John Edward Cariani (born 1969) is an American actor and playwright. Cariani is best known as the forensic expert Julian Beck in Law & Order. On stage, he was nominated for a Tony Award for his role as Motel the Tailor in the 2004 Broadway revival of Fiddler on the Roof. He is also known for his roles in Broadway shows Something Rotten! and The Band's Visit, and for writing Almost, Maine, the most produced play in American high schools in 2016–17.
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Early life
Born in Brockton, Massachusetts, Cariani was eight when his family moved to Presque Isle, Maine.
He attended Presque Isle High School where he was active in the music and theater programs. After graduating in 1987, he attended
Amherst College, where he was a member of the Zumbyes, Amherst's oldest a-cappella group, and the Glee Club. After graduating from Amherst College in 1991 with a B.A. in history, he studied acting and directing at now defunct StageWest in Springfield, Massachusetts. He then moved to New York at age 27 to pursue acting.
Career
Cariani spent his early years in New York working with the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, and acting in Off-Broadway plays, television commercials, and films.
His first break came in 1999 when he was cast in the Off-Broadway play It's My Party (and I'll Die If I Want To), starring F. Murray Abraham and Joyce Van Patten.
Cariani broke into film and TV in 2000 when he was cast in the independent film, Scotland, PA, opposite Christopher Walken, and guest-starred on the TV series Ed. In 2001, he landed his first major film role opposite Robert De Niro in the Warner Brothers film Showtime. He played forensic expert Julian Beck in the police procedural drama Law & Order from 2002 to 2007.
Playwriting
As playwright, Cariani is best known for his first play, Almost, Maine, which was developed at the Cape Cod Theatre Project in 2002. It premiered at Portland Stage Company (in Portland, Maine) in 2004. Almost, Maine opened Off-Broadway in 2006 and was featured in Smith and Kraus' New Playwrights: Best Plays of 2006.
The play was published by Dramatists Play Service in 2007 and has since become one of the most popular plays in the United States with nearly 100 professional productions and over 5000 community, university, and high school productions to date. Annual surveys by the Educational Theatre Association, conducted from 2009 through (at least) 2017, found that Almost, Maine consistently placed first or second (alternating with A Midsummer Night's Dream) as the most frequently produced full-length play in American high schools.
In 2014, Transport Group revived Almost, Maine Off-Broadway to critical acclaim, with Cariani himself performing in the production. The Advocate named the production to its "Best Theatre of 2014" list, and Lincoln Center recorded the production for its Theatre on Film and Tape Archive.
Dramatists Play Service recently published its 80th Anniversary Edition, a boxed set of 8 definitive titles representing each decade of the Play Service's history. Almost, Maine was selected to represent DPS' eighth decade.
In 2020, Cariani adapted Almost, Maine into a novel, Almost, Maine: A Novel, published by Macmillan.
Cariani's second play, cul-de-sac premiered Off-Broadway in April 2006 in a Transport Group production. The New York Times described cul-de-sac as "charming, witty and macabre." The play was reworked and presented at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts (New York City) and at High Point University (High Point, NC) in 2016 and received further development at the Cape Cod Theatre Project. It received a professional production at Half Theatre in Poughkeepsie in 2016.
Cariani's third play, Last Gas premiered at Portland Stage Company (Portland, Maine) in 2010. Cariani noted that "Almost, Maine is almost a love letter to northern Maine and Last Gas is a more realistic look at that part of the world." It has been described as "a bittersweet romance about two people who lack the courage to admit they love one another ... it's an undeniable winner despite its predictable twist." The play ran at Opera House Arts, Stonington Opera House, Maine, in 2013 and at Geva Theatre Center in Rochester, New York in the winter of 2014. It was published by Dramatists Play Service in 2014.
Personal life
Cariani and his husband John Lloyd, a retired NYPD detective, have been together since 1999 and live in the Bronx.