Paul Iacono Biography
Paul Iacono is an american actor. He is best known for playing “RJ Berger” in the MTV scripted series “The Hard Times of RJ Berger”. His improvisational and singing talents were praised by Will & Grace star Megan Mullally after the two acted together in the 2009 film “Fame“.
Paul Iacono Age
He was born on September 7, 1988 and is currently 30 years old as of 2018. His zodiac sign is Virgo.
Paul Iacono Height|Weight
Paul is 5 feet and 6 inches tall And weighs about 68 Kgs.
Paul Iacono Early Life|Education
Iacono was born in Secaucus, New Jersey, to Italian American parents Michele and Anthony Iacono, a Town administrator. He has a younger brother, who works as DJ in New Jersey, and a sister, from his Dad’s second marriage. Iacono went to Professional Performing Arts School in New York, with friend and Fame co-star Paul McGill. He graduated in 2006.
Paul Iacono Career
Paul first gained wide notice for his numerous appearances on TV’s The Rosie O’Donnell Show after Rosie O’Donnell discovered his unique talents for impersonating Frank Sinatra and Ethel Merman, at age 8.
Starting out as child actor in the NYC theater scene, Paul has appeared in over 100 theatrical productions. He has shared the stage with such greats as Mickey Rooney in The Wizard of Oz and Stephanie Mills in the original “Paper Mill Playhouse” production of Stephen Schwartz’s Children of Eden. Iacono can be heard on the original cast recording. Other theatrical credits include Mame with Christine Ebersole, Noël Coward’s Sail Away with Elaine Stritch and Marian Seldes, and John Guare’s Landscape of the Body, with Lili Taylor and Sherie Rene Scott.
Paul’s film career includes the MGM’s remake of “Fame”, “No God, No Master” with David Strathairn, and Darren Stein’s teen comedy, “G.B.F.”. Other films include Drew Barrymore’s, “Animal”, “Rhymes with Banana” with Zosia Mamet and Judith Light, and “Unreachable by Conventional Means,” with Alexandra Daddario and Tovah Feldshuh. According to Entertainment Weekly, co-star Megan Mullally gave Iacono high praise for his improvisational acting and singing skills.
Iacono appears in an Adidas commercial featuring rapper Bobby Ray “B.o.B” Simmons Jr and also appears in Bobby Ray’s Music Video “Magic”, featuring Rivers Cuomo.
As a creator, Paul wrote and produced the NY play, “Prince/Elizabeth”, and is in development on his second pilot, “GIFted”.
Paul Iacono Net Worth
Paul has an estimated net worth of 4.6 million dollars as of 2019.
Paul Iacono Boyfriend
Paul is actually gay and and is currently dating Mason Amelotte from the Columbia University.
Paul Iacono Fame
Paul plays “Neil Baczynsky” in”Fame”. The film follows talented high school students attending The High School of Performing Arts in New York City (known today as Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School), where students get specialized training that often leads to success in the entertainment industry. Exterior shots of the Performing Arts school are of the Professional Performing Arts School or PPAS on West 48th Street and not the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School on 100 Amsterdam Avenue behind the Lincoln Center.
Paul Iacono Rj Berger
He portrays the main character of the film “Rj Berger”. An unpopular sophomore at the fictional Pinkerton High School in Ohio who is macro phallically-endowed. Berger’s two best friends are Miles Jenner (Jareb Dauplaise), whose ambitions for popularity cause him to clash with Berger, and goth girl Lily Miran (Kara Taitz), who has been lusting after Berger for several years. Berger’s love interest is Jenny Swanson (Amber Lancaster), a cheerleader who is involved with Max Owens (Jayson Blair), a popular jock and bully. The show is presented as a coming of age story and has been described by Katzenberg and Grahame-Smith as a blend of the television series The Wonder Years and the film Superbad.
Paul Iacono Sickness
At eight years old, Iacono was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. He soon began receiving chemotherapy treatments and has been in remission since he was eleven years old.
Paul Iacono Movies and TV Shows
Movies (2004-2014)
- Winter Solstice
- Shakes
- Glow Ropes: The Rise and Fall of a Bar Mitzvah Emcee
- Return to Sleepaway Camp
- Fame
- Consent
- Mac & Devin Go to High School
- No God, No Master
- Rhymes with Banana
- G.B.F.
- The Bad Guys
- Animal
TV Shows (2000-2014)
- Dora the Explorer
- The Naked Brothers Band: The Movie
- Human Giant
- The Hard Times of RJ Berger
- Chozen
Paul Iacono Instagram
Paul Iacono Twitter
Tweets by iacono_paul
Paul Iacono Interview
“Interview with Gerry Visco on interview magazine”
GERRYVISCO: Is the film G.B.F. indicative in a change in the attitudes of young people about being gay?
PAULIACONO: I think the film is already a little bit outdated. For gay kids, coming out is not what it used to be. Most younger gay guys that I know never had to formally come out. They came out of the womb and they were little faggots and they grew up and everyone acknowledged they were little faggots and they went on, and that’s it. I think coming out as a whole is old hat.
VISCO: Where did you go to high school? Were there Mean Girls types?
IACONO: The Professional Performing Arts School. I felt that my high school was more competitive than your average audition or casting call.
VISCO: Did you fit in?
IACONO: It was a mixed bag. By the time I hit my junior year, I had sort of found my voice and realized that my father’s political values were not mine—he’s a Republican. I didn’t realize that I wasn’t a Republican until I was 16 or so.
VISCO: Well, you are from Jersey!
IACONO: I know! You don’t have to remind me.
VISCO: Did you feel you fit in when you were in high school?
