Glee Cast ages: This is how old the actors were while they were in the show

You know all those Disney Channel musical fiascos you watched if you were a privileged child? Most of them made the effort to scout child actors to play the main cast because it would be weird to have people in their 20s playing 16-year-olds, right? Well for most teen sitcoms on other channels, producers thought “fuck it” and just cast adults in the roles instead. And so we come to the question: What are the Glee Cast ages?

The ages of the cast of Glee are, like its sitcom brethren 90210 and The Hills, a total farce. If you were ever left looking at the fully grown men playing the teenagers of McKinley High and wondering why your weedy boyfriend didn’t have arms like Sam or Finn you might want to check some Wikis because some of them were nearly 30 years of age at the time.

We’ve researched (Googled) all the main players of the series and matched them up with the date of their first appearance to work out how old they were when they debuted as their character. It involved far more maths than is honestly reasonable. Now the ages of the characters themselves are never really brought up by the show, so there’s some light guesswork going on regarding the age gaps here but honestly if you want to pick fights with me on that I’ll see you outside Maccies tonight. Anyway. Glee. Ages. Let’s go:

This is how old the actors in the Glee Cast were while they were on the show

Lea Michele, 22

Glee’s shining star is 16 when we meat her, making the age gap a slightly barmy six years. Most of the cast were around this age when they started.

Cory Monteith, 27

Cory was nearly as old as some of the adult characters when he started playing 16-year-old Finn Hudson. In fact, he was only three years younger than Matthew Morrison, which maybe explains why the writers thought it was acceptable to portray them as best mates.

Chris Colfer, 19

The youngest actor on the show, Chris was only three years older then the 16-year-old Kurt. Fair enough.

Darren Criss, 23

Darren didn’t join the cast until its second season in 2010, where he stole the show as Blaine Anderson. Blaine was a year younger than Kurt at the time so he was probably 16, making the age gap between him and Darren seven years.

Matthew Morrison, 30

Idk why but Matthew is younger than I thought he would be, only a few years older than the men playing some of Mr Schue’s students, which is mainly why he’s included here.

Dianna Agron, 23

Did you know Diana shares her second name with a Pokémon? That’s a fun fact for you (if you were a fun fact fan). Quinn Fabray was supposedly the same age as Finn, 16, so Diana sits squarely in the middle of the ages of the character she plays and her on-screen boyfriend’s real age. Neat!

Chord Overstreet, 21

Chord (stupid name, sorry) joined the cast in the same year Darren did as the incredibly jacked Sam Evans, but was a little closer in age, making him one of the younger cast members overall.

Jonathan Groff, 25

The cavalier Jesse St James was in his senior year when he debuted in season one, making his character 18. In real life though he was seven years older than that.

Mark Salling, 26

Mark was 10 years older than the 16-year-old character he played. He actually lied about his age to get the part of Puck, claiming to be 19.

Heather Morris, 22

Heather was one of the main cast who was revealed to be a year junior to Rachel, Finn, and Kurt. This would suggest Brit was in fact meant to be 15 when the show kicked off, and how we were meant to believe that is beyond me.

Harry Shum Jr, 27

Tied with Cory for the oldest of the Glee kids, Harry was a full 11 years older than the 16 shy dancer he was meant to be playing. If you felt jealous of Mike’s abs in your youth, it’s okay. He was an adult.

Jane Lynch, 49

You can’t have a Glee Cast ages roundup without Sue, even though her age isn’t really relevant to anything in the show.

Kavin McCale, 20

Kevin was another one of the junior kids in the OG cast, but with only five years separating him and his character he wasn’t the worst offender.

Jenna Ushkowitz, 23

Jenna, on the other hand, was a full eight years older than Tina Cohen-Chang, who was supposedly 15. Come on people.

Amber Riley, 23

Vocal Wonderwoman Amber Riley played the show’s most underrated character, Mercedes Jones. She was of a similar age to the other Glee Cast members but still seven years older than the 16-year-old character.

Jayma Mays, 29

The guidance councillor Emma was Mr Schue’s on-off love interest, but the woman playing her was only a few years older than some of the men playing students. Yikes.

Max Adler, 23

Kurt’s bully Dave Krofsky went from a side character featured from the show’s beginning to a more fully fleshed-out recurring figure as the show developed. He was four years older than Chris Colfer at the time of his debut and eight years older than the 16-year-old kid he was playing.

Naya Rivera, 22

The ever-iconic Santana was a senior member of the OG cast and was therefore supposed to be 16 in her first season on the show. Naya was, in fact, six years older than that.

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