Benjamin Tyler Cook is an American actor, dancer and singer.
Background
Cook was born in Eden, North Carolina. He grew up in New York City, Bethesda, Maryland and Lorton, Virginia. His mother is an assistant director for the American School Counselor Association (ASCA).
His father is an award-winning freelance writer, photographer, publishing consultant and blogger.
Career
He is the youngest child of Jill and Glenn Cook. Cook is best known for his musical theatre roles. He made his Broadway debut in Ragtime, at the Neil Simon, understudying and performing the role of "Edgar (the little boy)".
He performed in several productions at both Ford"s and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, in Washington, District of Columbia Cook then returned to Broadway, in the role of "Tall Boy", in Billy Elliot the Musical, at the Imperial, and played the roles of "Michael", then "Billy", in the North American National Tour of the production.
His final tour performance as "Billy" was in Las Vegas, Nevada on May 19, 2013. After that, he toured for a year and a half in the role of "Race" and occasionally performed the role of "Crutchie," as the understudy, in the First National tour of Newsies the Musical.
On television, Cook has appeared as "Young Jack" to Alec Baldwin"s "Jack Donaghy", on 30 Rock, in the episode entitled, "Chain Reaction of Mental Anguish;" as well as appearances, as Walt, in the episode of the Home Box Office series, Veep, entitled "The Choice" and "Chapter 27", as Heather Dunbar"s son on the Netflix series, House of Cards. Previews were announced to begin on March 31, 2016 at the Broadhurst, with opening night scheduled for April 26, 2016.
Membership
On January 15, 2016, it was announced that on January 31, 2016, after over 500 performances, Cook would leave the national tour of "Newsies" to become a member of the original Broadway cast of the new musical," Tuck Everlasting," based on the 1975 children"s novel, Tuck Everlasting, written by Natalie Babbitt.