Alex Eugene Newell (born August 20, 1992) is an American actor and singer. They are known for their role as Unique Adams on the Fox musical series Glee and Mo on Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist. Newell also starred as Asaka in the Broadway revival of Once on This Island at the Circle in the Square Theater in 2018. As a singer, Newell has released tracks with Clean Bandit, Blonde, and The Knocks. Early life Newell was born on August 20, 1992, in Lynn, Massachusetts. Their father, a deacon, died of cancer when they were six years old, at which point their mother raised them as a single parent. After four complete years of education in the first class of Kipp Lynn Academy, Newell moved on to and graduated from Bishop Fenwick High School in 2012, where they were involved in their school's choir, improv club, and costume club; they were also a member of their church choir. They never had any formal voice lessons before landing their part on Glee. They have cited Donna Summer, Sylvester, Diana Ross, Aretha Franklin, Chaka Khan, and Beyoncé as their influences. Career 2010–14: Glee Newell was among 34,000 to submit an audition video in 2011 for the first season of Oxygen's The Glee Project. Newell's self-taped audition earned them over one million MySpace views as well as a spot among the 12 participants who competed for a seven-episode arc on Glee. During the arc, they asserted themself as an out gay man. Eventually, they became the series’ first runner-up. Nevertheless, the producers were so impressed that they decided to bring them on Glee for two episodes. Newell first appeared on Glee in the third season episode "Saturday Night Glee-ver". They were cast in the role of Wade "Unique" Adams, a transgender teenager who was assigned male at birth. The shy, outcast Wade expressed their female identity through music as the bold, brave alter ego, Unique. Wade broke ground by being one of the most visible transgender characters on television and one of the first on a network prime time show. Newell's performance was described as "bold", with "remarkable restraint and powerful vocals." On his nightly show, Bill O'Reilly expressed concern that children watching the show unsupervised might be encouraged to experiment with what he termed "alternative lifestyles," which he said the show glorified. Newell commented, "My mother said, 'If Bill O'Reilly said something about you,