Ramin Karimloo is an Iranian-born Canadian actor and singer recognised chiefly for his
work in London's West End. He has played leading male roles in both of the West End's longest
running musicals: the Phantom and Raoul in The Phantom of the Opera, and Jean Valjean,
Enjolras, and Marius in Les Misérables. He also originated the role of the Phantom in
Andrew Lloyd Webber's Love Never Dies, which continues the story of The Phantom of the
Opera. He made his Broadway debut as Valjean in the 2014 revival production of Les Misérables,
for which he received a Tony Award nomination.
Career In Canada, Ramin moved to Richmond Hill from
Peterborough and attended Alexander Mackenzie High School. After dropping out of school
at 18, he began his performing career in rock bands and various theatre projects before
moving on to perform in theatre companies for Airtours and P&O Cruises.
After moving to England, his first role was in a pantomime of Aladdin in Chatham, in which
he played the title role. Following this, in 2001, he went on to join the UK national
tour of The Pirates of Penzance, understudying and then playing the role of the Pirate King.
In 2002, he joined the national tour of Sunset Boulevard, playing Artie Green and covering
the role of Joe Gillis. Les Misérables was his West End debut; he played Feuilly and
understudied the roles of Marius and Enjolras. After this, in 2003, the artist took one of
the lead roles, Raoul Vicomte de Chagny, in The Phantom of the Opera. His final matinee
performance was filmed for use on a behind-the-scenes feature on the DVD of Joel Schumacher's The
Phantom of the Opera, a film in which he also appeared, in a cameo role as Gustave Daaé.
During the same period, Ramin also appeared in two concerts of Les Misérables, and one
of Jesus Christ Superstar, as well as being involved in several theatre workshops.
In 2004, Ramin returned to Les Misérables, this time taking on the role of Enjolras.
In the December of that year, he appeared in a concert of Les Misérables at Windsor
Castle, in honour of the French president Jacques Chirac. Excerpts from this were shown
on Easter Sunday 2005, in a behind-the-scenes documentary about Windsor Castle.
In June 2005, Ramin joined the UK national tour of Miss Saigon, playing the role of Christopher
Scott. He appeared in the West End production of The Phantom of the Opera, this time as
the Phantom, starting in September 2007. He was the show's 21st anniversary Phantom. He
brought a new interpretation to the role and a vitality which was recognized by fans of
the show as it earned him a Theatregoers' Choice Award Nomination for Best Actor in
a Take Over Role. Ramin has also released an EP, Within the
Six Square Inch, on which he duets with Hadley Fraser and Sophia Ragavelas, both of whom
he had already appeared with in Les Misérables. In July 2008, he was asked to take part in
the Sydmonton Festival and was the first actor to play The Phantom in the workshop presentation
of Love Never Dies. It was the first act to the sequel of The Phantom of the Opera. It
was confirmed he would play the role alongside Sierra Boggess when the sequel opened in London,
England, March 2010. In 2008 Ramin recorded a song, "I Only Wish
for You", with Shona Lindsay and Dianne Pilkington, for the CD Songs from the Musicals of Alexander
S. Bermange, an album of 20 brand new recordings by 26 West End stars, released in November
2008 on Dress Circle Records. In 2009 he was asked to take part in the recording
of new musical album called Bluebird, by Gareth Peter Dicks. Bluebird is a dramatic WW2 musical,
in which he plays the part of US serviceman Ben Breagan. He appeared along with a host
of West End stars. The 24-track album was released in four countries in September 2009.
Ramin's last regular performance in The Phantom of the Opera took place on November 7, 2009.
He moved on to playing the Phantom in Andrew Lloyd Webber's sequel, Love Never Dies, alongside
Sierra Boggess, performing the role until the show closed on August 27, 2011. During
the show, Ramin and Sierra coined the term "Rierra."
On October 3, 2010, he played the role of Enjolras in the 25th Anniversary Concert of
Les Misérables at The O2 Arena in London. In 2011, Ramin sang Andrew Lloyd Webber's
"Music of the Night" from The Phantom of the Opera at the Miss World Competition, which
took place in London. On October 1 and 2, 2011, he played The Phantom
for three performances alongside Love Never Dies co-star Sierra Boggess as Christine Daaé
in the unique 25th anniversary production of The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert
Hall and was streamed live to cinemas across the world and later released on DVD and Blu-ray
worldwide. Karimloo has also starred in many short independent
films such as The Flipside, The Rope, and The Rain
From November 29, 2011 to March 31, 2012, Ramin returned to Les Misérables, to play
the lead role of Jean Valjean at The Queen's Theatre, London, for which he won the 2013
Theatregoers' Choice Award for Best Takeover in a Role.
Ramin recently had a guest appearance in Warwick Davis's BBC2 comedy Life's Too Short as a
Scientologist. This episode aired Dec 8, 2011. He has also had a recurring role in The Spa
on Sky in the United Kingdom. As part of the 25th anniversary of The Phantom
of the Opera, Ramin performed the title song at The Royal Variety Performance - held in
The Lowry, Manchester - on Monday, December 5, 2011. Performing alongside Pussycat Dolls'
lead singer Nicole Scherzinger, Ramin was joined by three other former Phantoms. The
performance was aired on ITV1 on Wednesday, December 14, 2011.
