John Cariani Biography

John Edward Cariani (born July 23, 1969) is an award-winning American actor and an accomplished playwright. Cariani is best known to television viewers as the unwavering forensic expert Julian Beck in Law & Order. On stage, he earned a Tony Award nomination for his role as Motel the Tailor in the 2004 Broadway revival of Fiddler on the Roof. As a playwright, he is best known for his first play, Almost, Maine, which has become one of the most frequently produced plays in the United States. He is currently starring in the Tony Award winning musical Something Rotten! as Nigel Bottom.

Early life

Born in Brockton, Massachusetts, Cariani was 8 when his family moved to Presque Isle, Maine.

He attended Presque Isle High School where he was active in the music and theater programs. After graduating in 1987, he attended Amherst College, where he was a member of the Zumbyes, Amherst's oldest a cappella group, and the Glee Club. After graduating from Amherst College in 1991 with a B. A. in history, he studied acting and directing at now defunct StageWest in Springfield, Massachusetts. He then moved to New York to pursue acting.

Acting career

Cariani spent his early years in New York working with the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, and acting in Off-Broadway plays, television commercials, and films.

His first break came in 1999 when he was cast in the Off-Broadway play It's My Party (And I'll Die if I Want To), starring F. Murray Abraham and Joyce Van Patten. In 2000 Cariani was cast in the independent film, Scotland, PA. In 2001 he had a small role in the independent hit, The Shaft and then played a villain in Warner Brothers' film Showtime. In 2002 he joined the cast of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, playing the role of forensic expert Julian Beck from 2002-2007.

In 2004 Cariani made his Broadway debut in a revival of Fiddler on the Roof, starring Alfred Molina. He won an Outer Critics Circle Award, Outstanding Featured Actor In A Musical, and a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actor in a Musical for his portrayal of Motel the tailor.

In 2009, Cariani joined the cast of the television show Numb3rs on CBS as physicist Otto Bahnoff.

From 2011-2012, he appeared in several sketches on IFC's Onion News Network, playing the role of "Michael Falk, Autistic Reporter."

In 2012 he starred opposite Ed Asner in the independent film Elephant Sighs. That same year, he guest-starred on the Showtime series, Homeland. In 2014 he had a guest starring role on The Good Wife, and later in the year played the role of "Zookeeper" in Sony Pictures Deliver Us From Evil.

In 2015, he originated the role of Nigel Bottom in the Broadway Musical Something Rotten!, which landed him a nomination for an Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical.

Playwriting

As a playwright, Cariani is best known for his first play, Almost, Maine which premiered at the Portland Stage Company in 2004 and became the company's most successful production to date garnering critical acclaim and breaking box office records. It was named "one of the ten must-see shows" in The Wall Street Journal's regional roundup for 2004/2005 regional theater season.

Almost, Maine opened Off-Broadway in 2006 at the Daryl Roth Theatre. Since then, Almost, Maine has become one of the most frequently produced plays, produced by over 2500 theater companies in North America to date. In 2014, The Washington Post reported that Almost, Maine had replaced Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream as the most frequently produced play in North American High Schools. Almost, Maine has also been translated into nearly 20 languages.

Cariani starred in the Transport Group's 2014 Off-Broadway revival of Almost, Maine. The production was named one of the ten best of 2014 by The Advocate, and was also recorded by the Theatre on Film and Tape Archive of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center.

Cariani's second play, cul-de-sac premiered Off-Broadway in April 2006 in a Transport Group production, with Cariani performing as Joe Jones. The New York Times described cul-de-sac as "charming, witty and macabre." The play is not yet published as Cariani is still working it; a production at High Point University is slated for Spring 2016.

Cariani's third play, Last Gas premiered at Portland Stage Company (Portland, Maine) in 2010. Cariani noted that " 'Almost, Maine' is almost a love letter to northern Maine and 'Last Gas' is a more realistic look at that part of the world." Last Gas became the biggest selling three-week run in Portland Stage Company's history. It has been described as "a bittersweet romance about two people who lack the courage to admit they love one another...it's an undeniable winner." The play ran at Opera House Arts, Stonington Opera House, Maine, in 2013 and at Geva Theatre Center in Rochester, New York in the winter of 2014. It was published by Dramatists Play Service in 2014.

Love/Sick is Cariani's most recent play. It premiered at High Point University in the fall of 2010, then was presented at the Portland Stage Company in the spring of 2013, and was produced by Hartford TheaterWorks in 2014. The play ran Off-Broadway in February 2015 at the Royal Family Performing Arts Space. It was recently performed by a High School for the first time by Fairfax High School.

Filmography

Film roles

Year	Film	Role	Notes
2001	Kissing Jessica Stein	Chuck
2001	Scotland, PA	Ed the 'not-too-bright' Cop
2001	The Shaft	Security Guard Gary
2002	Showtime	Charlie Hertz
2003	Robot Stories	Salesman
2004	The Reunion	Scott	Short
2004	Messengers	Derek the Cop
2008	High Street Plumbing	Big Boy	Short
2011	Certainty	Odd Interviewer
2011	Henry	Henry	Short
2012	Elephant Sighs	Joel
2013	Sleeping With The Fishes	Louis Belsky
2014	Deliver us from Evil	Zookeeper
2014	Child of Grace	Ollie
2015	Paper Dreams	Ethan

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2000	Ed	Howard Pissle	NBC, episode 1.2: "The World of Possibility"
2001	Big Apple	ER Doctor	CBS, Episode 1.7
2001-2003	Law & Order: Criminal Intent	Perry	NBC, 2 episodes
2002-2007	Law & Order	CSU Tech Beck	NBC, 26 episodes
2006	Six Degrees	Blogger	ABC
2009-2010	Numb3rs	Otto Bahnoff	CBS
2011	The Onion News Network	Michael Falk	IFC, 5 episodes
2012	Homeland	Jeff Ricker	Showtime, episode "The Choice"
2014	The Good Wife	Stuart	CBS
2016	The Blacklist	Aaron Mulgrew	NBC, episode "Drexel"

Stage appearances

Theatre

Start year	Production	Role	Notes
1997	As You Like It	Sylvius	Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival
1998	The Winter's Tale	The Clown
	Much Ado About Nothing	Verges
1999	Twelfth Night	Andrew Agucheek
	It's My Party	Ted	Arclight Theatre Company
2003	The Unrepeatable	Robert	The Lark
2004	Fiddler on the Roof	Motel	Broadway
2005	Modern Orthodox'	Hershel	Ars Nova
	Two Gentlemen of Verona	Speed	off-Broadway
2006	Cul-de-sac	Joe	Transport Group
2007	The Front Page	Mr. Pincus	Williamstown Theatre Festival
2009	Minsky's	Jason	The Ahmanson
	The Mystery of Irma Vep	Lord Edgar	The Old Globe Theatre
2011	Much Ado About Nothing	Dogberry
	The Tempest	Trinculo
2015	Love/Sick	Various	off-Broadway
	Something Rotten!	Nigel Bottom	Broadway

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Nominated Work	Result
2004	Tony Award	Best Featured Actor in a Musical	Fiddler on the Roof
	Outer Critics Circle Award	Best Featured Actor in a Musical
2015			Something Rotten!

Playwriting bibliography

Bibliography
Year	Title
2004	Almost, Maine
2006	cul-de-sac
2010	Last Gas
2012	Love/Sick