Ilario Grant never planned on a life in the theater. The Atlanta-raised actor, singer and dancer wanted to be on TV and make music. Then, during a break from filming the Universal musical comedy Praise This with Chloe Bailey, he flew to New York, saw MJ: The Musical on Broadway and walked out knowing exactly where he needed to be.

Now he’s the man at the center of the show. On September 15, Grant took over the title role of Michael Jackson in the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical MJ at the Neil Simon Theatre. It’s a homecoming years in the making.

Grant first joined the show as a standby, landing the role after answering an open call on Instagram alongside hundreds of hopefuls, before going on to lead the Australian production as MJ and opening the show in Melbourne, Perth and Brisbane to glowing reviews.

Born in Moreno Valley, California, and raised in Georgia from age 7, Grant sharpened his craft in community and high school theater before training in singing, acting and dance at AGI Entertainment in Marietta. In 2020, he was hand-picked to join the R&B group Afterours, and his screen work also includes A (Very) Musical Christmas and The Jermaine Plane.

His Broadway return couldn’t come at a bigger moment. In 2026, Michael Jackson is everywhere again. The biopic Michael, starring Jackson’s nephew Jaafar Jackson, became a global box-office phenomenon and the highest-grossing music biopic of all time.

Thriller returned to No. 1 on Billboard’s Top R&B Albums chart, and Billie Jean topped the R&B Streaming Songs chart, introducing the King of Pop to a whole new generation of fans. Meanwhile, MJ has welcomed millions of theatergoers in New York and grown into an international phenomenon.

Grant, who grew up trying to recreate Jackson’s moves and sing his songs, now brings that story to life eight shows a week. The Quintessential Gentleman’s Editor-in-Chief Eric Keith sat down with Grant to talk about the audition tape he never wants anyone to see, what it takes physically to become Michael and the shy, goofy side of Jackson most people never knew.

[Interview has been edited for length and clarity]

Where did you get your start in the entertainment industry?

Grant: I graduated high school in the year of 2020, the year of COVID. And so after that, I started training at a school called AGI Entertainment in Marietta, Georgia. And that’s where I met my manager, Natasha Garcia. And after meeting my manager, she kind of put me in this intense training kind of program for singing, acting and dancing. But I never thought I’d be in the theater. I just wanted to be on TV and kind of sing and do music.

And so a year or two goes by, and then I book a movie called Praise This with Will Packer and Chloe Bailey as the lead. And after that, we had a break in between filming. I fly to New York, see MJ: The Musical, and then the rest is history, man. I was like, I must be in that show.

When you saw the show, someone was already in the role. How did you go from audience member to cast member?

Grant: When I saw the show, there was actually no auditions happening. So I had to wait actually a couple months after that, and then they submitted this thing on Instagram where they said they was looking for MJ standbys. A standby in theater, if you don’t know, is somebody who covers multiple roles or one of the main roles.

And so I was like, OK, well, I didn’t get an appointment for this, so I submitted an open call amongst like a hundred other people. And I was handpicked and chosen to fly up to New York to audition for them in person after a series of self-tapes. Fly up to New York, audition for them on like a Tuesday, Wednesday, and I booked it on like a Friday. It was crazy.

Theater hasn’t always been accessible to our community, but MJ draws a lot of Black audiences. What does it mean to you to be part of that?

Grant: I was doing a show yesterday, and I saw a little Black kid in the second or third row, and I just was reminded of why I do what I do. I’m a believer in Jesus Christ, and so I think that our gifts that we were blessed with are not our own. And I think I perform to be a vessel and to help other people realize and recognize that they have a gift within them, whatever that may be, and that something like this, as a little Black boy, is possible for little Black boys. And little Black girls. However you want to set yourself up to be successful in this space, it is possible, you know what I mean? And I want to be a representation of that.

I think it’s important that we continue to speak that positivity in our community, especially our Black community, making sure that they know that this kind of success is obtainable.

Making your Broadway debut is one thing. Doing it as Michael Jackson, the biggest star to hit this planet, is another. How does that feel?

Grant: Michael Jackson is somebody that you can research and look up online today, right now, still. So I think there is pressure playing Michael Jackson and being in the role, but it’s also so humbling. To be able to be a part of his legacy in any capacity, because Michael Jackson was somebody that I looked up to growing up. Trying to recreate his movement and be able to sing his songs. He’s one of the reasons why I got into my artistry in general.

