Ethan Slater

Slater was married to clinical psychologist Lilly Jay from 2018 to 2024, and they have a son who was born in August 2022. Slater and Jay began dating in 2012 after meeting as high school classmates, and their divorce was finalized in September 2024.

Slater was in a relationship with singer Ariana Grande, whom he met while filming Wicked. The relationship became public in 2023.

Slater was raised in Silver Spring, Maryland, in a Jewish family. His father, Jay Slater, worked for the Food and Drug Administration. Slater's mother died when he was seven, an experience he later described as a formative influence on his life and creative work.

He attended Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School and Georgetown Day School before studying drama at Vassar College. He graduated from Vassar in 2014 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Drama. During high school, he wrestled before taking up ballet at his father's encouragement.

Slater made his first theater appearance at the New York Musical Theatre Festival in 2015, playing Luis in Claudio Quest. He subsequently appeared in Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally and Barry Levinson's play Diner, directed and choreographed by Kathleen Marshall.

In 2016, Slater was cast as SpongeBob SquarePants in Kyle Jarrow's musical The SpongeBob Musical, directed by Tina Landau. The production moved from Chicago to Broadway, where it ran at the Palace Theatre from 2017 to 2018. Slater's performance earned him a Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in a Musical, as well as Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Broadway.com Audience, and Theatre World awards.

After The SpongeBob Musical, Slater appeared in television programs including Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Murphy Brown, Fosse/Verdon, Instinct, and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. He played the Balladeer and Lee Harvey Oswald in the Classic Stage Company production of Stephen Sondheim's Assassins, earning a Lucille Lortel Award nomination. He also originated Max Weinbaum in Good Night, Oscar at Chicago's Goodman Theatre.

Slater played multiple roles, including Prince Herbert and the Historian, in the Broadway revival of Spamalot from 2023 to 2024. In film, he played Boq Woodsman, who becomes the Tin Man, in Jon M. Chu's two-part adaptation of Wicked. His later television roles included Officer Reese Chandler in Elsbeth and Thomas Godolkin in Gen V.

Slater has worked as a singer, composer, and writer in addition to acting. He released the single "Richmond Rewrites" in 2019 and the extended plays Wanderer and Life Is Weird in 2019 and 2020.

He co-wrote and composed music for the short film Intervenors and contributed to the concept album for Edge of the World. He also co-wrote the short film Monos and worked as a writer and composer on the web series New Mayor of New York.