Mark Janicello
1962– · American singer, actor, producer and writer
Mark Janicello (born November 3, 1962, in Brooklyn) is an American singer, actor, producer and writer who lives in Berlin. He began his career in the mid-1980s singing in the New York City subways as part of the MTA's Music Under New York program. In 1990 the conductor Eve Queler heard him and engaged him for Donizetti's Roberto Devereux, with which he made his Carnegie Hall debut.
In 1992 he won the KFC Musical Feast competition, a nationwide contest sponsored by Kentucky Fried Chicken, and its $15,000 first prize. That success led to his role as Elvis Presley in Elvis: A Musical Biography, produced by the Stadttheater Klagenfurt in 1997 and toured through German-speaking theatres. He later wrote his own musicals, including The Chamelon Concert and Be My Love: The Mario Lanza Musical, and in 2001 he wrote the book and lyrics for Charlie. He has also performed in operettas, such as Lehár's The Merry Widow.
Since 2016 he has written, produced and starred in The Finellis, a comedy that began as a television project, was released as a film in 2022 and was adapted into a stage musical that premiered in London in 2024. He published his autobiography, Naked in the Spotlight, in 2011, which addresses his years in Scientology. Since 2018 he has worked as a critic for BroadwayWorld.com.