He won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical in 1998 for playing the Emcee in the Broadway revival of Cabaret.

Alan Cumming, born January 27, 1965, in Aberfeldy, Scotland, is a Scottish-American actor and presenter with five Emmy Awards, two Tony Awards, and a BAFTA. He has been married to artist Grant Shaffer since 2007. Known for hosting The Traitors US and playing Caesar Flickerman in The Hunger Games, he won his first Tony in 1998 for Cabaret and starred as Eli Gold in The Good Wife from 2010 to 2016.

Born in Aberfeldy, Perthshire, Cumming grew up on the Panmure Estate near Carnoustie on Scotland's east coast, where his father worked as head forester. He attended Carnoustie High School before training at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, graduating in the early 1980s. He formed the comedy duo Victor and Barry with classmate Forbes Masson, performing at the 1984 Edinburgh Fringe, then joined Scotland's Royal Lyceum, Dundee Rep, and The Tron Glasgow before breaking through in London's West End and the Royal National Theatre.

Cumming married artist and illustrator Grant Shaffer in 2007 through a civil partnership in London, then legally married him in 2012 in New York after US marriage equality laws changed. He was previously married to actress Hilary Lyon from 1985 to 1993. He holds dual UK and US citizenship (since 2008) and lives in upstate New York, where he owns a home. He has no children.