Early years and producing Frankie Grande was born in New York City, the son of Victor Marchione, a physician, and Joan Grande, chief executive officer of telephone and alarm system company Hose-McCann Communications. He grew up in
Englewood, New Jersey, and moved with his mother to
Boca Raton, Florida, at age 10, where he later attended
Pine Crest School. He began performing in musicals in the fifth grade. His maternal half-sister is singer and actress
Ariana Grande, and he has a paternal half-brother, James Marchione. He graduated from
Muhlenberg College in Pennsylvania in 2005, having triple-majored in biology, theatre and dance. Later in 2007, he joined the
Broadway cast of the musical
Mamma Mia!, in the ensemble and as understudy for Eddie, in which he performed for three years. Grande produced shows on and off Broadway, including Broadway productions of
Hamlet (2009) starring
Jude Law and revivals of
La Bête (2010–2011) starring
David Hyde Pierce and
Born Yesterday (2011) starring
Jim Belushi. He also produced
Brooke Shields' one-woman cabaret show in 2011. Grande has performed in cabaret acts in New York City, including at
Birdland Jazz Club and
54 Below. Grande was named "Mr. Broadway" in the "Mr. Broadway 2007" charity benefit. He also presented his own show in New York, ''Livin' la Vida Grande'', at the
Laurie Beechman Theatre.
2014–2016 In February 2014, Grande played Consuela
Off-Broadway in a revival of the musical
Pageant. In June of that year, he performed at DigiFest NYC. In mid-2014, Grande appeared on the American reality television series
Big Brother 16.
MTV called his 12 weeks on the show "controversial ... peppered with some powerful, outrageous, and downright impressive moments". Grande placed 5th out of 16 contestants. Grande returned to Broadway in November 2014 as Franz in the musical
Rock of Ages for a two-month engagement. He appeared on
Good Day New York and performed "
Hit Me With Your Best Shot". The same month, he co-hosted the red carpet pre-show of the
American Music Awards. In 2014,
TV Guide called Grande one of "Our Favorite YouTube Stars". He was featured in a 2014
ABC Nightline segment about entertainers who use social media to boost their success. Writing in
The New York Times in 2014,
Michael Musto termed Grande "friskily ambitious". In 2015,
Billboard included Grande in its list of "32 of the top social media stars on the Internet today." In January 2015, Grande again performed his one-man cabaret show at
54 Below. In February, he appeared in a music video for
Lance Bass and modeled for
Malan Breton at
New York Fashion Week. In March, Grande was an
Entertainment Tonight interviewer at the
2015 Kids' Choice Awards. He also appeared in the documentary short film, "Malan Breton: A Journey to Taiwan", which won the 2015 New York City International Film Festival award for "Best Short Documentary". In June he appeared at DigiFest NYC, and the following month he served as a judge for the #JoeyShine Video Contest. Grande was a judge on the 2015 reality TV series ''
America's Best Dance Crew All-Stars: Road to the VMAs, on MTV in 2015. He hosted a TV special on the Oxygen channel in August 2015 called Worst.Post.Ever: With Frankie Grande
about social media faux pas
. The following month, he made a guest appearance on Big Brother 17. He co-hosted the red carpet pre-show of the American Music Awards'' again in 2015. Throughout the year, he also regularly performed a number in his sister's
The Honeymoon Tour. Grande revived his autobiographical one-man show, ''Livin' La Vida Grande'', in Los Angeles in January 2016. The same month, he and his sister launched a unisex fragrance named "Frankie by Ariana Grande". Beginning March 2016, Grande co-hosted
Amazon.com's live show,
Style Code Live (
SCL), which covers celebrity trends as well as fashion and beauty news and tips. The show allows viewers to shop for the items discussed and to ask questions interactively. It streams live each weeknight. A review in
The Washington Post called the show "something of a mash-up between QVC and E! News". Grande performed his cabaret act, ''Livin' la Vida Grande'', at The Box in New York City over a weekend in June 2016. He was also a guest panelist on
Logo TV's
Gay for Play Game Show Starring RuPaul in a 2016 episode. In July and August, Grande appeared on the UK reality TV show
Celebrity Big Brother 18, finishing in 6th place. He recorded a segment on fashions in the
Celebrity Big Brother house for
SCL, and returned to co-hosting
SCL full-time in September 2016. Grande continued to host
SCL until May 2017.
