Vincent Pirillo

Vincent Pirillo was born in Newark, New Jersey and raised in Los Angeles. His passion for performing was fostered almost from the cradle. Vince’s father was a jazz drummer and singer and his mother a big band singer, one of jazz-great Mel Torme’s Meltones. From an early age, Vince was singing with his father’s band, but he soon found a love for classical music and musicals. His first major role was as the boy soprano Amahl in Menotti's Amahl and the Night Visitors in a local California State University production. His first professional job was as one of the “Kids of the Kingdom” at Disneyland. Since then he has performed major roles in over 45 productions on both sides of the Atlantic, often under the guidance of such world-class directors as Trevor Nunn, Hal Prince and Roman Polanski. After completing a Bachelor of Music degree at Mount St. Mary's College in Los Angeles, he played, among other roles, Magaldi in Evita and Gus in Cats in L.A. He made his West End debut as tenor Mario Lanza in Sammy Cahn - Words and Music (Duke of York’s). Thereafter followed roles in Phantom (M. Reyer) and Beauty and the Beast (M. D'Arque), Roman Polanski's Tanz der Vampire (Chagal) in Vienna and a European tour as The Russian in Chess. This was interspersed with an eight-year stint in Austrian and German opera houses (Schleswig-Holsteinisches Landestheater, Städtische Bühnen Osnabrück, tours with Junge Oper Wien and Wiener Ensemble Collage), singing leading operetta and lyric tenor roles (from Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus to Alfredo in La Traviata). Since moving permanently to the UK, he has appeared as Garrau in the West End's Napoleon, Cecil B. DeMille (understudy Max) in the First National Tour of Sunset Boulevard, Grandfather in Ragtime (Piccadilly), Daddy Warbucks in Annie (in Leatherhead and in Dubai), The Signalman in The Woman in White (Palace), the Rabbi (understudy Tevye) in Fiddler on the Roof (Savoy), another Rabbi (understudy Adolf and Daniel) in Imagine This (New London), Goodfellow (and a week as Rev Brown) in the Old Vic production of Inherit the Wind directed by Trevor Nunn and starring Kevin Spacey, was Pirelli cover in Sweeney Todd at the Chichester Festival Theatre, played opera tenor Ubaldo Piangi in the UK Tour of The Phantom of the Opera, Agent One in Knock, Knock (Theatre503), Papa Clairon in The Grand Tour (Finborough Theatre), Maraczek (understudy) in She Loves Me (Menier Chocolate Factory) and Grandpa Gellman in Caroline, or Change (Minerva, Hampstead and Playhouse Theatres). As a voice actor, he has guest-starred in two Doctor Who audio dramas – The Reaping and Macros, both starring Colin Baker as The Doctor, and voiced such video games as Starship Troopers and Sacred: Underworld (a dwarf and other voices), BBC Radio productions and adverts. Vince can currently be seen as the Security Guard in Men in Black: International.