Lea Michele

Did you know?!

1. About the name

   Michele started going by her middle name as a last name when she was young. At her first audition, for Cosette in Les Miserables, she introduced herself as Lea Michele, saying she avoided her surname since people teased how it sounded.

2. Early training

   Michele trained at Stagedoor Manor, a performing arts camp, where she was in the touring troupe Our Time Cabaret and had to drop out of a production of Sweet Charity when she booked the workshop of Spring Awakening.

3. Big break

   From 2009 until 2015, Michele starred as Rachel Berry, the female lead and star singer, in Glee, a Fox musical comedy-drama. The show's co-creator Ryan Murphy wrote the role specifically for her.

4. A first

   Michele's song "Cannonball" entered the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 75, making her the first main Glee cast member whose song charted as a lead soloist.

5. A first

   In December 2010, Michele was given Billboard's first-ever Triple Threat Award, an honor the publication had never handed out before.