Bryan Batt is a multifaceted artist who was born March 1, 1963 in New Orleans, Louisiana. He is a thespian as well as a designer, with many successful credits in both fields. As an actor, Batt has essayed principal roles in nine Broadway productions including Sunset Blvd, Beauty and the Beast, Saturday Night Fever and the 2005 revival of La Cage Aux Folles. His performance in Saturday Night Fever earned him one unusual honor in New York City, receiving a caricature at the restaurant Sardi’s. Earning credits as a designer, he soon became a guest designer on several episodes of STYLE Network’s Guess Who’s Coming to Decorate. His home accessories shop, Hazelnut, has been featured in The New York Times, Traditional Homes and Domino Magazine.
Bryan Batt has also garnered a number of roles on film and television. During the late 1990s, he worked on a string of films. He was given the role of Darius on the dramatic comedy Jeffrey in 1995 and worked on Kiss Me, Guido, a comedy, two years later. Batt was next seen on the romantic comedy Hit and Runway in 1999, a film which starred Michael Parducci, Peter Jacobson, Judy Prescott and Kerr Smith. In 2003, Batt found himself acting on an episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent. He was given the role of Hugo, before landing the part of a photographer in an episode of Rescue Me. He later worked on a musical video titled Alma and King Noah’s Court in 2005, before he joined the cast of the AMC series Mad Men. On the show, Bryan Batt plays the character Salvatore Romano, the Italian art director at Sterling Cooper advertising agency. The openly gay actor has had many gay roles on film and stage, and revealed in an interview with Playbill that it used to worry him. He later became comfortable playing any character given to him, and has been acting ever since.
(Photo courtesy of AMC)