Dianna Agron

Template:Short description Template:Pp-pc Template:Good article Template:Use mdy dates Template:Wikidata image Dianna Elise Agron (Template:IPAc-en ;Template:Refn born April 30, 1986) is an American actress and singer. Her work spans screen and stage, and her accolades include a Screen Actors Guild Award and nomination for a Brit Award. Agron began acting in small theater productions in her youth, before making her screen debut in 2006. After early attention with recurring television roles, she had her breakthrough with her starring role as Quinn Fabray in the Fox musical comedy drama series Glee (2009Template:Ndash2015).

After her breakthrough success in Glee, Agron began working more in film, first starring in the popular young adult adaptation I Am Number Four (2011) as Sarah Hart before taking on films aimed at more diverse audiences, including the 2013 mob-comedy The Family and 2015's Bare. She has also directed several short films and music videos and, in 2017, began performing as a singer at the Café Carlyle in New York City, while continuing to star in films including Novitiate and Hollow in the Land in 2017, Shiva Baby in 2020, and As They Made Us in 2022. She acted in and directed part of the 2019 anthology feature film Berlin, I Love You, and returned to television as the lead in the Netflix fantasy drama series The Chosen One (2023).

Agron is Jewish and has spoken of how her religion relates to her career. She has also been involved with significant charity work, particularly in support of LGBTQ+ rights and human rights. Labeled a fashion icon, Agron's old Hollywood fashion style and appearance has garnered widespread media attention.

Early life

Dianna Elise Agron was born on April 30, 1986, in Savannah, Georgia, to Mary (née Barnes), a seamstress, and Ronald S. "Ron" Agron, a general manager of Hyatt hotels.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Her father was born to a Jewish family, while her mother converted to Judaism before they married.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Agron has a younger brother, Jason Agron, a photographer.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn She is Ashkenazi Jewish, of Russian-Jewish descent;Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn her father's family were Jewish immigrants from Novgorod-Seversky in Ukraine,Template:Efn and the family's original surname was Agronsky.Template:Refn She is distantly related to Gershon Agron and Martin Agronsky.Template:Refn Agron was raised in San Antonio, Texas, and Burlingame, California;Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn her family lived in various hotels due to her father's career,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn but her mother made sure that Agron and her brother knew this was not the norm.Template:Sfn Agron has said that there was always music from the 1960s and 1970s playing at their home,Template:Sfn and that her mother sheltered her (though not her brother) from watching contemporary films and television even as a teenager, opting to let her watch mostly classic musicals because she felt they had "a certain amount of loveliness to [them]".Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Being exposed to the "fairytale" and "fantastical" image of Hollywood from these films influenced Agron's decision to pursue acting,Template:Sfn while her interest in storytelling comes from seeing different lives unfold around her growing up in the "fishbowl environment" of hotels.Template:Sfn

A vast hotel atrium showing a raised platform and large trees.

Agron lived in the Hyatt Regency San Francisco Airport for seven years from the age of nine.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Agron lived in Texas from the age of two until she was nine,Template:Sfn and took up dancing at the age of three, studying jazz and ballet, and later hip-hop dancing.Template:Sfn She often performed in local and school musical theater productions,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn including as Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz when she was eight.Template:Sfn She attended Hebrew school growing up, as well as being educated at a Jewish day school through third grade.Template:Sfn She was bullied harshly for her Jewish faith while living in TexasTemplate:Sfn and noted that she assumed having police guarding their Temple was normal until the family moved to California, adding that being Jewish was a large part of her identity as a child because of how it ostracized her.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn When the family moved to California, Agron attended Lincoln Elementary School,Template:Sfn Burlingame Intermediate School, and Burlingame High School in the Bay Area;Template:Sfn she attended religious school and had her bat mitzvah at the Reform Judaism-practicing Peninsula Temple Sholom.Template:Sfn She said that she found it much easier to make friends there than she had in Texas,Template:Sfn though described her middle school experience as sometimes unpleasant,Template:Sfn giving the example of a boy following her around and calling her a man when, aged thirteen, her voice dropped significantly. This gave her a complex about how her voice sounded and she avoided speaking and singing in her natural register for a long time, though she overcame this and credits it with giving her a thick skin.Template:Sfn

In high school, Agron was on the homecoming court in both her junior and senior years, tying for homecoming queen with a friend;Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn she has said she was not "popular" in a stereotypical sense in high school, but had many friends in different groups.Template:Sfn She was involved in school theater, performing in Vanities and Grease as a senior,Template:Sfn and helping with set design, costumes, and painting.Template:Sfn Agron has broken her nose twice. The first break occurred when she was fourteen, but she did not have it repaired until it was damaged again on a day off during the Glee tour.Template:Sfn She was also injured in a traffic collision and underwent physical therapy in high school.Template:Sfn As a teenager, Agron was a dance teacherTemplate:Sfn and worked at a local boutique, Morning Glory, where she "became enthralled with fashion".Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Though her mother dressed her in doll-style dresses, she began experimenting with fashion in high school.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn She took piano lessonsTemplate:Sfn and said that she came to love photography in high school, as well, where she learnt on film.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn When she was a teenager, her father became ill with the stroke disorder CADASIL. The family thought it was multiple sclerosis after tests proved indefinitive; Agron was not made aware of his illness until she was fifteen, when he had a stroke and began losing his cognitive and physical abilities.Template:Sfn She spoke to Cosmopolitan about the impact of this on her family, which caused her parents' marriage to fall apart, saying the separation was devastating for her and her brother. She added that she "had to play therapist to [her] family[,] be the glue".Template:Sfn She later said that, when her father became ill, he "lost his faith for some time" and the family stopped attending Temple.Template:Sfn

