Lee Curreri on AllMovie

Fans of the film and television series Fame will recognize Lee Curreri as the actor who portrayed arrogant, aspiring keyboardist and composer Bruno. Though he has appeared as an actor on a couple of subsequent projects, Curreri is primarily a real life composer, musician, and producer. A native of New York, Currerri learned composition, piano, and trombone at the Manhattan School of Music and Mannes College of Music. He learned to compose under the tutelage of Charles Jones and Soulima Stravinsky and got his professional start arranging music and performing in the orchestra at the Public Theater with Joseph Papp. In 1979, director Alan Parker hired Curreri to play Bruno in the movie Fame; the character was patterned after Curreri. While on the television series (it ran from 1982 to 1984), Curreri composed a few songs and a number of piano/synthesizer dance cues for musical numbers. As a composer, he has penned music for numerous series, special projects, and television commercials.