Ramin can also be found on The Music Box album as a hidden track. The song is from the musical
Bluebird by Gareth Peter Dicks and is a short acoustic version of a track from the album
of the same name. His solo album, Ramin, was released by Sony
Music Entertainment on April 9, 2012 in the UK. The album was released in Canada and the
US in August 2012. On January 26, 2013, Ramin joined John Owen-Jones,
Peter Joback, Colm Wilkinson, and Anthony Warlow to sing the title song from Phantom
with Sierra Boggess and Sarah Brightman and "The Music of the Night" for the encore of
Phantom's 25th Anniversary on Broadway. He also played a small role in the action film
Vendetta. Ramin played Valjean in the Canadian production
of the newly staged Les Misérables, which opened in September 2013.
Ramin is currently once again playing the role of Jean Valjean in the 2014 Broadway
revival of "Les Misérables", making his Broadway debut, and was nominated for the Tony for
Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical.
Awards Ramin won the Best Actor award for the Broadwayworld.com
awards in 2010 for his portrayal of The Phantom in Love Never Dies. He was also nominated
for the Best Actor category for the Viewers' Choice Theatre Awards at Whatsonstage.com
in 2011. On February 7, 2011, Ramin was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor
in a Musical. Love Never Dies received seven nominations.
On February 20, 2011, Ramin won the Theatregoers' Choice Award for Best Actor in a Musical for
his performance in Love Never Dies. On February 17, 2013, Ramin won the Theatregoers'
Choice Award for Best Takeover in a Role for his performance as Jean Valjean in Les Miserables.
On April 23, 2014, Ramin received a nomination for the Drama League Award for Distinguished
Performance. On April 29, 2014, Ramin was announced as
a Tony Award nominee for Best Performance by an Leading Actor in a Musical for his performance
in the 2014 Broadway revival of Les Miserables. On May 6, 2014, it was announced that Ramin
would be receiving a Theatre World Award for his Broadway debut in Les Miserables.
On June 2, 2014, he received a Dora Award nomination for Outstanding Male Performance
in a Musical for his performance in the 2013 Toronto revival of Les Miserables.
Discography Albums
Ramin released his album Ramin in the UK on April 9, 2012 after several months of promotion.
He ended his West End run as Jean Valjean on the week preceding the album's release
in order to prepare for a series of signings and further promotion before embarking on
a major tour which took him to venues in Glasgow, London, Oxford, Southend, Manchester, Nottingham,
Birmingham, Gateshead, and Cardiff in the UK and New York, Charlotte, Atlanta, Philadelphia,
Washington, Bethlehem, Chicago, and Pittsburgh in the US. His one Canadian stop was in Brampton,
Ontario, a suburb of Toronto. There were no Canadian dates on his second North American
tour. Ramin said in anticipation of the album: "I
have a huge love for country and bluegrass, I love rock 'n' roll and I love what I'm doing,
so it was how to balance all that". He went on to say, "I didn't want to be just a theatre
star putting out an album. It was only when they started talking about writing and bringing
in other writers that I got interested. I wanted to have lived the songs. I wanted an
album that was like a diary." He has cited influences as diverse as The
Tragically Hip, Johnny Cash and Mumford and Sons, and so a straightforward West End leading
man album of covers was never really on the cards, says Ramin, "I wanted to marry that
rocky sound with things that people know me more for".
The album Ramin was produced by Tom Nichols, who has worked with vocalists from Céline
Dion to Hayley Westenra. It includes both his own compositions but covers of Bryan Adams
and Muse songs and his own take on "Music of the Night" from The Phantom of the Opera
and "'Til I Hear You Sing" from Love Never Dies.
In August 2013, it was announced that Ramin has left Sony Records and signed with UK-based
Big Hand Recordings Ramin has co-written a song called "Why Am
I Falling" with composers Daniel and Laura Curtis for the BBC Children in Need 2013 appeal.
In March 2014, Ramin released an EP called "The Road to Find Out: East". It has four
tracks which are: "Oh, What A Beautiful Morning" from the musical "Oklahoma", "Losing" which
he and Hadley Fraser wrote for their band, Sheytoons, "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables"
from the musical "Les Misérables" and "Broken" which is another Sheytoons song that he and
Hadley Fraser wrote. References
^ a b Winer, Linda. "'Les Misérables' review: Smartly cast". Newsday. Retrieved March 24,
2013. ^ a b 2014 Tony Award Nominations - The Complete
List; A GENTLEMAN'S GUIDE Leads With 10! broadwayworld.com, Retrieved April 30, 2014
^ iTunes: Act One: Songs from the Musicals of Alexander S. Bermange
^ Gareth Peter Dicks ^ [1]
^ [2] ^ Rehearsals for the Royal Variety Performance
^ [3] ^ Prepare the Barricades! Ramin Karimloo,
Will Swenson, Caissie Levy & Nikki M. James to Lead Les Miserables on Broadway broadway.com,
Retrieved October 28, 2013 ^ BBC News: Love Never Dies Leads Olivier
Nominations ^ 2014 Drama League Nominations Announced
broadway.com, Retrieved May 16, 2014 ^ Breaking News - 2014 Theatre World Award
Winners Announced - Cordero, Cranston, Hall, Karimloo, Plummer, Keenan-Bolger & More! broadwayworld,
retrieved May 6, 2014 ^ Ramin Karimloo Receives Toronto Dora Award
Nomination; LES MISERABLES Earns a Total of 11 Nominations broadwayworld.com, Retrieved
June 2, 2014 External links
Official site Ramin Karimloo at the Internet Broadway Database
Ramin Karimloo at the Internet Movie Database