Career

2006–2008: Early career and Heroes

Agron moved to Los Angeles in 2005,Template:Sfn attending an audition for a dance agency on the same day.Template:Sfn She had wanted to go to New York, but instead chose Los Angeles as it was closer to her family in case she needed to support them.Template:Sfn She was signed by the agency and told them that she wanted to be in musicals; they sent her out for music video auditions. Agron was hesitant to be in music videos, worrying that she could not be considered both a dancer and an actress, though she agreed to be in the video for Robin Thicke's "Wanna Love You Girl"; she was cut when Pharrell Williams became involved and the concept was changed.Template:Sfn Her dance agency helped her find an acting agent and she again requested to be considered for musicals, which she was told were too outdated.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn When she moved to Los Angeles she also began to watch movies other than old musicals; after watching 2001 and A Clockwork Orange back-to-back she was pleasantly surprised at how much more scope there was available as an actor.Template:Sfn

From 2006 to 2008 she appeared on television series including Shark, Close to Home, Drake & Josh, CSI: NY and Numbers.Template:Sfn Her first film role was an uncredited appearance as a cheerleader in the 2006 remake film When a Stranger Calls.Template:Sfn Agron told Rolling Stone that during her early career most of the film roles she was offered were horror films or nudity, and that she turned down all of these.Template:Sfn She instead appeared in comedy films like Skid MarksTemplate:Sfn and Rushers,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn which won the short film audience award at the 2007 Method Fest,Template:Sfn and the action-thriller film T.K.O..Template:Sfn She had a recurring role in the third season of Veronica Mars as Jenny Budosh, a student in Veronica's criminology class at college who is also involved with a fraud cover-up.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn During her early years in Los Angeles, Agron lived in the same building as Christina McDowell and Emma Stone, which was once raided by a SWAT team, and spent time with them and other "young artists and starlets" in the neighborhood, including Lindsay Lohan and Amanda Bynes.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn

In 2007 she played the main role of Harper in the Milo Ventimiglia-directed MTV series It's a Mall World, alongside Sam Huntington, for its single season.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn She then appeared in a recurring role for the second season of Heroes as Debbie Marshall, the mean captain of the cheerleading squad at the new school Claire Bennet attends.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Initially, she read for the nice cheerleader role, as she had previously been typecast as the "nice girl", but a producer thought it would be more interesting to see her play a mean character. She said that when she was cast in the role it "helped open a lot of people's eyes to [her], as an actor", because it is different to who she is as a person.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn During the 2007–2008 writers' strike, when auditions stopped, Agron wrote a feature screenplay about a 28-year-old man and his relationships with different women in his life as he learns how to say "I love you", which was optioned in 2008; Agron had wanted to direct the film.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn

2009–2011: Glee, I Am Number Four and early film roles

Dianna Agron in a yellow dress, smiling.

Agron at the Glee premiere party in 2009

Agron landed her breakthrough role in 2009 as Quinn Fabray on the Fox musical comedy-drama series Glee.Template:Sfn Media journalist Jon Caramanica described the character in April 2010 as a "conniving though angelic-seeming cheerleader".Template:Sfn Agron was the last principal actor to be cast, having won the role only days before the pilot began filming; struggling to cast Quinn, the producers were going to remove the character, but Fox wanted to keep her in the pilotTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn and casting director Robert J. Ulrich convinced them to let him see more auditions.Template:Sfn The producers had felt the character would be unnecessary if she could not be given more depth, though they did not initially reveal this to Agron;Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Ulrich told Variety that when they saw her audition, the show finally "came together".Template:Sfn Shortly before Glee, Agron had over thirty unsuccessful auditions for a small role in a musical, and so auditioned with no expectations.Template:Sfn In her audition she sang Frank Sinatra's "Fly Me to the Moon".Template:Sfn Before offering her the part, the production worried she would appear too innocent and asked her to come back looking sexier;Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn she later said that this request "was like hearing nails on a chalkboard."Template:Sfn Of Agron's casting, showrunner Ryan Murphy said: "she ruined the part for me... she humanized it. She can cry at the drop of a hat. So now her character has a conscience, a soul and great vulnerability."Template:Sfn Agron's portrayal of Quinn was praised,Template:Sfn and she made her musical debut at the end of the second episode, "Showmance", performing Dionne Warwick's "I Say a Little Prayer".Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn In 2009, members of the Glee cast, including Agron, performed the national anthem before Game 3 of the World Series.Template:Sfn

During the hiatus away from filming Glee in the summer of 2009, Agron wrote, starred in, directed, and executive-produced an unreleased short comedy film called A Fuchsia Elephant.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The plot revolves around Agron's character, Charlotte Hill, who recreates her eighth birthday party with her friend Michael, played by Dave Franco, also a producer, on the day before she turns eighteen.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn She directed the 2010 music video for "Body" by Thao & The Get Down Stay Down,Template:Sfn and took on more film roles in 2010 and 2011 with various supporting parts, including Natalie in BurlesqueTemplate:Sfn and the cheerleader Samantha in Bold Native, an animal liberation terror film.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Agron had played multiple "mean cheerleader" roles, and when she began to be offered more during GleeTemplate:'s first season she asked her team to start turning them away.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Agron was positioned as a top choice for the role of Gwen Stacy in the reboot of the Spider-Man films when The Amazing Spider-Man began casting in 2010,Template:Sfn but lost out to Emma Stone.Template:Sfn Deadline reported there were concerns about the availability of Agron, who tested for the role just as GleeTemplate:'s second season began, due to having a large role on a major network show.Template:Sfn In 2011 she tested for the part of Lois Lane in the DC Extended Universe film Man of Steel, though there were concerns that she was too young for the role;Template:Sfn it went to Amy Adams.Template:Sfn

Agron and Cory Monteith, as their characters from Glee, dance enthusiastically wearing simple white T-shirts with black text: Agron's reads "Lucy Caboosey" and Monteith's "Can't Dance".

