Ethan Slater

Ethan Samuel Slater was born on June 2, 1992, in Washington, D.C. He is the third child of Jay Slater, an employee at the Food and Drug Administration.^[1][2] He is Jewish and was raised Conservative, attending Ohr Kodesh in Silver Spring.^[3] After attending Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School, his family moved to Silver Spring, Maryland.^[4][5][6] Slater's mother died when he was seven, which he describes as a "really big, formative thing in my life. She had left this huge imprint on me, even though I had so few memories."^[7]

Slater graduated from Georgetown Day School in Washington, DC, and studied drama at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York. During his time in college, he auditioned to apprentice at a Shakespeare workshop, which then got him an audition in front of director Tina Landau.^[8] Slater graduated from Vassar with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Drama in 2014.^[9]

Slater's first theater appearance was at the New York Musical Theatre Festival in July 2015, in which he starred as Luis in the musical Claudio Quest, directed by John Tartaglia,^[10] earning a nomination for the festival's award in the category for Best Individual Performance.^[11] Between September 30 and October 24, 2015, he starred in Please Excuse my Dear Aunt Sally in the One Year Lease Theater Company.^[12] In December 2015 he joined the Delaware Theatre Company in Wilmington, acting in Barry Levinson's play Diner, directed and choreographed by Kathleen Marshall.^[13] During the same period he appeared in several short films, including Lightning Bugs in a Jar and Evol.

In 2016 Slater was cast in the lead role SpongeBob SquarePants in Kyle Jarrow's musical of the same name directed by Tina Landau at the Oriental Theatre in Chicago.^[14] The musical achieved success and was praised by theater critics, bringing the production to Broadway at the Palace Theatre in New York between 2017 and 2018.^[15][16] For his performance, Slater earned a Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in a Musical at the 72nd Tony Awards in 2018, winning Outstanding Actor in a Musical at the Drama Desk Awards and Outstanding Actor in a Musical at the Outer Critics Circle Awards. He is also awarded the Theatre World Award for Best Performance in a Broadway Debut in 2018.^[17][18]

Between 2018 and 2019 he appeared in a few episodes of television series, including Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Murphy Brown, Instinct, and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. On March 4, 2019, Slater was cast by director Bartlett Sher in the theatrical special of Camelot at the Lincoln Center Theater in New York.^[19] Between 2021 and 2022 he starred in the musical Assassins with the direction of John Doyle at the Lynn F. Angelson Theater in New York, playing Lee Harvey Oswald.^[20] His performance earned him a Lucille Lortel Awards nomination for Best Performance.^[21] From March to April 2022, Slater originated the role of Max Weinbaum in the play Good Night, Oscar at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago.^[22] From 2023 to 2024, he played the Historian, Prince Herbert, and other roles in the Broadway revival of Spamalot at the St. James Theatre.^[23][24][25] He played Boq Woodsman in the two-part film adaptation of the musical Wicked, directed by Jon M. Chu.^[26][27]

Slater began dating clinical psychologist Dr. Lilly Jay,^[28] his high school sweetheart, in 2012.^[29][30] They married in 2018.^[31] The couple separated in 2023 following the birth of their child, a boy, the previous year. Slater began a relationship with singer Ariana Grande in early 2023, whom he met on the set of Wicked, and filed for divorce from his then wife. In September 2024, it was reported that his divorce from Jay had been finalized.^[32][33]