Alex Sharp

Early life and education

Sharp was born in Westminster, London, and was raised in Devon, England by his mother, a teacher, and his father, who worked in real estate. He has a sister, Nicole. His father retired at the age of 35 and the family traveled extensively until Alex was seven years old. His mother homeschooled him with both "rigorous and unorthodox" lessons. Upon his return to Devon, he was unable to adjust easily to a traditional school environment, and eventually left England at age 18.

Sharp wanted to be an actor from an early age. According to the Irish Mirror, his acting debut was at age 4 when he appeared in A Touch of Frost for 10 pounds. According to The Daily Beast, at age 7, he made his acting debut as Piglet in Winnie-the-Pooh. He performed in many school plays, building up to an amateur operetta role and pantomime. He also did extensive regional theater work at the Northcott Theater in Exeter. Sharp studied Performing Arts at Yeovil College in Yeovil, Somerset and attended Sidmouth College in Devon.

When the subprime mortgage crisis peaked, Sharp came to the United States and leveraged the housing market for quick profits with a friend. At times, he traveled to Latin America to pursue physical activities.

When working on a house in Connecticut, Sharp decided that he wanted to become an actor. He asked a friend what the best theatre schools were, and the friend told him Yale and Juilliard. Sharp decided on Juilliard due to its location in the middle of Manhattan, and he auditioned with a scene from Hamlet. Against school rules, he also performed a scene from a play that he had written, claiming that it was the work of a little-known English playwright. He was accepted to Juilliard and attended the Drama Division's Group 43, which included Wallis Currie-Wood. During his time at Juilliard, he wrote and directed a school play that was an adaptation of A Clockwork Orange. He graduated from Juilliard with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 2014.

Career

After graduating from the Juilliard School in the summer of 2014, he made his Broadway and acting debut in the play The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time in the autumn. For his role as the autistic teenager Christopher Boone, he was awarded the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play, Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Play, and the Outer Critics Circle Award. As of August 2015, he is the youngest winner of the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play. Sharp's final performance of Curious Incident was 13 September 2015.

He is set to star in an upcoming John Cameron Mitchell film, How to Talk to Girls at Parties, alongside Nicole Kidman, Elle Fanning, and Ruth Wilson.

Personal life

Since 2014, he has been in a relationship with Juilliard classmate, actress Wallis Currie-Wood.

Awards and nominations

In 2015, he broke Harvey Fierstein's record as the youngest winner of the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play. In addition to winning the Tony Award in 2015, he also won an Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Leading Actor in a Play, a Theatre World Award in recognition of his broadway debut. and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Play. He also received a nomination for the distinguished performance award at the 2015 Drama League Awards. In addition he was nominated for the 2015 Fred and Adele Astaire Awards Outstanding Male Dancer for his work in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. He also won the 2014 Logo TV NewNowNext Awards for Best New Broadway Lead Actor.