Photo Flash: First Look - Tony Winner Ben Platt Guests on Next WILL & GRACE + Details On His Role

Tony Award winner and DEAR EVAN HANSEN STAR Ben Platt guest stars as Will's young love interest 'Blake' on WILL & GRACE, airing Thursday, October 5 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on NBC. In the episode, titled 'Who's Your Daddy,' Will (Eric McCormack) and Jack (Sean Hayes) try to date younger guys but find it challenging. Grace (Debra Messing) and Karen (Megan Mullally) experience a crisis that reveals Grace's true feelings about Karen. Check out a first look at Platt's appearance below!

Eric McCormack recently discussed Platt's guest appearance on the show at New York's Tribeca TV Festival, explaining that the story line will allow Will the chance to explore dating someone much younger than he is. "We're all going to get to date cool guest stars and that was always the fun of the show. Who could we get that will bring out new things in these characters?" He adds, "I have a line to Ben Platt... and I say, 'Look, when I was growing up, the only gay man on TV was Bea Arthur.'" (Source)

Ben Platt won a Tony Award earlier this year for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical for his role in "Dear Evan Hansen," which captured the Tony for Best Musical. "Dear Evan Hansen" was a huge winner at the Tonys and won six awards in all. In addition to taking home the Tony, Ben also won the Drama League Award for distinguished Performance making him the youngest actor to have won the coveted award. Ben was awarded an Obie and Lucille Lortel Award as well as nominations for Outer Critics Circle and Drama League awards for his performance in the Off Broadway run. Prior to his award winning turn as Evan Hansen, Platt made his Broadway debut in the musical, "The Book of Mormon." On the big screen, Platt has co-starred in both "Pitch Perfect" and "Pitch Perfect 2" as well as "Ricki and the Flash", "Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk" and the soon to be released "Drunk Parents."

ABOUT "WILL & GRACE" A decade after their unforgettable eight-season run, Debra Messing, Eric McCormack, Sean Hayes and Megan Mullally reprise their infamous roles in "Will & Grace" in a 16-episode event. In addition, at NBC's recent Television Critics Assn. day, the network also ordered a 13-episode second season. The legendary James Burrows, director of every original "Will & Grace" episode, returns along with a slew of razor-sharp jabs and dirty martinis. Behold once again, from the minds of Max Mutchnick and David Kohan, TV's wittiest ensemble ever. Max Mutchnick and David Kohan will write and executive produce. Tim Kaiser, Alex Herschlag, Tracy Poust & Jon Kinnally also executive produce. James Burrows will direct and executive produce. "Will & Grace" is produced by Universal Television.

Photo by: Chris Haston/NBC