In the Glee episode "Born This Way", Agron's character Quinn is encouraged to embrace self-love by wearing a past mean nickname on a T-shirt, as the rest of her friends are doing with their flaws.Template:Sfn The cast recreated the performance set to Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" during the tour.

During GleeTemplate:'s second season, Emily St. James for The A.V. Club wrote that Agron was "one of the show's best actors" but often sidelined.Template:Sfn In the episode "Born This Way" she performed a duet with Lea Michele (as Rachel Berry) of "I Feel Pretty" from West Side Story and TLC's "Unpretty". The Observer named this the best Glee cover, praising Agron's "soft and comforting vocals" and saying that as "a cult favorite of Glee fans in 2020, this one deserves all the hype even outside the show's kitschy walls."Template:Sfn The song has been highly praisedTemplate:Efn and was voted the best Glee number in a 2011 TVLine fan vote elimination bracket.Template:Sfn Murphy has also said it was his favorite cover from the show.Template:Sfn As a costume and extreme makeup lover, Agron has highlighted parts of this season as her favorite moments of the show, naming "The Rocky Horror Glee Show", particularly "Time Warp", and the performance of "Thriller",Template:Efn though she was the cause for a brief delay in filming of the latter number when she became ill in December 2010.Template:Sfn On Glee, Quinn often sang as a soprano, which Agron said "was on the highest part of [her] vocal register that [she] can access ... but it's not where [she feels] the most confident and comfortable".Template:Sfn Agron rarely sang in her chest voice in the first season,Template:Sfn and in 2011 HuffPost described Quinn's singing register as falsetto.Template:Sfn Agron suggested that Quinn having a high voice may have been her fault, as she had auditioned using a higher speaking voice to reflect her character's young ageTemplate:Sfn and personality, saying: "[Quinn] sees herself as having to be elite and perfect, so I didn't see her with this [Agron's] raspy voice."Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn She struggled to maintain the affected voice in GleeTemplate:'s second season,Template:Sfn and changed it for the third.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn In 2011, Agron wrote the Time 100 entry for her Glee co-star Chris Colfer.Template:Sfn

Her breakthrough movie role came in the 2011 YA adaptation I Am Number Four as co-lead Sarah Hart,Template:Sfn whom Agron described as an "artsy kid that is a little misunderstood".Template:Sfn Agron took on the role because it was different to her Quinn character, and said that while she wanted to work during the Glee hiatus, she would not take just any project that fit in her schedule because "it's so hard as an actor to really engage with a character and a script if you don't love it".Template:Sfn Her filming restrictions for Glee meant she almost did not get the role. The shoot got moved to the summer, when Agron was available,Template:Sfn and she learned she got the role a few weeks before filming. Photography began in Pittsburgh in the summer of 2010, the day after the first Glee tour finished.Template:Sfn Reviews for the film were mixed.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Agron's I Am Number Four co-lead was Alex Pettyfer;Template:Sfn after Pettyfer dropped out of playing Tom in Seventh Son in May 2011, Agron tested for the role of Alice Deane.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

I don't know if I'll ever work that hard again in my life. But as hard as everybody was working, we worked with such a loving group of people and had a great familiarity. You knew that you were coming to a space where everybody loved what they were doing. All I wanted was to be in a musical and I got it. It was a very, very special opportunity. I don't know what my life would have been like without it.

–Agron reflecting on Glee in 2019Template:Sfn

In the third season of Glee, Agron sang her first solo number since the first season, "Never Can Say Goodbye" by the Jackson 5.Template:Sfn The song, which had been leaked before the episode,Template:Sfn received positive reviews.Template:Efn The character's stories in this season were less well-received, with reviews employing humor to say that the writing did not provide Agron with strong material.Template:Efn In one story, her character was paralyzed in a car accident, but only for four episodes before she was performing again;Template:Sfn Agron had previously said that the story, which she discussed with Murphy,Template:Sfn would be "slow and gradual" as Quinn struggles through accepting a more challenging situation.Template:Sfn In 2019, The Guardian termed the brief paralysis, and the related "cringe-inducing" performance of "I'm Still Standing", as the show's "defining shark-jumping moment",Template:Sfn though critics praised Agron's acting.Template:Efn Speaking to MTV following the car accident episode, Agron said that she had "fun challenges" playing Quinn who "always was changing".Template:Sfn After the third season aired, Agron appeared as a guest mentor on The Glee ProjectTemplate:'s second season episode "Actability".Template:Sfn