2017–2023 Together with
Olivia Culpo, he critiqued the
2017 Golden Globes fashions on
The Today Show. Grande modeled for Propaganda by Richie Rich, and again for Breton, at
Madison Square Garden during New York Fashion Week in February 2017. In May 2017, he released a music single, "Queen", and an accompanying music video, about his inspiration by '70s glam rock icons. "Queen" ranked number 35 on the
Billboard Twitter Top Tracks chart for the week dated July 15, 2017. In July, Grande competed on the CBS TV game show
Candy Crush. The following month, he appeared on the
Vimeo web series
Indoor Boys; for this he was nominated for a Best Actor award at the 2018
Indie Series Awards. He guest-starred in September 2017 in a two-part episode of
Nickelodeon's sitcom
Henry Danger, Season 3, "Live & Dangerous", in the role of Frankini. In October 2017 Grande appeared in the season 2 finale of the Netflix television series
Haters Back Off as a fictionalized version of himself. In December, he appeared on
Trivial Takedown on
Fuse TV. In January 2018, Grande starred in
The Unauthorized Musical Parody of: Rocky at Rockwell Table and Stage in Los Angeles. The following month, he hosted the red carpet and performed at the Make-Up Artists and Hairstylists Guild Awards in Los Angeles. Grande played Frank-n-Furter in
The Rocky Horror Show in Los Angeles and then joined the cast of the off-Broadway show
Cruel Intentions: The Musical at
(Le) Poisson Rouge as Blaine in March 2018. In May 2018, Grande reprised the role of Frankini in a fourth season episode of
Henry Danger titled "Captain Man-kini", and also guest-starred on ''
RuPaul's Drag Race. In July he returned for another guest appearance on Indoor Boys
. He starred as Finch in a July 2018 Muhlenberg production of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. A reviewer wrote: "His Finch is utterly charming and has an adorable innocence that belies the manipulative techniques he employs to get ahead." In August, he played Captain Victor Garber in New York City in a parody jukebox musical, based on the music of Céline Dion, called Titanique''. He also appeared in the show's return engagement later in the year. He continued to perform in
Titanique in pop-up concert engagements in Los Angeles and New York during the
COVID-19 pandemic and in a live version of the show carried on the streaming platform Stellar on May 2, 2021. Grande also continued to perform his one-man show at nightclubs. He returned as Frankini for a musical episode of
Henry Danger in July 2019 titled "Henry Danger: The Musical", in which he places a curse on Swellview that forces everyone to sing instead of speak. He reprised his role of Franz in a Los Angeles production of
Rock of Ages in late 2019. Grande played the role of Richard in the 2020 film
Spree He starred in the 2021
Macy Gray video of "Undone". and played Frankini in several episodes of
Danger Force from 2020 to 2022. Since 2021, together with Hector Navarro, he has been hosting the Nickelodeon podcast
SpongeBob BingePants. Around Halloween in 2021 and 2022, he played the Nerd in
Horror Camp: A Musical Massacre at the Bourbon Room in Los Angeles. In April 2022, Grande reprised the role of Frankini in a crossover episode of
Side Hustle, and from June to September, he reprised the role of Victor Garber in an off-Broadway engagement of
Titanique at The Asylum Theatre. In 2023, Grande played Nico in the film
Summoning Sylvia. He returned to
Big Brother later in the year to compete in the holiday spin-off season
Big Brother Reindeer Games. He reached the finale and finished in 3rd place.
2024–present In 2024, Grande returned to
Titanique and later in the year reprised the role of Frank-N-Furter in
The Rocky Horror Show at the
Bucks County Playhouse in Pennsylvania. He appeared as Frankini in the 2025 film
Henry Danger: The Movie. On June 27, 2025, Grande released his debut studio album,
Hotel Rock Bottom, for which he co-wrote 14 of the 15 songs. He appeared on
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon to perform songs from the album. He returned for a third consecutive year as Frank-N-Furter in
The Rocky Horror Show in October 2025 at the Bucks County Playhouse in Pennsylvania. After undergoing spinal surgery in December 2025 to relieve pain and neurological symptoms, Grande is reprising the role of Victor Garber in the Broadway production of
Titanique, beginning in March 2026. As of 2024, Grande's social media presence included more than 400,000 YouTube subscribers and more than 2 million followers on Instagram. He also works with his mother, Joan Grande, for Diamond Dog Entertainment, a production company. ==Philanthropy==