Jesse Tyler Ferguson

Ferguson made his Broadway debut in On the Town, and was in the original Broadway cast of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, for which he and his ensemble cast won a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Cast Ensemble.

He has appeared in theatre adaptations of A Winter's Tale, The Producers, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Spamalot and The Merchant of Venice.

In New York City, Ferguson worked mainly in Off-Broadway and Broadway theatre, including the Tony Award-winning The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, where he originated the role of Leaf Coneybear.

Jesse Tyler Ferguson (born October 22, 1975) is an American actor.

At Albuquerque's St. Pius X High School, Ferguson played Albert Peterson in Bye Bye Birdie and General Bullmoose in Li'l Abner. He participated on the speech and debate team and graduated in 1994.

He worked as a dancer/singer at Cliff's Amusement Park.

After high school Ferguson attended The American Musical and Dramatic Academy (AMDA) in New York City.

Ferguson starred in the Public Theater's 2007 Shakespeare in the Park production of A Midsummer Night's Dream and 2015 production of The Tempest.

Ferguson co-starred in the 2008 thriller Untraceable.

From 2009 to 2020, he portrayed Mitchell Pritchett on the sitcom Modern Family, for which he earned five consecutive nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series.

From 2009 to 2020, he played the role of Mitchell Pritchett, the openly gay lawyer on the ABC sitcom Modern Family.

For his performance, Ferguson has received five consecutive Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series.

In March 2012, Ferguson was featured as Dr. Ilan Meyer in a performance of Dustin Lance Black's play 8, a staged reenactment of Perry v. Brown, the federal trial that overturned California's Proposition 8 ban on same-sex marriage.

The production was held at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre and broadcast on YouTube to raise money for the American Foundation for Equal Rights, a non-profit organization funding the plaintiffs' legal team and sponsoring the play.

On television, Ferguson was among the large ensemble cast on the short-lived CBS sitcom The Class, playing Richie Velch.

In September 2012, Ferguson and his lawyer husband, Justin Mikita, started the non-profit charity Tie The Knot, an effort to raise funds in support of same-sex marriage, using bow ties sold to retail.

They officially launched it as their engagement announcement in an online video where they explain only seven states at the time had same-sex marriage.

In an interview Ferguson stated that he wanted to do something that was smaller and manageable in case it did not work out as a business model.

The foundation sells limited-edition bow ties to support organizations that advocate for same-sex marriage.

Their collections are designed by the couple plus guest designers, and is sold by The Tie Bar, a Naperville, Illinois-based online men's neckwear company.

In January 2013, the couple were recruited by Lieutenant Governor of Illinois Sheila Simon to lobby legislators to pass SB10 which would allow same-sex marriage.

In October 2013, the American Civil Liberties Union named Ferguson the celebrity ambassador for the LGBT community.

He participated heavily in the ACLU's "Out for Freedom" campaign They noted that Ferguson travelled to New Mexico, his home state, to take part in same sex marriage efforts.

Before the state's full legalization of same-sex marriage on December 19, 2013, New Mexico did not explicitly permit or prohibit same-sex marriage; it was the only state lacking a statute or constitutional provision explicitly addressing same-sex marriage.

The couple's non-profit made a grant of US$10,000 to the ACLU of New Mexico for same sex efforts.

The bill passed both legislative houses, and Governor Pat Quinn signed the bill into law, going into effect on June 1, 2014.

In the summer of 2015, he played Sir Robin in the Hollywood Bowl production of Monty Python's Spamalot.

For his performance in the 2016 Broadway production of Fully Committed, Ferguson was awarded a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Solo Performance.

He won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play for his performance in the 2022 Broadway revival of Richard Greenberg's Take Me Out.

Jesse Tyler Ferguson was born in Missoula, Montana, to Anne Ferguson (née Doyle) and Robert "Bob" Ferguson.

His parents divorced when he was 18 years old.

Ferguson has a brother, Ben Ferguson, and sister, Kelly Ferguson.

Ferguson was named after his paternal grandmother, Jessie Uppercue Ferguson, to whom he was very close growing up.

His paternal great-grandfather was also named Jesse.

His family moved when he was young to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he was raised.

At age eight he decided to become an actor, and joined the Albuquerque Children's Theater, where he was a member for six years.

He has also appeared as a judge on So You Think You Can Dance, and opposed actress Chrissy Metz in a 2017 episode of TBS's Drop the Mic.

In 2018, Ferguson was one of the actors who voiced the audiobook A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo.

In 2019, Ferguson appeared in Taylor Swift's music video for "You Need to Calm Down".

From 2020, he has co-hosted HGTV's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition together with Ty Pennington.