Jonathan Groff

The musical tells the story of repressed adolescents in late nineteenth century Germany discovering their sexuality, adapted from Frank Wedekind's original 1891 play by Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater and directed by Michael Mayer.

The musical achieved great critical acclaim, garnering eleven nominations and winning eight awards, including Best Musical, at the 61st Tony Awards.

The musical was also awarded the Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album, which the Grammys did not award to vocalists at that time.

Charles Isherwood of The New York Times called the show a "brave new musical, haunting and electrifying by turns" and praised Groff's "ardency and thoughtfulness".

Variety wrote that the performances of "Michele, Groff and Gallagher dominate the young ensemble".

Groff was nominated for a Drama Desk Award, a Drama League Award, and a Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical for his performance.

He received the Theatre World Award for Outstanding Debut Performance.

Jonathan Drew Groff (born March 26, 1985) is an American actor and singer.

Groff graduated from Conestoga Valley High School in 2003 and intended to attend Carnegie Mellon University, but he deferred his admission for a year when he was cast as Rolf in a Non-Equity national tour of The Sound of Music.

After the tour, Groff decided to move to New York City instead of attending college and begin his career.

Groff started out waiting tables at the Chelsea Grill in New York City before earning his Actors' Equity Association card in 2005, with the musical Fame at the North Shore Music Theatre, where he played Nick Piazza.

That same year, he made his Broadway debut as an understudy for the lead role (played by Christopher Hanke), swing, and dance captain for the musical In My Life by Joseph Brooks, opening on October 20 and closing on December 11, 2005, after 61 performances.

The musical was panned by critics, with a review from Broadway.com calling the production "undoubtedly the most bizarre, misguided Broadway musical of the millennium".

He began his career on Broadway, rising to prominence for his portrayal of Melchior Gabor in the original production of Spring Awakening (2006–08), for which he was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical.

His breakout performance occurred in 2006, when Groff originated the lead role of Melchior Gabor in the Broadway production of the rock musical Spring Awakening.

Groff was first cast in a workshop of Spring Awakening at Baruch College with Lea Michele, John Gallagher Jr., and the rest of the original cast, and the production then moved to the Atlantic Theater Company for its original off-Broadway run from May 19 through August 5, 2006, before transferring to Broadway.

During the Broadway production at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre, Groff played the role from its debut on December 10, 2006, through May 18, 2008, when he departed the production with co-star and best friend Lea Michele.

In 2007, Groff played the recurring role of Henry Mackler for eleven episodes on the ABC soap opera One Life to Live.

Groff made his film debut in Ang Lee's Taking Woodstock (2009), and became a recurring guest star in the Fox musical-comedy series Glee (2009–15) as Jesse St. James.

He voiced the roles of Kristoff and Sven in Disney's Frozen franchise, including Frozen (2013) and Frozen II (2019).

Groff starred as Patrick Murray in the HBO comedy-drama series Looking (2014–15), the network's first series centering on the lives of gay men, as well as its subsequent television film, Looking: The Movie (2016), and portrayed FBI Special Agent Holden Ford in the Netflix period crime drama Mindhunter (2017–19), for which he won a Satellite Award.

In 2021, he received a nomination for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Anthology Series or Movie for his performance in the Disney+ live stage recording of Hamilton.

Groff starred in the fourth installment of the Matrix franchise – The Matrix Resurrections (2021) – as Smith.

In 2022, he executive produced the HBO documentary film Spring Awakening: Those You've Known, which saw the 15 year reunion of the original cast of the musical.

Jonathan Drew Groff was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, to Julie (née Witmer), a physical education teacher, and Jim Groff, a harness horse trainer.

He has one older brother, David, who is president and COO of WebstaurantStore.

He is a first cousin of singer James Wolpert, a semi-finalist on the fifth season of The Voice.

Groff is of German descent.

His father is Mennonite, and his paternal grandfather, J. Wade Groff, was a Mennonite minister.

Groff's mother is Methodist, and Groff was raised in the Methodist faith.

He grew up among Amish communities in Ronks, Pennsylvania, spending his teenage years driving around his Amish neighbors, who were not allowed to use electricity or drive cars.

Groff's roots in theater and acting began at an early age.

When he was three years old, Groff fell in love with Julie Andrews' performance as Mary Poppins, and growing up, he and his brother put on childhood home productions, such as a performance of The Wizard of Oz in his father's barn, where he played Dorothy.

Groff credits Sutton Foster as one of his greatest influences and idols, and as a young aspiring actor, he would wait at the stage door after her performances to get her autograph.

Groff joined his middle school and high school drama departments, and it was there that he became inspired to start a career in theater.

In his adolescence, Groff took part in many community productions in his hometown of Lancaster.

At seventeen years old, he directed and starred in You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown at a high school theatre festival at the Fulton Opera House, for which he won a community award.

He also performed in The Sound of Music, Ragtime, Cyrano, Evita, My Fair Lady, Peter Pan, The Pirates of Penzance, and Rags at the Fulton Opera House, as well as starring as Edgar in Bat Boy: The Musical and Ugly in Honk! at The Ephrata Performing Arts Center.

He returned to Broadway to portray King George III in the original production of Hamilton (2015), for which he earned a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical.

He currently stars opposite Daniel Radcliffe and Lindsay Mendez in the first Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim's Merrily We Roll Along.