Out100: Andrew Rannells

Photography by M. Sharkey

Andrew Rannells has had a very good year. After capping 2011 with a Tony nomination for Best Leading Actor in a Musical for the Broadway blockbuster The Book of Mormon, he scored key roles in two new TV shows this year -- NBC's The New Normal, directed by Ryan Murphy, and HBO's generational touchstone, Girls, with Lena Dunham. In both shows, Rannells plays a droll, self-assured "salami smoker," to use Ellen Barkin's delicious pejorative in the opening episode of The New Normal. He also appeared in Leslye Headland's darkly comic indie flick, Bachelorette, with Kirsten Dunst and Rebel Wilson.

"I feel very proud to be a part of The New Normal," Rannells says. "I hope that it's considered to be a part of the evolution of gay relationships on television. Coming from Nebraska, it's exciting to me that people I went to grade school with, people that I grew up going to church with, are watching the show."

Photographed at the Chamberlain Hotel in West Hollywood, Calif., on October 6, 2012

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