Brendon Boyd Urie is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and former frontman of Panic! at the Disco. For over 2 decades, Brendon was the lead vocalist and eventually the only permanent member. They released seven studio albums before the project ended in 2023.
Born in St. George, Utah, Brendon moved with his family to Las Vegas when he was two and grew up in a Mormon household. As a teen, he attended Palo Verde High School and joined a band started by classmates Ryan Ross, Spencer Smith, and Brent Wilson. Although he initially joined as a guitarist, his bandmates noticed his singing abilities and asked him to become the group’s lead singer. After being discovered via MySpace and getting signed to Pete Wentz’ Decaydance Records, Panic! At the Disco released A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out in 2005. The album’s first single, “I Write Sins Not Tragedies”, turned the band into an international success and became one of the defining songs of the “emo” counterculture.
Panic!’s lineup and musical sound changed multiple times over the years. In 2008, they released their Beatles-inspired album Pretty. Odd., followed by the alternative-pop and steampunk aesthetic Vices & Virtues in 2011, and Too Weird To Live, Too Rare to Die! in 2013. By the release of Death of a Bachelor in 2016, Brendon was the only remaining original member and had taken direct control over its musical direction. Death of a Bachelor became Panic!’s first No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and earned a Grammy Nomination for Best Rock Album.
Brendon’s theatrical performance style also led him to venture into Broadway. In 2017, he made his debut on stage as Charlie Price in the Tony Award-winning musical Kinky Boots. His experience there influenced the theatrical sound for Pray for the Wicked. In that same year, Brendon collaborated with Taylor Swift for the 2019 single “Me!,” performing it at that year’s Billboard Music Awards.
Brendon’s sexual fluidity has been a public part of his life years before he formally adopted a queer label. In a 2013 interview with Pride Source, he said that he found himself “attracted to dudes all the time” and saw no reason to be ashamed of that attraction. At the time of that interview, he still identified as straight, while also acknowledging that he had had encounters with both men and women.
His conversations about sexuality got picked up by social media and went viral, as they were also connected to Panic!’s 2013 single “Girls/Girls/Boys”. Brendon described the song as autobiographical and said its central message was the idea that “love is not a choice”. Although the song drew from his experiences as a teenager, LGBTQ fans transformed it into an anthem. During concerts, fans began holding rainbow-colored paper hearts over their phone lights during the song’s performance, turning the venues into Pride displays. He later told PAPER magazine that he loved the fact that fans had taken a song inspired by his life and turned it into a message about coming out and accepting yourself.
In that same interview, Brendon also publicly identified as pansexual for the first time. Although he had been married to Sarah Orzechowski since 2013, he explained that the gender of someone he found attractive was not important to him, and later commented:
I’m married to a woman, and I’m very much in love with her, but I’m not opposed to a man because, to me, I like a person. Yeah, I guess you could qualify me as pansexual because I really don’t care…I guess this is me coming out as pansexual.
In 2018, Brendon launched the Highest Hopes Foundation and pledged $1 million to GLSEN to support student-led LGBTQ clubs and GSA alliances in schools. He also spoke about his desire to give young leaders the support they needed to build more inclusive communities.
After the Viva las Vengance tour in 2023, Brendon announced that Panic! at the Disco would end, after nearly 20 years since its debut. He explained that he and Sarah were expecting their first child, and that he wanted to devote his attention to his growing family. The band’s final show took place in Manchester in March of 2023.
The retirement was not completely permanent, as Brendon returned to perform as Panic! at the When We Were Young Festival in Las Vegas, where the band performed the entirety of the A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out album to celebrate the album’s 20th anniversary.
Brendon’s understanding and public framing of his sexuality has changed over time — from openly expressing attraction to men while still identifying as straight, to later coming out as pan. Alongside this evolution, and the way “Girls/Girls/Boys” naturally grew into a bi and queer anthem, his relationship with LGBTQ fans became a defining part of Panic! at the Disco’s legacy. Rather than distancing himself from interpretations of his lyrics or public speculation, he consistently embraced them, ultimately finding both acceptance and a clearer sense of identity within the LGBTQ community.