Several songs performed by Agron as Quinn have been released as singles, made available for digital download, and featured on the show's soundtrack albums.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Many songs performed on Glee were pop music, including several by Agron,Template:Sfn though she was also noted as the show's easy listening vocalist, performing some Motown.Template:Sfn "I Say a Little Prayer" charted in the UK Singles Chart at 125, and her cover of the Supremes' "You Keep Me Hangin' On" reached 166 on the UK Singles.Template:Sfn These songs were released on Glee: The Music, Volume 1 (the former as an iTunes bonus track),Template:Sfn which was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media.Template:Sfn Caramanica criticized the fact that Agron's cover of "Papa Don't Preach" was omitted from the soundtracks, writing that it was "one of the most grounded and moving covers the show has yet done".Template:Sfn "Papa Don't Preach" was later released as a single, charting at 81 on the UK Singles,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn as was "It's a Man's Man's Man's World", which charted in the Canadian Hot 100 at 73, UK Singles Chart at 94 and on the Billboard Hot 100 at 95.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Her cover of "Never Can Say Goodbye" reached 107 on the Billboard charts.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn As a featured singer in the cast of Glee, Agron and her castmates hold numerous accolades: in 2010 they won an American Music Award,Template:Sfn and in 2011 they were collectively nominated for two Grammy AwardsTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn as well as the Brit Award for International Breakthrough Act of the year.Template:Sfn In 2012, they received another soundtrack album Grammy nomination.Template:Sfn By the start of the sixth season they were the most-charting (Billboard) act in history,Template:Sfn a record held until March 2020.Template:Sfn

2012–2014: The Family and music videos

Dianna Agron at a film premiere, smiling at fans.

Agron at the New York premiere of The Family in 2013

Agron appeared less frequently in GleeTemplate:'s fourth season, being reduced to a guest star,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn with co-star Naya Rivera saying that she did so by choice to work on other projects;Template:Sfn Rivera and Agron shared an argument scene in the Thanksgiving episode that Vulture said was "weirdly powerful", noting the pair "have always popped in scenes like this, and have never gotten enough of them".Template:Sfn Agron tweeted that the scene was one of her favorites,Template:Sfn and Murphy joked that the two characters could have a spin-off.Template:Sfn After reducing her role on Glee, Agron became the first of the cast to "cut out on her own",Template:Sfn playing Belle Blake in Luc Besson's ultra-violent 2013 mob comedy film The Family opposite Robert De Niro, Tommy Lee Jones, and Michelle Pfeiffer.Template:Sfn Besson reportedly wrote Belle with Agron in mind, wanting her to be in the film after seeing her perform on Glee.Template:Sfn The Irish Independent wrote that "Agron is one of the best things in the film [and] successfully grounds the more preposterous aspects of the plot".Template:Sfn It opened to mixed reviews but,Template:Sfn also seen as the breakout performer by the then-CEO of production company EuropaCorp,Template:Sfn critics praised Agron's performance and she was nominated for a Women Film Critics Circle Award.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Later in 2013 she appeared in the music video for the Killers' tenth-anniversary track "Just Another Girl", portraying the lead singer, Brandon Flowers. Rolling Stone said that even with the real Flowers also appearing, "Agron shines as the video's star."Template:Sfn She briefly appeared in the fifth season of Glee for the 100th episode,Template:Sfn and was notably absent from "The Quarterback", the tribute episode for Cory Monteith.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn In 2014, Agron starred as the scorned bride in Sam Smith's "I'm Not the Only One" music video. Glamour wrote that Agron's "convincing Desperate Housewives act [shows] off some major acting skills [and] really brings Sam's heart wrenching pop-ballad to life".Template:Sfn She also directed the music video for "Till Sunrise" by Goldroom, starring Gabrielle Haugh and her brother Jason,Template:Sfn and worked as a photographer with Jason for the February 2014 issue of Galore magazine.Template:Sfn In 2015, she directed a short film for the opening of designer Tory Burch's Paris flagship store; she was also selected by Burch to represent the brand at that year's Met Gala.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Agron returned to Glee for its final seasonTemplate:Sfn but did not appear in the episode "A Wedding", when Quinn's best friends get married, which was seen to be equally as unusual as missing "The Quarterback".Template:Sfn

2015–2019: Independent film, singing, and directing

A blonde woman in a leather jacket and floral dress holding a microphone.

Agron performing the national anthem in 2015

After Glee, Agron pursued what critic Frank Scheck would later describe as "admirably adventurous screen choices".Template:Sfn In 2017 she said that she had "wanted to return to doing indie films [after Glee and The Family], and found a lot of solace in doing so",Template:Sfn explaining in 2022 that she "purposely had to recalibrate after [she] was fully off of that show, and make time for [herself]... after so many years of not having any control [and] just not [being] a person in [her] own world".Template:Sfn She played the lead role in Natalia Leite's 2015 drama film Bare,Template:Sfn which follows Agron's character, Sarah, as she becomes romantically involved with a female drifter. The film includes a nude scene, which had been extensively discussed between Leite and Agron, taking inspiration from My Summer of Love for the tone.Template:Sfn Agron also made her professional theater debut in 2015. Turning down a Broadway play as she wanted to create a role, she played Dahlia in McQueen at the St. James Theatre on the West End;Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn McQueen received generally negative reviews,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn and, in her PhD thesis for York University, Rebecca Halliday noted that reviews were not just profusely critical towards Agron's performance but also harsh on the actress herself.Template:Sfn Agron was unable to reprise her role for the Theatre Royal Haymarket transfer due to filming commitments.Template:Sfn She performed the U.S. national anthem in London at Winfield House, the U.S. ambassador's residence, for Independence Day 2015, with Katherine Jenkins performing the British national anthem.Template:Sfn