IACONO: Mixed bag. PPAS is like the Island of Misfit Toys. The other students were artsy and open. Personally, I had my own demons. I tried to come out after my freshman year of high school, and my dad found an email between me and this other boy. I had never even kissed a boy at that point, and he threatened to pull me out of the school.
VISCO: Why would he pull you out of school?
IACONO: He thought the performing arts high school was turning me gay!
VISCO Were there a lot of gays?
IACONO: Yes, but there were just as many closeted gays as open ones. I was still attracted to girls and stuff, so I went back to dating girls. I had a couple “on the DL” hookups, and by the time I officially came out to him when I was 20 years old—right after Fame and RJ—he didn’t really have a choice. I think at that point, he was fine with it. He’s back to being my number-one fan.
VISCO: You have other siblings?
IACONO: A younger brother. He’s 20. He’s a Jersey DJ. And I have a sister who’s five, from Dad’s second marriage.
VISCO: You came out to Michael Musto when he was writing his column in 2012?
IACONO: It’ll be two years in April.
VISCO: Do you think coming out has limited your ability to play straight roles?
IACONO: No. It’s opened up doors and windows that I didn’t even know existed.
ViSCO: You don’t think that you’ll be typecast?
IACONO: Even if I am for a moment, that’s cool.
VISCO: As long as you get good parts!
IACONO: If I get good parts, if I get interesting roles that I can relate to and identify with and bring something to—then I’m happy.
VISCO: You played a straight kid in The Hard Times of RJ Berger.
IACONO: Yeah! Everything up to G.B.F. was straight. The phone’s been ringing off the hook since I came out, so there’s definitely something there. I was very aware of what I was doing though it was a spontaneous move: I had not planned or premeditated it. I didn’t want to do a Zachary Quinto “me, me, me” coming out. I was doing a play in New York, it was gay-centric, and Musto goes “Oh, so you’re out now?” and I said “Sure!” and rolled with it.
VISCO: Were you out to your family?
IACONO: Yes, most of them. My dad’s side of the family is Southern Italians. Everybody’s cool about it now.
VISCO: You worked on G.B.F. in 2012?
IACONO: We shot G.B.F. in September 2012. The film was a turning point in my life. I’d done a couple of small things after RJ came out, but I went through this period where I didn’t want to audition anymore, though I knew I still wanted to act.
VISCO: You started acting and singing when you were four! You imitated—
IACONO: Frank Sinatra and Ethel Merman!
VISCO: When you got the call for G.B.F., were you excited?
IACONO: I was so excited. It sounded great! I was a little bit skeptical, because of the gay film stigma, and “the only people who see gay films are gay audiences.” Darren Stein was the director of Jawbreaker, so I knew we were in good hands. The script was brilliant and all these incredible people were rumored to be part of the project.
VISCO: How does G.B.F. fit into the high school comedy genre?
IACONO: I think it’s the next Mean Girls or Clueless. First and foremost, it’s a hysterical teen comedy that just happens to have two gay protagonists.
VISCO: Did you know your co-star Michael Willett before?
IACONO: No, but we got along famously. We became very, very close!
VISCO: Do you think G.B.F. is realistic or exaggerated?
IACONO: In New York we forget that the rest of the country and the rest of the world haven’t evolved as much as we have. So for New York City, it may seem a little bit outdated that it’s that big of a deal that there’s an openly gay kid in the school, but for a lot of Middle American schools and towns, it is a big deal. I think that a lot of audiences are going to connect with this in a major way. Much like PPAS, even though it was a performing arts high school, people still weren’t comfortable with it. I feel like it’s going to be such a non-issue.
VISCO: In the film, the gay best friend is arm candy for these girls, but in some places of course that’s not at all the case!
IACONO: I think it will give straight people an inside look at how gay people feel in these situations. It humanizes them. I think your typical high-school straight kid nowadays is not the straight guy of yesterday. I think he’s way more open and accepting.
VISCO: I wanted to ask you about your childhood—I read you had leukemia for a while, which must have been really difficult.
IACONO: I had leukemia when I was 8 to 11 years old.
VISCO: How did you know you had it?
IACONO: I was in a community theater production of A Christmas Carol as Tiny Tim. Performing has always been the one thing that I always really loved, and one of the things that I was ever good at especially as a kid—I wasn’t an academic person, I wasn’t a sports person. When I became less enthusiastic and not acting like myself, my mother sensed something was up. I was feeling weak and tired. They diagnosed it as mono at first, and then a couple blood tests later figured out it was leukemia.
VISCO: You had chemotherapy? Did you have to stay out of school?
IACONO: During two and a half years of chemotherapy, I never lost my hair! There were two or three months before I came back to school, and then I was in and out between treatments and performing.
VISCO: Were the other students sympathetic to you?
IACONO: It felt like I was the only person to ever have cancer. The whole town came together. There was this enormous outpouring of love and support.
VISCO: Did you think you were going to die?
IACONO: I was obviously frightened, but I didn’t think I was going to die. I always knew that I would come out of it.
VISCO: Was it ever really bad?
IACONO: The initial treatments were. When I first got on chemo, my body had a horrible reaction.
VISCO: How were your parents?
IACONO: They were really cool. I had my family by my side for the entire thing. My mom is too much at times! I guess when you have a sick kid, you never get over that.
VISCO: Do you feel like you’re 100 percent healthy now or do you feel more fragile as a result?
IACONO: I do. I go for a yearly checkup. I’m such a contradiction: I eat really healthy, I go to the gym, but then I smoke two or three cigarettes a day, and I smoke other things as well. Overall, I feel really healthy. But sometimes I feel like I’m more sensitive to little things.
VISCO: Did having that experience change your consciousness of life?
IACONO: Completely. You realize that we only have so much time, and whatever you want to do in life, you need to do it now. There’s no time to wait.
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