| Lucas Grabeel | |||||||||
| Birth Name: | Lucas Stephen Grabeel | ||||||||
| Birth Date: | 1984 11, mf=yes | ||||||||
| Birth Place: | Springfield, Missouri, U.S. | ||||||||
| Years Active: | 2004–present | ||||||||
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Lucas Stephen Grabeel (; born November 23, 1984) is an American actor, singer and songwriter. He is best known for his role as Ryan Evans in the High School Musical film series (2006–2008). His other film appearances include Halloweentown High (2004), Return to Halloweentown (2006), Alice Upside Down (2007), and The Adventures of Food Boy (2008). He appeared as a young Lex Luthor and Conner Kent in the superhero television series Smallville (2006–2011).
In 2011, Grabeel released his debut extended play, Sunshine, and began playing Toby Kennish in the ABC Freeform drama series Switched at Birth, appearing until 2017. He has also provided voice acting roles for various animated series, including Deputy Peck in Disney Junior's Sheriff Callie's Wild West (2014–2017), the title character in Netflix's Pinky Malinky (2019), and Kyle/Mist in My Adventures with Superman (2023).
Grabeel was born in Springfield, Missouri on November 23, 1984, the son of Jean and Stephen Grabeel.[1] Before transferring to and graduating from Kickapoo High School in Springfield in 2003, he attended Logan-Rogersville Elementary, Middle and High School. He also played drums for a local church and initiated a men's a cappella singing group at Kickapoo called No Treble. At school, he found passions in the guitar and the accordion while also enjoying dance. While in Rogersville, Missouri, he regularly attended Harmony Baptist Church, where he was a part of the children's and youth groups.[2]
In 2004, he starred in his first film role as Ethan Dolloway in the third installment of the Halloweentown series Halloweentown High. He reprised this role in the series' fourth installment Return to Halloweentown. Grabeel has made television guest appearances in TV series such as Boston Legal, 'Til Death, and Veronica Mars. On Smallville, he portrayed a young Lex Luthor. During these stints, Grabeel also worked a day job as a Blockbuster store clerk.
In 2006, he was cast in the role of Ryan Evans, the fraternal twin brother of Sharpay Evans (played by Ashley Tisdale), in the Disney movie High School Musical. He reprised his role in the television sequels High School Musical 2 and . In 2007, he joined co-stars Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Tisdale, Corbin Bleu and Monique Coleman on the 51-date . In early 2009, Billboard believed that Grabeel and Tisdale's track "I Want It All" should be nominated for an Oscar in the Best Original Song category however, the song did not make the final shortlist.[3] During his time in High School Musical, Grabeel (along with his co-stars) had a total of six tracks chart in the Billboard Hot 100.[4] [5] [6] [7]
He was the first artist to debut in the Billboard Hot 100 with two simultaneous new entries in one week.[8] While with Disney Channel, Grabeel also participated in the first ever Disney Channel Games and co-captained the green team along with Ashley Tisdale, Mitchel Musso, Miley Cyrus, Emily Osment and Kyle Massey. A year later, he returned to repeat his captaincy of the green team with Dylan Sprouse, Miley Cyrus, Monique Coleman and Brandon Baker. Other film projects Grabeel was involved with include the animated film, At Jesus' Side, where he voiced a dog named Jericho.[9] He also filmed the independent film, Alice Upside Down,[10] as the character of Lester McKinley, based on the "Alice book series" by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. Aside his involvement in the High School Musical soundtracks, Grabeel has recorded a song called "You Know I Will" for the soundtrack of The Fox and the Hound 2 and also recorded his own version of the Michael Bolton track "Go the Distance", from Disney's Hercules, for DisneyMania 5.
In 2007, Grabeel co-wrote and recorded a song called "You Got It"[11] which was released in the iTunes Store on August 19, 2007,[12] while its accompanying music video was released on his official website. Grabeel also recorded another original song called "Trash Talkin'" which was released November 15, 2008, on YouTube.[13] In 2008, he also appeared in the movie Milk, a biopic about the slain gay rights activist Harvey Milk. Grabeel played a friend and supporter of Milk, photographer Danny Nicoletta. He also appeared in the 2008 Walt Disney Pictures film College Road Trip as Scooter, which features other Disney stars Raven-Symoné, Brenda Song and Margo Harshman. He also stars in the independent movie Lock and Roll Forever alongside Oreskaband.[14] Grabeel also guest starred in an episode of The Cleveland Show.
