Justin Pereira
Justin Spencer Pereira (born July 16, 1991) is an American actor and musician, best known as the original Oliver Twist in the American National Tour of Cameron Macintosh's Oliver!
Professional theatrical career
Pereira starred as Oliver Twist in the acclaimed American National Tour of "Oliver!" from 2003 to 2004. The St. Louis Riverfront Times commented that "In the title role, Justin S. Pereira is a winsome charmer. The lad who played Oliver in the initial 1963 Broadway production received eleventh billing. Pereira has leapfrogged up to fourth place, and he should be in first, for he's the evening's star." The San Diego Playbill added that "Young Justin S. Pereira as Oliver Twist turns in an exceptional solo of Where is Love?"
Pereira also performed in the 2002 production of Merrily We Roll Along at the Kennedy Center's Sondheim Celebration, where he established a friendly relationship with famed composer/lyricist Stephen Sondheim, who nicknamed Pereira "Pipes" and changed a song (Transition #7) to make it a solo for Pereira. Working on the production, Pereira also developed a friendship with acclaimed Broadway actor Raul Esparza.
In 2009, Pereira portrayed the role of Nisel Lipiczany in the controversial play King of the Jews at the Olney Theatre Center for the Arts in Maryland. Lipiczany remains silent for the first several hours of the play, and finally delivers an emotional 15 minute monologue AbOUT the slaughter of his family and all the residents of his hometown in [...]-occupied Poland. The D.C. theater critic Tim Treanor wrote of the performance that "In this play, seventeen-year-old Justin Pereira gives an absolutely stunning performance as a boy who watched his family, and hundreds of other Jews, slaughtered by Nazis in an open field. His account of that event doesn’t just hold the room in rapture, it enraptures the entire theater, and could it be broadcast to the whole world it might hold the planet in its thrall. Performances like this should give us hope for theater’s continued excellence, even as we should continue to have hope for humans, even in our darkest times."
He had performed at the Olney Theatre before, having portrayed Collin in The Secret Garden there in 2002.
Pereira appeared as Mottel in Shlemiel the First at Theater J in 2007-2008.
In 2006, he appeared as Fleance and Macduff's son in Macbeth at the eminent Shakespeare Theatre in Washington D.C. The production starred Broadway actors Patrick Page and Kelly McGillis.
Pereira's professional debut came at the age of 9 in 2000, when he appeared as Tiny Tim in A Christmas Carol at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C., the historic theater where Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. Pereira later reprised the role at Ford's in 2004.
Musical interests
In 2009, Pereira joined the Harvard Din and Tonics jazz a cappella group at Harvard University.
Education and personal life
Pereira currently attends Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In November 2009, he was featured in The Harvard Voice. He attended James Hubert Blake High School in Silver Spring, Maryland. Pereira gave the Graduation Address for Blake's Class of 2009 in June of that year.