Agron relocated to New York City in 2016Template:Sfn and took time away from working in that year.Template:Sfn She appeared in several films released in 2017.Template:Sfn She had a supporting role in the Vatican II-set film Novitiate, portraying Sister Mary Grace, a foil to the harsh instruction of the Mother Superior,Template:Sfn opposite Melissa Leo and Margaret Qualley.Template:Sfn Agron spoke about playing a Catholic nun as a Jewish actor, saying that she was interested in exploring faith and spirituality that exist outside of her own experiences.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Justin Chang of the Los Angeles Times wrote that "in an ensemble without a weak link, special note should be made of [Agron], gently heartbreaking [in her role]",Template:Sfn and San Francisco ChronicleTemplate:'s Mick LaSalle opined that as part of the ensemble, Agron, as well as Rebecca Dayan and Julianne Nicholson, "would be the highlight of any other film, the person audiences would go home talking about".Template:Sfn Agron also portrayed Alison Miller, the lead of the drama Hollow in the Land.Template:Sfn The film was often compared to Winter's Bone,Template:Efn with The New York Times saying that the "movie is not as tense [as Winter's Bone], but it gets close thanks to Ms. Agron's resolute performance and [its] hostile small town setting";Template:Sfn The Hollywood Reporter said that "Agron delivers a compelling turn in this atmospheric backwoods mystery."Template:Sfn

Close side profile of Dianna Agron wearing a backless dress in an upscale dinner lounge.

Agron in the Carlyle after performing in January 2019

In September 2017, Agron made her singing debut with a residency at the Café Carlyle, saying that she "missed singing publicly" and wanted to pursue this again in New York.Template:Sfn In her set she performed music originally sung by male acts, with BroadwayWorld noting that, for possibly the first time, people would hear her sing in her preferred register;Template:Sfn she told WWD that she saw an improvement in her vocal quality using her own register again after being uncomfortable hitting high notes for Glee.Template:Sfn Music critic Will Friedwald described her as "a post-millennial update of Julie London";Template:Sfn Paul Hagen of Metrosource said that her lower range "is smooth as single malt scotch";Template:Sfn and Theater PizzazzTemplate:'s Eric J. Grimm wrote that, "free of auto tune and songs out of her vocal range, she reveals herself to be a capable and precise singer with an appreciation for excellent lyrics."Template:Sfn Agron returned to the Carlyle in January and February 2019, again performing a setlist "tailored for her husky register", with a larger band.Template:Sfn This performance was advertised to feature songs by female acts, though she still sung many songs performed by men.Template:Sfn Of the second show, Matt Smith, also Theater Pizzazz, said that Agron used minimal commentary, which "[felt] as if she's second-guessing herself", but that any lack of expression in commentary was made up for by her expression through the songs;Template:Sfn Agron selected songs that she found romantic and playful.Template:Sfn Smith complimented that her voice is "soothing and soulful, [and] makes the already-cozy Café Carlyle feel that much more intimate".Template:Sfn Agron suggested that she would consider releasing an album, but not of the pop music featured on Glee.Template:Sfn

Berlin, I Love You, an installment of the Cities of Love anthology film series, was released in 2019. Agron directed a segment in the film from a screenplay by David Vernon, as well as playing a puppeteer who reinvigorates the life of a burnt-out Hollywood star played by Luke Wilson.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn She was initially approached to act in the segment, and asked if she could direct it instead before being hired for both roles;Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn filming for the segment took one day.Template:Sfn Reception to the film was generally negative: Peter Debruge of Variety wrote that "by and large, the film feels aimless and uninspired ... the most effective sequence may be [Agron's] offering",Template:Sfn a sentiment echoed by Jackie K. Cooper,Template:Sfn while Peter Sobczynski of RogerEbert.com felt it was "such a wan little embarrassment that its presence can only be explained by the fact that ... Wilson and Agron might attract a few more viewers."Template:Sfn

2020–present: Return to prominence

Starting with 2020's Shiva Baby, Agron began appearing in more prominent independent films, with well-received performances;Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn Rolling Stone also noted that most of the films or Agron's characters of this period were identifiably Jewish, in contrast to her previous roles.Template:Sfn

Agron played Kim Beckett in Shiva Baby, a comedy set at a Jewish mourning service.Template:Sfn The film and its cast received widespread praise,Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn with some reviews noting the depth Agron brought to her role.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The Hollywood Reporter, /Film, and Variety described her performance as "perfect"Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn and "flawless".Template:Sfn She then portrayed Laura Riding in the historical biopic The Laureate; telling the story of Riding's life with Robert Graves and their lovers, it premiered in 2021.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn In As They Made Us, directed by Mayim Bialik and released in April 2022, Agron played the lead role, Abigail, alongside Dustin Hoffman and Candice Bergen.Template:Sfn Abigail is the daughter of Hoffman and Bergen's characters; Agron had previously played Bergen's daughter in the 2010 film The Romantics and said it was "super special" to work with her again at a different stage.Template:Sfn

As They Made Us deals with parental death, something to which Agron related due to experiences with her own father's illness. She noted that about a year before filming the project she had finally become ready to address father-daughter relationships in her work;Template:Sfn the theme is also present in Acidman, a film Agron began working on in 2020.Template:Sfn Acidman, a two-hander starring Agron and Thomas Haden Church, was released in 2023, as was the Hulu/Disney+ release Clock, a sci-fi horror film with Agron in the lead role. She also returned to television for the first time since GleeTemplate:Sfn in 2023 to be part of the main cast of the Netflix original television show The Chosen One, with her dialog in Spanish and English.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

In March and April 2022, Agron performed her third residency at the Café Carlyle.Template:Sfn Reviews noted her charming commentary and ability to connect with the audience,Template:Sfn with Front Row Center writing that her "alluring badinage is as delightful as her song."Template:Sfn Stephen Mosher for BroadwayWorld said that her "famously husky... whisky tenor and relaxed stylings [bring] an atmosphere of levity and love".Template:Sfn Agron returned to the venue in 2024,Template:Sfn and as of February 2025 was working on her first jazz album.Template:Sfn

Public image

Image and fashion

A group of young women pose for a photograph.

