Wayne Hosford is an award-winning and critically acclaimed entertainer, singer, musician, comedian, actor and composer. Whether he performs in a theatre, on the concert stage, in an intimate cabaret, at a major music festival, or for a corporate or private event, audiences and the media alike give this extraordinary artist rave reviews.

In addition to his original songs and unique comedy, his vast repertoire spans the Great American Songbook, Broadway, Adult Contemporary, and American Popular Song from the 1960’s, 70’s and 80’s. Wayne conceives, writes and performs his individualized shows for any performance venue, whatever the occasion.

Most recently, for private and corporate events, Wayne was the opening performer for singer Michael Bublé, and on another occasion for comedy legend Jay Leno. Wayne was featured at Spoleto Festival USA for six performances of A Passionate Persuasion, his solo tribute to the songs of Peter Allen. In New York City, he has performed at The Beacon Theatre, The Ballroom (CD: Julie Wilson and Wayne Hosford Live at the Ballroom – Nonga Records), Bobo’s (MAC Award nomination-Best Singer/Instr.), Carnegie Hall, Danny’s Skylight Room (Back Stage Bistro Award; MAC Award nomination-Best Newcomer), Lincoln Center, Michael’s Pub, The Russian Tea Room, Sardi’s, Steve McGraw’s, Symphony Space, Tavern On The Green, The Town Hall, The Triad, the famed club “21,” and legendary comedy landmark The Village Gate (with comedy troupe Noo Yawk Tawk). He was a frequent performer in the Royal Room of Palm Beach’s Colony Hotel, having mounted five different shows there before its 2018 closing.

Over the span of his career, Wayne has shared the spotlight alongside illustrious artists including Christine Andreas, Kaye Ballard, Ann Hampton Callaway, Len Cariou, Michael Feinstein, Dorothy Loudon, Marilyn Maye, Jay Mohr, Neal Sedaka and Carol Woods. Wayne’s New York debut Off-Broadway was in Cabariety at Saint Peter’s Theatre, soon garnering engagements to headline with the legendary Julie Wilson in the Cabaret Comes To Carnegie series and the renowned Gold Star Sardine Bar in Chicago; with recording stalwart Margaret Whiting in the long-standing Manhattan 92nd Street Y‘s Lyrics and Lyricists series (Johnny Mercer); and with cabaret star Steve Ross and jazz bassist/singer Jay Leonhart at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Concert Series. Featured on the same bill with Woody Allen at Michael’s Pub at Bar Montparnasse, Wayne teamed with cabaret veteran William Roy, singing and playing duo-piano in Endangered Elegance, (CD: Endangered Elegance – Nonga Records), and the American Cabaret Theatre Festival. As an accompanist on piano, he has performed with Brent Barrett, Brian Bedford, Carole J. Bufford, C&W artist Faith Hill, Cloris Leachman, and Brian Stokes Mitchell.

He has been honored to perform solo on separate occasions for U.S. President George H.W. Bush, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, John Spencer-Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, U.S. Senators Edward M. Kennedy and Alan Simpson, as well as U.S. Governors Jeb Bush, John Kasich, and Terry McAuliffe. Wayne’s long list of business and personal accounts presently encompasses three continents across the world and, in addition to countless individual clients, includes several major corporations such as The American Cancer Society, The American Red Cross, The Coca-Cola Company, and Lilly Pulitzer, Inc. He was a featured solo entertainer for both the Democratic and Republican National Conventions in two separate presidential election years. Wayne has also performed on the high seas with Holland America Line and Norwegian Caribbean Line.

Wayne’s tours and performances abroad have encompassed Brazil (Manaus Opera House), France (Festival d’Art et de Musique, St. Claud), England (Royal Albert Hall, Pizza On The Park, The Chelmsford Spectacular), Poland (Krakow Conservatory), and Sweden (Umeå, Luleå, Östersund). In addition, a host of concert and cabaret series around the U.S. have featured Wayne’s shows: A Broadway Sampler I and II; The Gold Standard; A Johnny Mercer Songbook; Simply Sinatra; Wayne, Women and Song; Socking It To The Sixties and A Seventies Sojourn, the last two celebrating the diverse and memorable songs of those decades.

Wayne has entertained at renowned social, sporting and country clubs including New York City’s Friars Club, Harvard Club, Metropolitan Club, National Arts Club,  and Players Club; Atlanta’s Cherokee Club and Piedmont Driving Club; Cape Cod’s Wianno Club; Dallas’ Petroleum Club; Locust Valley’s Piping Rock Club; Minneapolis-St. Paul’s Wood Hill Country Club; Nantucket’s Westmoor Club; Palm Beach’s Bath and Tennis Club, Beach Club, Club Colette, Everglades Club, Mar-a-Lago Club, Palm Beach Country Club and Sailfish Club; and, to its north and south, Gulf Stream Bath and Tennis Club, Hobe Sound Yacht Club, Jupiter Island Club, Key Largo Anglers Club, Loblolly, and Riviera Country Club; and Princeton’s Bedens Brook Club.

A professional actor since age 12 (Jim Hawkins, Treasure Island, for Atlanta’s Alliance Theatre with film and television actor and former U.S. Representative Ben Jones), Wayne’s work in theatre has been divided between performing, most recently in Our Sinatra at the Stage Door Theatre in Fort Lauderdale; Triple Espresso (Hugh Butternut) at the New American Theatre in Rockford, Illinois; The 1940’s Radio Hour (Neal Tilden) with Broadway actress Ann Morrison at the Asolo Theatre in Sarasota; and musical direction, for Forever Plaid at Pennsylvania Centre Stage; The Straight Man, winner of the Norfolk New Play Festival at Roanoke’s Mill Mountain Theatre; and for Take Note and Scores of Friends, at San Francisco’s Alcazar Theatre and Fort Lauderdale’s Broward Performing Arts Center.

As a composer, his work was heard Off-Broadway, for the Irish Repertory‘s Alive, Alive, Oh!, for which his underscoring for the pantomimes of theatre, film and television great Milo O’Shea won two ASCAP awards; for New York’s Judith Shakespeare Theatre Company‘s production of The Comedy of Errors (set in the roaring twenties). Maestro, an original musical written with Sharon Tipsword,  has had two staged readings produced in Dallas and Atlanta. Wayne has written and/or sung several jingles that have been broadcast on radio and television, as have some of his original songs.

His academic training encompasses applied piano and voice since childhood, a BA/BM double-major in music education and music theory/composition at the University of Miami, a BFA major in musical theatre at The Conservatory at Webster University in Saint Louis, and further composition at Georgia State University.