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Special Guests
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Glee's Darren Criss to entertain at the Benefit Dinner
 Darren Criss is an actor and multi-Billboard charting musician and composer, who currently stars as Blaine Anderson on Fox's Emmy and Golden Globe Award-winning series Glee. After making a splash as a guest star on the series’ second season, Criss was quickly promoted to a series regular. As the charismatic and openly-gay student from rival glee club the Dalton Academy Warblers, his breakout performance of Katy Perry's “Teenage Dream” in his first episode set a milestone for Glee. It debuted at #1 on Billboard for the first time in the show’s history and sold over 200,000 tracks in its first week.
Criss will make his Broadway debut as J. Pierrepont Finch in How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying, performing a limited three week engagement from January 3 through January 22, 2012. He recently wrapped filming Imogene, alongside Kristen Wiig, Annett Benning and Matt Dillon. The film, set to release in 2013, marks his motion picture debut.
Criss is the co-founder of the Chicago-based theatre company StarKid Productions, where he wrote and starred in A Very Potter Musical and A Very Potter Sequel. He conceptualized the story and developed the music and lyrics for the company’s most recent musical Starship.
The San Francisco native received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theater Performance from the University of Michigan.
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Bill Hemmer, Co-Anchor of America's Newsroom
to host the Benefit Dinner
 Bill Hemmer is currently the co-anchor of FOX News Channel’s (FNC) America's Newsroom (9-11 AM/ET)
Throughout his tenure at FNC, Hemmer has anchored several key breaking news events as they unfold each morning and secured key interviews with top newsmakers, including DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-FL) and the first interview with Speaker of the House, John Boehner (R-OH), after a government shutdown was averted in April 2011. He notably covered the network’s 2010 Midterm Election night coverage and, in January 2009, provided live on site coverage of Haitian earthquake’s devastating aftermath. Previously, in November 2008, he reported extensively on the investigation of the army base shooting in Fort Hood, Texas.
Before joining FNC in 2005, Hemmer was an anchor and correspondent at CNN, where he co-hosted American Morning and anchored CNN Live Today and CNN Tonight.
A recipient of several awards and honors, including a 1996 Emmy Award, Hemmer began his career as a weekend sports anchor for WCPO-TV (CBS) in Cincinnati. He is a graduate of the Miami University of Ohio and is a native of Cincinnati.
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After Party - Piano Bar - Cipriani Mezzanine
We are pleased to announce an After Party Piano Bar to 11.30pm on the mezzanine of Cipriani Wall Street. Relax and enjoy the sounds of Van Morrison, Porter, Gershwin and Bernstein tunes performed by American and Australian singers and musicians currently performing at the Metropolitan Opera and other world class venues.
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Past Special Guests
Past special guests at our Benefit Dinners have included Hugh Jackman, Australian Treasurer Wayne Swan, three-time Heavyweight Champion Muhammad Ali, Australia's five-time Olympic gold medalist swimmer Ian Thorpe, and the lead stars of Fox's Golden Globe Award-winning TV series Glee - Matthew Morrison, Dianna Agron, Amber Riley and Corey Monteith.
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