at the week of February 18, 2012.[9]

Gustin began filming *A Mother's Nightmare*, an original film for the Lifetime network, in late May 2012. The project also stars actresses Annabeth Gish and Jessica Lowndes, and was shot in West Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada.[10] On July 11, 2012, it was announced that Gustin had landed a major role in the independent film *Affluenza*.

On September 13, 2013, it was announced that Gustin would play Barry Allen in the second season of *Arrow*. He was initially supposed to appear in three episodes, the last one serving as the backdoor pilot for a potential spin-off *Flash* series.[12] However, the backdoor pilot plan was dropped in favor of a stand-alone pilot, titled *The Flash*.[13] The pilot was picked up with an initial order of thirteen episodes, and the series premiered on October 7, 2014, with 4.8 million viewers, the most for a premiere on The CW in five years.[14][15] Two weeks later, the network increased the episode order to a full season of twenty-three in all.[16] On January 11, 2015, the show was renewed for a second season.[17] On March 11, 2016, it was renewed for a third season. Gustin reprised his role in two episodes of the CBS (now CW) series *Supergirl*.

On March 30, 2016, it was announced that Gustin will star in William H. Macy's upcoming film *Krystal*

## Personal life:

In January 2016, Gustin began dating Andrea "LA" Thoma. The couple announced their engagement on April 29, 2017.