Early Life
Manganiello was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and raised in Mt. Lebanon, a suburb south of the city. His parents are Susan (née Brachanow), a former model, and Charles John Manganiello. His father's family is Italian, from Naples and Messina (Sicily), while his mother is of Austrian, German, and Armenian descent. He has a younger brother, Nicholas. He was a student at St. Bernard School, a Roman Catholic elementary school in Mt. Lebanon, and then attended Mt. Lebanon High School, where he graduated with honors in 1995 and won the school's Great Alumni Award in 2011. Growing up, he was the captain of his football, basketball, and volleyball teams and went on to play at the varsity level in all three sports. Manganiello won the role of Jud Fry in his school's senior year production of Oklahoma!, and was involved with the school's TV studio. On weekends, he would borrow equipment to make movies with his friends, and became interested in acting to become a better amateur filmmaker.
After a series of sports injuries including a torn MCL returning a kickoff in a varsity football game against Ringgold High School (former high school of NFL Hall of Famer Joe Montana), Manganiello auditioned for the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama as a senior in high school. He was not accepted, so enrolled at the University of Pittsburgh and worked at doing theatre. Manganiello re-applied to Carnegie Mellon a year later, and was one of 17 students accepted into the acting program. He performed in theatre productions and wrote, produced and acted in the student film Out of Courage 2: Out for Vengeance. Manganiello graduated in 2000 with a BFA in acting. Manganiello studied all styles of classical theatre while he was there. Manganiello traveled to New York and Los Angeles through his university to participate in group auditions, which provided him contacts in the entertainment business.
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