Agron taking a selfie with fans in 2014

Agron's public image and style have been described as "old Hollywood", something she has enjoyed since she was a child admiring figures including Audrey Hepburn, Lucille Ball and Leslie Caron.Template:Efn Like classic stars, Agron sometimes speaks with a slight Mid-Atlantic accent,Template:Sfn and she has connected her views on keeping private to this era, saying: "I think people know too many things about actors these days ... Back in the day, you knew very little about the stars".Template:Sfn The role of Quinn in Glee saw Agron nominated for the Teen Choice Award for Female Breakout Star in 2010,Template:Sfn and she and other cast members were awarded the Screen Actors Guild Award for Ensemble in a Comedy Series that same year.Template:Sfn In 2011, her roles in Glee and I Am Number Four saw Agron place on the IMDb list of top emerging stars,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn and the Victoria's Secret models ranked her as the sexiest smile in Hollywood.Template:Sfn Following the death of Cory Monteith in 2013, Agron criticized the lack of privacy afforded her Glee castmates by paparazzi, though said she had come to accept this kind of treatment in exchange for the positives of being an actor.Template:Sfn Agron has since said that the level of success Glee had when she was in her early twenties "[catapulted her] into a world [in which she was] not very equipped to, kind of, explore that coming-of-age in the public eye", adding that the sudden emergence of social media at the time did not help; she explained that she chose to travel to keep grounded.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Agron was one of the most-followed and most influential celebrities on Twitter in 2012 and 2013.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Entertainment Tonight has called Agron a "fashion icon",Template:Sfn and Vogue magazine has covered her style and taste, praising her takes on different styles and remixing fashion.Template:Efn She has been credited with influencing the popularity of the fishtail braid;Template:Sfn shaggy bob;Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn and pompadour hairstyles,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn and her presence at Met Galas helped popularize it to become one of New York's biggest social events.Template:Sfn Agron describes her style as "eclectic", adding that she enjoys dressing in both feminine and masculine looks.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn In 2015, she said that her style and the way she presents herself are "more to the prudish side".Template:Sfn In 2010, she appeared on the cover of GQ with Glee co-stars Michele and Monteith; after "minor controversy" following complaints that the actors were dressed too provocatively for their younger fans, Agron wrote an apology on her blog.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Agron and her Glee character are referenced in the controversial 2016 song "Einstein yori Dianna Agron" by Japanese idol group HKT48, as the epitome of beauty and charm.Template:Sfn She is also named in the liner notes of the Taylor Swift song "22", as an inspiration of the song,Template:Sfn and some fans have speculated that Swift's song "Wonderland" also references her.Template:Sfn

...when I started my career [my grandmother] would say, "When are you going to play a nice Jewish girl?" And I'd say, "When the industry will start seeing me as one."

–Agron speaking in 2023 on her rolesTemplate:Sfn

Though she became known for playing the gentile across from Jewish characters,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Agron is a practicing Jew.Template:Sfn She knows HebrewTemplate:Sfn and visited Israel to study her faith in 2016.Template:Sfn The debate on Jewish characters being portrayed by Jewish actors became prominent in 2018 with the success of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,Template:Sfn with a response from physiognomist Sharrona Pearl in Jewish culture magazine Tablet referring to Agron and her roles as overtly shiksa characters in debating representation.Template:Sfn Other Jewish media have commented on Agron's Glee character,Template:Sfn with the Jewish Women's Archive suggesting that she may have made cheerleading more visible to Jewish girls,Template:Sfn and Agron's appearance, with Hey Alma noting that this is "something the Jewish media loves to talk about, somewhat saltily."Template:Sfn More discussions of actors' Jewishness came with the release of Shiva Baby,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn which has a non-Jewish lead actress while Agron's Kim is, ironically, the only character in the film who is not considered Jewish;Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn writer-director Emma Seligman said that Agron was excited to be involved in a Jewish movie, saying that it was "so sad to hear, but because of her looks, [Agron's] Jewishness is constantly questioned".Template:Sfn

Relationships

While Agron is known for keeping her romances private,Template:Sfn she has been in several high-profile relationships.Template:Sfn In July 2010, she began dating British actor Alex Pettyfer, her I Am Number Four co-star. Despite reported difficulties they began cohabiting in 2010. The couple had a messy break-up in February 2011, the day after the film was released, with reports that he threatened her over the phone and had a "heated confrontation" with actor Sebastian Stan, someone with whom Agron was close in early 2011. She temporarily moved to a hotel under a false name so that Pettyfer would not be able to find her,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn and Pettyfer was instructed not to attend an event at which she would be present.Template:Sfn In early 2011, Agron met actor Chris Evans at an Oscars party and the two were linked in April that year;Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn reportedly, Evans' brother Scott was a fan of Agron from Glee and supported the idea of the couple.Template:Sfn Agron began dating Stan in June 2011;Template:Sfn they split in December, due to Agron being unable to spend time with him while having to work on Glee,Template:Sfn but began dating again in February 2012 and were still together in April.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

