Sean Hayes

Born: 26th June 1970
Where: Glen Ellyn, Chicago, USA

The classically trained pianist is best known for the TV role of Jack, the best friend of gay lawyer Will Truman in Will & Grace.

Big screen work includes Wayne in Pieces of April, Mr Humberfloob in The Cat in the Hat and Thomas in The Bucket List.

The son of a lithographer and a food bank worker, Hayes' father left him and his four siblings when he was a child.

As a teenager he got an early taste of Hollywood when he was an extra in Winona Ryder's first movie Lucas, filmed at his High School in Glen Ellyn.

HE attended Illinois State University where he studied music and theatre and supported himself through college by playing piano for voice lessons and working in community theatre.

He played a stint with the Second City comedy troupe and then temporarily became a musical director for a local theatre.

In 1995, he moved to LA where he got a "hellish" job at a restaurant before getting his first break on a national tour with Kenny Rogers for a Christmas show.

He performed as a stand-up, worked in commercials and also landed the leading role of a gay photographer, an incurable romantic, who develops a crush on one of his models in Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss.

Spotted by a casting agent at the Sundance screening, Hayes was offered the role of Jack McFarland, the gay best friend of attorney Will Truman (Eric McCormack), in Will & Grace.

The show became a massive hit, and his performance earned him seven consecutive Emmy Award nominations.

In 2001, he provided the voice for magalomaniac cat Mr Tinkles in the box-office hit Cats & Dogs.

(the same year he was credited with saving a man's life when he staunched the wound of a mugging victim in Los Angeles before calling the police.)

On the big screen, subsequent supporting roles included Pieces of April, Win A Date With Tad Hamilton and the Dr Seuss adaptation The Cat in the Hat with Mike Myers.

On TV, he had roles in the series Lovespring International and Campus Ladies before landing the role of Thomas alongside Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman in The Bucket List.