Early in 2009, Grabeel was voted Most Likely to Do Big Things in 2009 by MTV and had an exclusive interview with them. He mentions the release of another music video for his track Get Your Ass On.[15] He also mentioned his latest movie project, The Legend of the Dancing Ninja, where he played the lead Tokyo Jones alongside David Hasselhoff.[16] In May 2009, he portrayed the role on stage of Matt in the Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones musical, The Fantasticks with Eric McCormack and Harry Groener at UCLA's Freud Playhouse.[17] Grabeel also sings in the iTunes show I Kissed a Vampire, in which, he stars. In early 2009, he appeared at the Southland Theatre Artists Goodwill Event (S.T.A.G.E.), an AIDS charity event, in Beverly Hills performing George and Ira Gershwin's "I Can't Be Bothered Now".[18] [19] He also recorded and released a new track titled '135n8' in early 2014 with the music video being uploaded to his YouTube account.
In 2011 he appeared in the 10th season of Smallville as Alexander Luthor / Conner Kent, a hybrid clone with Lex Luthor and Clark Kent's DNA. In 2007, he filmed the movie, The Adventures of Food Boy with Brittany Curran, as the lead, Ezra Chase. Since the summer of 2011, Grabeel has been starring in the ABC Family drama Switched at Birth, in which he plays the brother of one of the two girls that were mistakenly switched at birth in the hospital.[20] In March 2012, I Kissed A Vampire was released in the US, where Lucas stars alongside Drew Seeley and Adrian Slade.[21] In January 2014 he provided his first-ever voice over role for an animated series, Deputy Peck on Sheriff Callie's Wild West. He has also played the character of Gustav in Dragons: Defenders of Berk. In 2019, Grabeel appeared in as himself.
In 2007, Grabeel founded a production company called 14341 Productions. His role within involves overseeing many projects from writing to directing and executive producing. The company has produced projects such as the short films The Real Son, Smoke Break; the music videos for "Get Your Ass On" and "You Got It". They produced a television pilot called Regarding Beauregard which was Grabeel's directorial debut. They also created a 17-minute short film, Chuckle Boy, as well as a short film called The Dragon in 2009.[22] Their work debuted at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival.[23]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Dogg's Hamlet, Cahoot's Macbeth | Charlie / Gertrude / Ophelia | |
| 2007 | Alice Upside Down | Lester McKinley | |
| 2008 | The Real Son | Freddie Deasnman | Short film |
| Smoke Break | Sir Anthony Childsworth | Short film | |
| At Jesus Side | Jericho | Voice role | |
| Lock and Roll Forever | Donni | ||
| Ryan Evans | |||
| College Road Trip | Scooter | ||
| The Adventures of Food Boy | Ezra Chase | ||
| Milk | |||
| 2009 | Chuckle Boy | Daniel Aranyo | Short film |
| 2010 | The Legend of the Dancing Ninja | Nikki | |
| 2012 | I Kissed a Vampire | Dylan Knight | |
| 2013 | Chocolate Milk | Stan | Short film |
| 2014 | Gerrant | Voice role | |
| Pilot Season | Luc | Short film | |
| 2018 | Little Women | Laurie Lawrence | |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | Halloweentown High | Ethan Dalloway | Television film | |
| 2005 | Boston Legal | Jason Matheny | Episode: "The Ass Fat Jungle" | |
| 2006 | 'Til Death | Pete Pratt | Episode: "Pilot" | |
| 2006–2011 | Smallville | Young Lex Luthor / Alexander Luthor / Superboy / Kon-El | 3 episodes | |
| 2005–2006 | Veronica Mars | Wanna Score Boy / Kelly Kuzzio | Episodes: "Ahoy, Mateys!", "Versatile Toppings" | |
| 2006 | Return to Halloweentown | Ethan Dalloway | Television film | |
| High School Musical | Ryan Evans | Television film | ||
| 2007 | High School Musical 2 | Television film | ||
| 2009 | Glenn Martin DDS | Singer | Voice role; episode: "Deck the Malls" | |
| I Kissed a Vampire | Dylan | Main role | ||