It was first reported that Agron was dating Mumford & Sons guitarist Winston Marshall in July 2015,Template:Sfn and the couple became engaged in winter 2015/16.Template:Sfn They were married on October 15, 2016, in Morocco,Template:Sfn with Agron wearing a Valentino Fall 2016 off-the-runway dress noted as one of the most expensive celebrity wedding dresses ever.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Agron and Marshall kept their relationship private, including not posting about each other on social media. After splitting, they separated in 2019 and divorced in 2020.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn In 2022, Marshall said that splitting up, which they did around the same time he got sober, was painful.Template:Sfn

In May 2023, an interview with the Belgian painter Harold Ancart stated that he and Agron had been together for almost two years and live together in New York.Template:Sfn The year prior, it was reported that an incident involving Agron and the publisher Lucas Zwirner caused Ancart to suddenly cut ties with the art dealer and gallery owner (and Lucas' father) David Zwirner.Template:Sfn

Agron's sexuality has been subject to much public speculation; lesbian culture website Autostraddle reflected that Agron wearing a T-shirt reading "Likes Girls" in 2011 "was the moment that started the whole [internet] gay discourse",Template:Sfn and a 2016 episode of IFC's Boxed In satirized Agron making ambiguous statements on the subject, something common in Celesbian culture.Template:Sfn Her close friendship with Taylor Swift in the early 2010s led to some fans developing a long-standing theory that Swift is "secretly gay"; speculation of a relationship between the pair was common in Hollywood at the timeTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn and Agron was asked about its veracity as a guest on Jimmy Kimmel Live! in 2012,Template:Sfn and by Rolling Stone in 2023.Template:Sfn

Activism

Charity and advocacy

File:Dianna Agron hosts GLAAD Media Awards (5 mins).webm

A clip of Agron hosting the GLAAD Media Awards in San Francisco in 2012

The Guardian noted in 2015 that Agron is "also known for her activism, supporting charities and advocacy groups when not acting."Template:Sfn She is an activist for LGBT+ rights and human rights,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn and has said that being able to engage with large-scale charity work is one of the positives of her job.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn She has also given her time to charitable endeavors supporting children, including organizations like Camp Wonder and UNICEF,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn and has hosted and participated in various fundraisers for literacy non-profit 826LA, including emceeing the 2010 concert "Chickens in Love".Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn Since 2012, Agron has been a GLAAD Spirit Day ambassador, and since 2014 she has been a Global Citizen Ambassador,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn regularly participating in the Global Citizen Festival.Template:Efn In politics, Agron endorsed Barack Obama's 2012 presidential campaign,Template:Sfn Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign,Template:Sfn and Joe Biden's 2020 presidential campaign.Template:Sfn

In 2011 she attended the Trevor Project's Trevor Live! with Glee co-stars Kevin McHale and Darren Criss,Template:Sfn and on June 2, 2012, she hosted the GLAAD Media Awards in San Francisco.Template:Sfn Naya Rivera and Cory Monteith had hosted a parallel event on March 24, 2012, in New York City, auctioning off kisses to the audience;Template:Sfn Agron did the same, raising $5,500 for the campaign.Template:Sfn In women's rights, Agron spoke at the 18th San Francisco Power of Choice Luncheon to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade in 2013,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn and criticized the Supreme Court of the United States when it repealed this in June 2022.Template:Sfn In the arts, Agron works with Platform Presents, a British organization founded by Gala Gordon to provide a platform to new talent,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn and is an advocate for female filmmakers:Template:Sfn she was a jurist for the Nora Ephron Prize at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival,Template:Sfn and for the Through Her Lens grant at Tribeca in 2017 and 2018.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Supporting youth causes, in 2014, Agron took part in a charity weekend as part of the Big Slick Foundation, an organization of Kansas City-related celebrities, to help raise funds for Children's Mercy Hospital,Template:Sfn and she and other Glee stars participated in the Young Storytellers Foundation "Glee Big Show", which featured live performances of five scripts written by fifth grade students to support arts programs in public schools.Template:Sfn In August 2014 she wrote an article for NBC News to promote United Nations (UN) International Youth Day.Template:Sfn

Dianna Agron and Meghan Markle, dressed casually and surrounded by military service personnel, hold a USO banner.

Agron and Meghan Markle with General Martin Dempsey and others on a USO tour in Italy in 2014

Agron has prominently been a supporter of charities for refugees, particularly children, affected by war. In 2012, Agron visited the Somaly Mam Foundation's Kampong Cham center, where she met child and teenage residents,Template:Sfn and in 2013 she promoted a campaign fundraiser benefiting the foundation.Template:Sfn In November 2014, Agron, among many other international artists, was featured on the United Nations Children's Fund charity single "Imagine".Template:Sfn She has raised money and advocated for War Child since 2014,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn particularly for Syrian refugees,Template:Sfn and in 2016, she traveled with the UN to visit resettled Syrian refugees in Austria and Jordan.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn She has also supported military personnel, providing services and live entertainment to United States troops and their families as part of the December 2014 United Service Organizations tour at Bagram air field, Afghanistan, and locations in Spain, Italy, Turkey, and the UK.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

