Happy 29th birthday to Garrett Clayton!

Let’s kick the day off by wishing the talented Garrett Clayton a happy birthday.

He turns 29 today.

Garrett has managed to juggle his stage work (Cruel Intentions: The Musical, God Looked Away) with roles in feature films (Peel, Reach, King Cobra), TV movies (Hairspray Live! Teen Beach Movie) television shows (The Fosters, The Real O’Neals), music videos (I Put a Spell on You), and his own series of cabaret shows.

Despite the busy schedule, he has found the time to return to Rockwell Table and Stage to take part in its wildly popular Unauthorized Musical Parody Of series.

He’s been in parodies of such movies as The Breakfast Club, Clueless and Burlesque and has been an assistant director of other shows in the series.

“I think they’ve given me the freedom to explore roles that I would never otherwise took or be asked to do,” Garrett told me in an interview we did last year. “They give me freedom in improvisation, they utilize my vocal range in a different way than I’ve gotten to do in other jobs. I feel a very supportive, creative space here. Everyone has turned into my family now. I feel like I get to be with my friends every weekend.”

It’s been nearly two years since Garrett came out publicly as a gay man. I asked him about how fans have reacted.

“I’ve felt very lucky that a lot of fans have reached out and expressed what it meant them for me to be able to speak my truth and express some of the things I went through personally,” he said. “I guess I tend to be a bit more private than people are nowadays. When I share things, it means a lot to me. I feel very lucky that it’s resonated with people and they responded to it. I’ve been lucky that it’s helped people in ways I never realized it would.”