Ramin Karimloo

Ramin Karimloo
Background information
Born	(1978-09-19) September 19, 1978
Origin	Tehran, Iran
Occupation(s)	Actor, Singer, Songwriter, Producer,
Spouse(s)	Mandy Karimloo
Website	www.raminofficial.com/us/home/

Ramin Karimloo (born September 19, 1978) 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. Ramin toured the UK during 2012 promoting his debut album "RAMIN".

Career

In Canada, Ramin moved to Richmond Hill from Peterborough and graduated from Alexander Mackenzie High School. 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, Ramin 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, Ramin took one of the lead roles, Raoul, 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, Christine's violinist father whom Christine believes has sent her an Angel of Music from the heavens after his death.

During the same period, Ramin also appeared in two concerts of Les Misérables (as Marius), and one of Jesus Christ Superstar (as Simon Zealotes, and a featured singer in "Superstar"), as well as being involved in several theatre workshops.

In 2004, Ramin went back 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. He also performed as Marius in 2004 at Powderham Castle with Nicholas Pound as Jean Valjean, Fred Johanson as Javert, Rebecca Thornhill as Fantine, Dianne Pilkington as Eponine, Jamie Farr as Cosette, David Bardsley as Enjolras, Tony Timberlake as Thenardier, and Rosie Ashe as Madame Thenardier.

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 (Marius and Éponine).

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. A Broadway production was considered, but never put into action.

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.

On October 3, 2010, Ramin 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. According to an interview in The Stage magazine (May 2011), this would be his last performance behind the mask, but has also stated in other interviews "never say never" and is not positive or willing to give a definitive answer.

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 is also now composing music in his band, Sheytoons, with Les Misérables co-star Hadley Fraser.

Ramin recently had a guest appearance in Warwick Davis' Life's Too Short as a Scientologist, directed by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant. This episode aired Dec 8, 2011.

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 Nicole Scherzinger, Ramin was joined by three other former Phantoms (Simon Bowman, Earl Carpenter and John Owen-Jones). The performance was aired on ITV1 on Wednesday, December 14, 2011. In 2013 Ramin performed along side Sierra Boggess and three other phantoms at the Broadway 25th Anniversary of Phantom of the Opera. He sung the title song and Music Of The Night.

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. He has been cast as the lead in 1066 Productions' UK/Canadian feature film Bad Town, scheduled to shoot in Quebec in 2012.

His new solo album, Ramin, was released by Sony Music Entertainment on April 9, 2012 in the UK. His new album was released in Canada and the US in August 2012. On January 27, 2013, Ramin joined John Owen-Jones, Peter Joback, and Hugh Panaro to sing the title song from the Phantom of the Opera with Sierra Boggess and "The Music of the Night" for the encore of Phantom's 25th Anniversary on Broadway. Starting in September 2013, Ramin will reprise the role of Jean Valjean in a Canadian tour of the newly staged Les Miserables

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.

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 will take 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. He is also visiting Toronto in his native Canada.

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.

Title	Album details	Chart positions
		UK
Ramin	Released: 9 April 2012 Label: Sony Music Formats: CD, digital download	16

Ramin has announced that he has started working on a second album. He has also announced that the songs "Losing" and "When Does It Go Away" will be on it.

External links

• Official site
• Ramin Karimloo at IMDb