You, Me and Charlie

You, Me & Charlie (YM&C) was a curation platform launched by Agron on December 12, 2011. Along with help from several other contributors, she wrote and collected posts on subjects including music, art, fashion, and daily inspiration.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The name of the website refers to Charlie, one of Agron's childhood nicknames,Template:Sfn "her male alter ego[,] and the star of the short stories she'd write in high school".Template:Sfn Several short films and videos created by Lexy Hulme, a dancer and friend of Agron, were also shared on the website,Template:Sfn which accepted submissions for inspiration posts through a related Tumblr blog.Template:Sfn The site served as inspiration for young artists, and Vanity Fair championed it as a stress reliever, saying that the site is "full of sunshine, optimism, and pretty people";Template:Sfn InStyle promoted how the platform spread activism, saying that "these days it seems every celebrity has an online presence [but] Agron uses social media in a truly inspired way."Template:Sfn The idea for YM&C came from how "people really responded so well to [Agron's personal blog], so [she] just wanted to open it up and have it be more of a community".Template:Sfn In February 2013, Agron hosted a concert for the curation blog in Los Angeles, where she performed Fleetwood Mac's "Dreams" and Tina Turner's "What's Love Got to Do with It" with the band A House For Lions.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Awards and nominations

Year	Association	Category	Work	Result	Template:Reference heading
2010	American Music Awards	Favorite Soundtrack Album	Glee: The Music, Volume 3 Showstoppers (Glee cast)	Won	Template:Sfn
	Breakthrough of the Year Awards	Breakthrough Newcomer	Herself	Won	Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
	Gay People's Choice Awards	Best Ensemble TV Cast	Glee	Won	Template:Sfn
		Favorite Music Duo or Group	Glee cast	Won
	Gold Derby TV Awards	Ensemble of the Year	Glee	Nominated	Template:Sfn
	Lesbian/Bi People's Choice Awards	Favorite Music Duo or Group	Glee cast	Nominated	Template:Sfn
	Nickelodeon Australian Kids' Choice Awards	Fave International Band	Glee cast	Nominated	Template:Sfn
	Screen Actors Guild Awards	Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series	Glee	Won	Template:Sfn
	Teen Choice Awards	Choice TV: Female Breakout Star	Glee	Nominated	Template:Sfn
		Choice Music: Group	Glee cast	Nominated	Template:Sfn
	TV Land Awards	Future Classics	Glee	Won	Template:Sfn
2011	Brit Awards	International Breakthrough Act	Glee cast	Nominated	Template:Sfn
	Grammy Awards	Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media	Glee: The Music, Volume 1 (Glee cast)	Nominated	Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
	Screen Actors Guild Awards	Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series	Glee	Nominated	Template:Sfn
	Teen Choice Awards	Choice TV: Female Scene Stealer	Glee	Nominated	Template:Sfn
		Choice Music: Group	Glee cast	Nominated
2012	Giffoni Film Festival	Giffoni Experience Award	Herself	Won	Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
	Grammy Awards	Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media	Glee: The Music, Volume 4 (Glee cast)	Nominated	Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
	Screen Actors Guild Awards	Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series	Glee	Nominated	Template:Sfn
	Shorty Awards	Best Blogger in Social Media	Herself ([felldowntherabbithole] and You, Me & Charlie)	Nominated	Template:Sfn
	Teen Choice Awards	Choice TV: Female Scene Stealer	Glee	Nominated	Template:Sfn
2013	Napa Valley Film Festival	Rising Star Award	Herself (with Miles Teller)	Won	Template:Sfn
	Screen Actors Guild Awards	Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series	Glee	Nominated	Template:Sfn
	Shorty AwardsTemplate:Refn	Best Actress in Social Media	Herself	Template:Shortlisted	Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Template:Sfn
		Best Artist, Art Critic, or Art Aficionado in Social Media	Herself	Template:Shortlisted
			You, Me & Charlie	Nominated
		Best Blogger in Social Media	Herself	Template:Shortlisted
			You, Me & Charlie	Template:Shortlisted
		Best Celebrity in Social Media	Herself	Nominated
		Best Comedian or Comedy in Social Media	You, Me & Charlie	Template:Shortlisted
		Best Fashion Diva, Brand, or Model in Social Media	Herself	Template:Shortlisted
	Women Film Critics Circle Awards	Best Young Actress	The Family	Nominated	Template:Sfn
2015	BroadwayWorld UK/West End Awards	Best Featured Actress in a New Production of a Play	McQueen	Nominated	Template:Sfn
2021	The ReFrame Stamp	Narrative Feature	Shiva Baby	Won	Template:Sfn
2022	Apolo Awards	Best Ensemble Cast	Shiva Baby	Won	Template:Sfn
	Chlotrudis Society for Independent Films	Best Performance by an Ensemble Cast	Shiva Baby	Won	Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
	Dallas International Film Festival	Best Narrative Feature	Acidman (as producer)	Won	Template:Sfn

See also

• [[GQ#Glee controversy|GQTemplate:'s Glee photoshoot controversy]]
• "Einstein yori Dianna Agron" controversy

References

Sources

Literature

• Template:Cite thesis
• Template:Cite thesis
• Template:Cite thesis

News

• Template:Cbignore
• Template:Cbignore

Reviews

• Template:Cbignore

External links

• Template:Instagram
• Template:Twitter
• Template:Trim/ Template:PAGENAMEBASE at IMDbTemplate:EditAtWikidata
• Template:Rotten-tomatoes-person