| 2010 | The Cleveland Show | Nerd #2 | Voice role; episode: "Love Rollercoaster" | |
| 2010–present | Family Guy | Chadley / Various characters | Voice role; recurring role; 24 episodes | |
| 2010 | Guillermo Seidel | Episode: "Field Mice" | ||
| 2011 | Sharpay's Fabulous Adventure | Ryan Evans | Television film | |
| Special Agent Oso | Uncle Eric | Voice role; episode: "Snapfingers" | ||
| 2011–2017 | Switched at Birth | Toby Kennish | Main role | |
| 2012 | Robot Chicken | Justin Bieber | Voice role; episode: "Robot Chicken's ATM Christmas Special" | |
| 2013–2018 | DreamWorks Dragons | Gustav | Voice role; recurring role; 12 episodes | |
| 2013 | Pound Puppies | Percy | Voice role; episode: "Cuddle Up Buttercup" | |
| 2014–2017 | Sheriff Callie's Wild West[24] | Deputy Peck | Voice role; main role | |
| 2014 | Phineas and Ferb | Ropey-Face | Voice role; episode: "Doof 101" | |
| Chopped | Himself | Episode: "Chopped Tournament of Stars: Actors" | ||
| 2015 | Doraemon | Big G | Voice role; episode: "Big G's Big Show" | |
| 2016 | High School Musical: 10th Anniversary | Himself | Special | |
| 2016–2019 | Elena of Avalor | Jiku | Voice role; recurring role, 6 episodes | |
| 2017–2018 | Spirit Riding Free | Julian | Voice role; recurring role, 6 episodes | |
| 2019 | Pinky Malinky | Pinky Malinky | Voice role; main role | |
| 2019, 2023 | Himself | Episode: "The Tech Rehearsal" (season 1); Episode: "High School Musical 4" season 4 | ||
| 2020 | The Disney Family Singalong | Special | ||
| 2022 | Spirit Rangers | Chad | Voice role, episode: "Not Your Opossum Mascot/Prickly Pride"[25] | |
| 2023 | My Adventures with Superman | Kyle / Mist | Recurring role |
| Year | Peak chart positions | Album | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US [27] | AUS [28] | CAN [29] | UK [30] | ||||||||||||
| "You Got It"[31] | 2007 | — | — | — | — | ||||||||||
| "I Want It All" | --font-weight:normal;-->">(with Ashley Tisdale) | 2008 | 113 | 93 | 75 | 87 | High School Musical 3: Senior Year | ||||||||
| "135n8"[32] | 2014 | — | — | — | — | ||||||||||
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released in that territory. | |||||||||||||||
| Year | Peak chart positions | Album | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US | AUS | UK | |||||||||||||
| "What Time Is It?" (among the cast of High School Musical 2) | 2007 | 6 | 66 | 20 | High School Musical 2 | ||||||||||
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released in that territory. | |||||||||||||||
| Title | Year | Other artist(s) | Album |
|---|---|---|---|
| "You Know I Will" | 2006 | The Fox and the Hound 2 | |
| "Go the Distance" | 2007 | DisneyMania 5 | |
| "Jenny Got a Fever" | Alice Upside Down | ||
| "Gotta Rock" | |||
| "Let It Snow" | Disney Channel Holiday | ||
| "Baby" | 2011 | Sharpay's Fabulous Adventure | |
| "Just a Little Peck" | 2012 | Adrian Slade and Drew Seeley | I Kissed a Vampire |
| "Happily Afterlife" | |||
| "Outta My Head" | |||
| Year | Peak chart positions | Certifications | Album | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US | AUS [33] | CAN | UK [34] | |||||
| "Bop to the Top" (with Ashley Tisdale) | 2006 | 62 | — | — | 137 | High School Musical | ||
| "We're All in This Together" (among the cast of High School Musical) | 34 | — | — | 40 |
| |||
| "Fabulous" (with Ashley Tisdale) | 2007 | 76 | 91 | 63 | 64 | High School Musical 2 | ||
| "All for One" (among the cast of High School Musical 2) | 92 | — | — | 87 | ||||
| "A Night to Remember" (among the cast of High School Musical 3) | 2008 | — | 96 | — | 94 | High School Musical 3: Senior Year | ||
| "High School Musical" (among the cast of High School Musical 3) | — | — | — | 105 | ||||
| "—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory. | ||||||||
| Year | Award | Category | Work | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Teen Choice Awards | Choice Summer TV Star: Male | Switched at Birth | |
| 2013 | Choice TV Actor: Drama | |||
| 2014 |