Who Will Play Debra Messing's Gay Co-Star in "Smash?" Meet Christian Borle!

Christian Borle with Laura Bell Bundy on the opening night of Legally Blonde: The Musical

Well, that was quick! Soon after we posted about the NBC pilot Smash, and wondered who would play the gay male lead opposite Debra Messing, word came down that the character of Tom has been cast.

Deadline Hollywood is reporting that Broadway actor Christian Borle will play the "lovely, brilliant, volatile" composer who is also the work partner of Messing's character Julia.

Naturally, we devoured all the info we could get about Christian (well, we looked on Wikipedia), and here's what we found:

He played Emmett Forrest in Legally Blonde, for which he was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical.

In 2003 he replaced Gavin Creel in the role of Jimmy in Thoroughly Modern Millie.

Borle's most notable credit is Monty Python's Spamalot, in which he played a number of roles, including Prince Herbert and the Historian. His performance earned him a 2005 Drama Desk Award nomination as Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical and a Broadway.com Audience Award as Favorite Featured Actor in a Musical.

On television, Borle was featured prominently in a television commercial in which he danced and sang the praises of eBay.

Wait ... what? Oh that's right, he's this guy!

Most notably, Christian played Prior Walter in Signature Theatre Company's 20th Anniversary production of Tony Kushner's Angels in America.

Christian with Zachary Quinto in the Off-Broadway production of Angels in America (Pic - Joan Marcus)

We don't know much about Christian's private life other than he was married to fellow Broadway star Sutton Foster (who played Fiona in Shrek: The Musical) for three years until their divorce in 2009.

What do you think of this casting? Are you glad they went with a TV unknown, or would you rather they had gone with someone more recognizable?

On the next page you can see a few more pics of Christian from his stage successes.