Gary Michael "Garrett" Clayton (born March 19, 1991) is an American actor and singer. He is known for portraying Tanner in the 2013 Disney Channel movie '' Teen Beach Movie'' and its 2015 sequel '' Teen Beach 2'', and other film, television, and stage roles.

Life and career

Gary Michael Clayton was born March 19, 1991, in

Dearborn, Michigan Dearborn is a city in Wayne County, Michigan, Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan. An inner-ring Metro Detroit, suburb of Detroit, Dearborn borders Detroit to the south and west, roughly west of downtown Detroit. In the 2020 United States ...

. He has Lebanese heritage. He began acting at Crestwood High School in Dearborn Heights, Michigan, performing in many of the drama club's productions. He later attended

Oakland University Oakland University (OU or Oakland) is a public university, public research university in Auburn Hills, Michigan, Auburn Hills and Rochester Hills, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1957 through a donation of Matilda Dodge Wilson and husband ...

, where he studied musical theater. After being told by casting directors that his name "sounded too old", he adopted the stage name of Garrett Clayton. In 2010, he made appearances on ''

Days of Our Lives ''Days of Our Lives'' (also stylized as ''Days of our Lives''; simply referred to as ''Days'' or ''DOOL'') is an American television soap opera that aired on the network NBC from November 8, 1965, to September 9, 2022; the soap has streamed n ...

'' and '' Shake It Up''. In December 2012, he appeared in the

Lifetime movie LMN, an initialism for the Lifetime Movie Network, also known as Lifetime Movies, is an American pay television network launched on June 29, 1998 and owned by the Lifetime Entertainment Services subsidiary of A&E Networks, a joint venture between ...

''Holiday Spin'', co-starring Ralph Macchio, as Blake, a rebellious teen forced to live with his father after his mother is killed in a car accident. He was cast in 2013 in the role of Tanner in Disney's musical '' Teen Beach Movie'', playing a cool but vacuous surfer who is "a mix between

Frankie Avalon Francis Thomas Avallone (born September 18, 1940), better known as Frankie Avalon, is an American singer, actor and former teen idol. He had 31 charting U.S. ''Billboard (magazine), Billboard'' singles from 1958 to late 1962, including Record ...

and Link from '' Hairspray''". The film was directed by Jeffrey Hornaday and was filmed in Puerto Rico and was first broadcast in July 2013. It co-stars Ross Lynch, Maia Mitchell, and Grace Phipps. He had a recurring role in the latter half of the first season of ''The Fosters''. In 2016, he portrayed gay porn star Brent Corrigan in the film ''

King Cobra The king cobra (''Ophiophagus hannah'') is a species complex of snakes Endemism, endemic to Asia. With an average of and a record length of , it is the world's longest venomous snake and among the heaviest. Under the genus ''Ophiophagus'', i ...

'', with

James Franco James Edward Franco (born April 19, 1978) is an American actor and filmmaker. He has starred in numerous films, including Sam Raimi's Spider-Man (2002 film series), ''Spider-Man'' trilogy (2002–2007), ''Milk (2008 American film), Milk'' (200 ...

and

Christian Slater Christian Michael Leonard Slater (born August 18, 1969) is an American actor. He made his film debut with a leading role in '' The Legend of Billie Jean'' (1985) and gained wider recognition for his breakout role as Jason "J.D." Dean, a sociopath ...

, and played the role of Link Larkin in the

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

television broadcast of '' Hairspray Live!'' He starred as Brady Mannion in the horror- thriller film '' Don't Hang Up'', which was released in theaters in February 2017. Also in 2017, Clayton appeared on stage at the Pasadena Playhouse as Luke alongside

Al Pacino Alfredo James Pacino ( ; ; born April 25, 1940) is an American actor. Known for his intense performances on stage and screen, Pacino is widely regarded as one of the greatest actors of all time. His career spans more than five decades, duri ...

and Judith Light in a six-week run of Dotson Rader's play ''God Looked Away'', about the later life of

Tennessee Williams Thomas Lanier Williams III (March 26, 1911 – February 25, 1983), known by his pen name Tennessee Williams, was an American playwright and screenwriter. Along with contemporaries Eugene O'Neill and Arthur Miller, he is considered among the three ...

Personal life

In August 2018, Clayton came out as gay and revealed he had been in a long-term relationship with boyfriend Blake Knight since 2011. Clayton came out in his personal life at the age of sixteen, but was told by representatives to not come out publicly for the sake of his career after moving to

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood ...

at the age of nineteen. In January 2019, Clayton announced that he and Knight had become engaged a year prior. In September 2021, the couple married at an outdoor, garden party themed wedding in Los Angeles, which was officiated by Clayton's ''

'' co-star

Alicia Silverstone Alicia Silverstone ( ; born October 4, 1976) is an American actress. She made her film debut in the thriller ''The Crush (1993 film), The Crush'' (1993), earning the 1994 MTV Movie Award for Best Breakthrough Performance, and gained further pro ...

Filmography

Film

Television

Stage

Footnotes

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Clayton, Garrett 1991 births 21st-century American male actors American gay actors American male child actors American male dancers American male film actors American male television actors American people of Lebanese descent Gay dancers LGBTQ people from Michigan Living people Male actors from Michigan People from Dearborn Heights, Michigan