But there is a lot of pressure. There’s no doubt about it, because this is somebody that people grew up with, actually saw him live, actually saw him perform, and was at the record stores when Thriller dropped. That kind of pressure is monumental, but I always humble myself by prayer and just understanding that I’m doing a service, and I hope that I’m doing a good service to Michael Jackson’s legacy.

What does it take physically and mentally to perform as Michael eight shows a week?

Grant: I want to preface by saying Michael didn’t perform eight times a week on tour. He had time to travel and take breaks and rest. Even though his energy was absolutely ridiculous, every time he performed, he gave everything he had.

The preparation is rest, recovery, warm up, cool down. Those are the things that I live by when it comes to playing Michael Jackson, because without those things, I’m not gonna be able to do it eight times a week. So my rest is really going to bed at a reasonable time, getting six to eight hours. That’s mandatory every night. Recovery is like bathhouses, massages, being able to get deep tissues and physical therapy and dry needling and all this kind of stuff to keep my body in a place that’s functional for the show.

Vocally, I cool down and warm up every day, man. Even on my days off. The voice is a muscle, so it has muscle memory. So I need to be able to sing and warm up every day, no matter what kind of day it is. And just being able to sit and relax, man. There’s no better way to prepare for the role than relaxation, recovery and rest. And prayer. Big-time prayer for sure to get through it.

Neither of us got to see Michael perform live. Who are the performers you feel you have to see live right now?

Grant: I’ve definitely had the opportunity and the pleasure to see Usher live twice, Chris Brown live twice. I need to see Bruno Mars, I need to see Justin Bieber, I need to see Jazmine Sullivan. There are so many people. I want to see Stevie perform. I want to see New Edition perform, one of the most iconic boy groups of all time. I have an old soul. I want to see Charlie Wilson sing his face off. I want to see all of these people, because it also is not just enjoyment. It’s inspiring as an artist, as a young Black artist as well.

There’s so much information out there about Michael Jackson. Did you learn anything new about him during this process?

Grant: Yeah, man, that he was really a goofy man. And what I mean by that is he always wanted to make a joke or crack a joke or laugh or smile, and he was really shy. I didn’t know that. Michael Jackson was really shy off stage. When he wasn’t performing, he was very shy and into himself, and that’s something that I had to really dive into the interviews and the tapes that they have from back in the day.

Because you would think that he’s this monumental figure who is outgoing and really a people person, and he was to his circle and his community. But outside of that, he was really shy, man, and I didn’t know that about him. So that was very interesting to learn.

You’re playing Michael in the middle of a Michael Jackson renaissance. How did you feel about the biopic, and how does it feel to be at the center of all this attention?

Grant: The movie was absolutely fantastic, man. Shout-out to Jaafar Jackson and his ability to create the magic that we saw on screen. Being in the center of this is a lot sometimes. It’s overwhelming, but in a good way. Because the film did so well, our show is able to do well too. We’re selling out almost every night, and people are coming back with this love that they have had for Michael Jackson for a long time.

And it’s a beautiful thing, because I on stage get to humanize him and make him a man. Instead of this super iconic figure, I get to humanize him with real feelings and emotion and this human side of him that people don’t get to see a lot. It feels good to be able to tell that story and to be a part of his legacy, and to be working with the same people that Jaafar and everyone in the movie had the opportunity to work with, like Rich and Tone Talauega, who were choreographers and dancers for Michael Jackson on the HIStory tour. It’s mind-blowing how well received the movie was and how much of a resurgence Michael had after it.

You’re a young Black man leading one of the biggest shows on Broadway. What advice would you give young Black boys trying to make it on Broadway?

Grant: Training is the utmost important thing, I think, for this kind of profession. I also want to say that you will learn on the job as well, because there are some things that I trained for that I didn’t know until I got here, experiencing the Broadway community and the Broadway world.

So training is important, but also just being so dedicated that no one can tell you no. If you continue to work hard and you continue to be dedicated to your craft and what it means to you and why you’re doing what you’re doing. My reasoning is faith, Christ, being a vessel and being able to share the gospel. If you have that, also lean into that, because that’s where my success comes from in this theater community. So being dedicated, working hard, staying faithful, and it will happen. Consistency. I don’t know where I heard this, but consistency breeds results. So if you’re consistent enough, results will happen, and they will come.

Photo Credit: Brandon LaVar/Ilario Grant