Biography
Reeve Carney enjoyed dual stardom as both an actor, most notably in the infamous Broadway production of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark and "Penny Dreadful" (Showtime, 2014-16), and as guitarist and co-founder of the rock band Carney. Born Reeve Jefferson Carney on April 18, 1983 in New York City's West Village neighborhood, he was part of a family of performers that included his great uncle, the Oscar-winning actor Art Carney; his parents, as well as his brother, Zane, and sister, Paris, also enjoyed careers as musicians and/or actors. He gravitated towards music at an early age and began his professional career in his adolescent years, performing on radio and television commercials and even joining Peter, Paul and Mary in a holiday concert at Lincoln Center. Carney's screen career began with a bit part in the drama "The Saint of Fort Washington" (1993) and soon included guest appearances on television. In 1999, he earned his first significant role in "Snow Falling on Cedars," playing Ethan Hawke's character as a young boy. Carney's performance won him a Young Artist Award for Best Performance in a Feature Film, Supporting Young Actor, but he soon shifted his career focus to music. He began playing guitar in his mid-teens at B.B. King's nightclub in Los Angeles, and later played in blues musician Jonny Lang's band while also fronting his own group, Carney, with his brother, Zane. While Carney and his brother attending the University of Southern California's Thornton School of Music, they released the first Carney EP, Looking Glass, in 2004. The brothers soon left school to focus on the band, which was signed by Interscope Records in 2006. A second EP, Nothing Without You, was issued in 2008, with a full-length album, Mr. Green Vol. 1, following in 2010. That same year, Carney was cast as Peter Parker, the alter ego of Marvel Comics' best-loved anti-hero, Spider-Man, in Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, the long-gestating and trouble-plagued live action musical adaptation of the popular comic book franchise. Carney remained with the show for three years, surviving its numerous delays and cast injuries, while his bandmates performed the show's music by U2's Bono and The Edge; he remained with Spider-Man until 2013 and scored a No. 74 single on the Billboard Hot 100 with "Rise Above 1," a duet with Bono and the Edge from the show's soundtrack. During this period, Carney also appeared in "The Tempest" (2010), an Oscar-nominated adaptation of the Shakespeare drama by Spider-Man's first director, Julie Taymor. In 2014, Carney joined the cast of "Penny Dreadful" (Showtime 2014-16), playing Oscar Wilde's doomed hero, the morally corrupted and seemingly immortal Dorian Gray.
