John Gallagher Jr.

John Gallagher Jr. is best known for stage and screen work, but music has run alongside it for most of his life. Born in 1984 and raised in Wilmington, Delaware, he played in bands as a teenager before moving to New York to act. His solo songs are raw, honest and heartfelt, taking cues from John Prine, Bruce Springsteen, Paul Westerberg and Adam Schlesinger. He usually performs alone with a Gibson J-45, and his music has been described as emo folk rock.

His breakthrough came as Moritz Stiefel in Duncan Sheik's Spring Awakening, which opened on Broadway in December 2006 and won him a Tony for Best Featured Actor in a Musical. He later played Johnny in Green Day's American Idiot and starred in Swept Away, a musical built on songs by The Avett Brothers. On screen he has played Jim Harper in Aaron Sorkin's The Newsroom and has starred in Short Term 12 and 10 Cloverfield Lane. His debut album, Six Day Hurricane, came out in January 2016 under the name Johnny Gallagher, recorded in Brooklyn over six days during Hurricane Sandy.