A Broadway and film composer from the Philadelphia suburbs is one step closer to the most coveted achievement in show business: the EGOT.
Only 19 people have earned an EGOT, an acronym for the four major entertainment awards (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony). But Benj Pasek, who grew up in Ardmore, is just one statuette away from the honor. He’ll compete for the elusive E in the equation this fall at the 2024 Emmy awards. If he wins, he’ll not only EGOT — he’ll tie a record for the youngest winner in history.
Pasek, 39, was nominated Wednesday in the outstanding original music and lyrics category for his work on “Only Murders in the Building,” the Hulu comedy about a trio of neighbors investigating crimes in and around their tony Upper East Side apartment building. (It co-stars another star from the Philadelphia area: recent Oscar winner Da’Vine Joy Randolph.) Pasek is one of four writers on the song “Which of the Pickwick Triplets Did It?” The tongue-twisting tune is part of a fake musical the characters are mounting on Broadway, and it nearly undoes the man singing it: washed-up TV actor Charles-Haden Savage (Steve Martin).
Pasek, along with his songwriting partner Justin Paul, 39, already has three pieces of the EGOT. The pair won an Oscar for best original song with “City of Stars” from “La La Land” in 2017. Their hit musical “Dear Evan Hansen” landed them two Tonys — best original score and best musical — and a Grammy for best musical theater album. They were nominated for an Emmy in 2018 for their work on “A Christmas Story Live!” but lost to “Saturday Night Live.”
“SNL” hasn’t won the category since, and with the critically lauded “Only Murders in the Building,” Pasek and Paul may be in a better position to triumph. If they do, the pair would tie the record for youngest EGOT winner held by composer Robert Lopez. Lopez was 39 when he achieved the EGOT with his Academy Award for best song with “Let It Go.”
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