Jonathan Drew Groff (born March 26, 1985) is an American actor and singer. Known for his performances on stage and screen, he has received several accolades including a Tony Award and a Grammy Award as well as a nomination for a Primetime Emmy Award. He was included in the annual Time 100 list of the most influential people in the world in 2026.
He began his career on Broadway making his debut in the musical In My Life (2005). He later received Tony Award nominations for playing Melchior Gabor in the original production of the rock musical Spring Awakening (2006), King George III in the original production of the historical musical Hamilton (2015), and Bobby Darin in the original production of the jukebox musical Just in Time (2025). In 2024, he won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical for playing Franklin Shepard in the musical revival of Stephen Sondheim's Merrily We Roll Along. He also starred as Seymour Krelborn in the off-Broadway musical revival of Little Shop of Horrors in 2019.
On television, he started his career with a recurring guest star as Jesse St. James in the Fox musical-comedy series Glee (2009–15). He 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). He portrayed FBI Special Agent Holden Ford in the Netflix period crime drama Mindhunter (2017–19). He was Primetime Emmy Award-nominated for his role in the Disney+ live stage recording of Hamilton (2020).
Groff made his film debut playing Michael Lang in Ang Lee's Taking Woodstock (2009). He has since played Louis J. Weichmann in The Conspirator (2010), Smith in The Matrix Resurrections (2021), and a father held hostage in Knock at the Cabin (2023). He also voiced both Kristoff and Sven in the Disney animated Frozen franchise, including Frozen (2013) and Frozen II (2019). 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 into a Mennonite family on March 26, 1985, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, to Julie and Jim Groff, a standardbred horse trainer and driver. He has an older brother, David, who is president and COO of WebstaurantStore.
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 the title character in the film Mary Poppins (1964), 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 pursue a career in theater.
In his teens, Groff took part in many community productions in his hometown of Lancaster. At seventeen, he directed and starred in You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown at a high school theater 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.
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.
2005–09: Early roles and Spring Awakening
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".
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. 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. 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. 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.
In 2007, Groff played the recurring role of Henry Mackler for eleven episodes on the ABC soap opera One Life to Live. His character's storyline about a school shooting was cut due to the Virginia Tech shooting in April 2007. In November 2007, Groff was cast in the FX series Pretty/Handsome, directed and written by Ryan Murphy, and filmed a pilot, but the series was not picked up. In 2007, Groff also lent his vocal talents to record the roles of Rolf Gruber & Friedrich von Trapp in the Salzburg Marionette Theatre's production of The Sound of Music, which premiered on November 7 in Dallas, Texas. This recording is still used by the company for their performances in Salzburg, Austria.
From July 22 through August 31, 2008, Groff played the lead role of Claude in the Shakespeare in the Park production of Hair, a rock musical about hippie counterculture during the Vietnam War that was directed by Diane Paulus. Theater critic Ben Brantley of The New York Times wrote in his review of Hair that "Mr. Groff, who was memorably tormented by young lust in the musical Spring Awakening, is even more affecting here, his open face a shifting map of doubt and affirmation." Groff decided to turn down the opportunity to reprise his role in the Broadway production, choosing instead to make his film debut. In 2009, he appeared as Michael Lang in Ang Lee's comedy-drama film Taking Woodstock, about the 1969 Woodstock Festival. While critics found the film "likable" but "underwhelming", Groff's performance was praised for its "crafty, angelic fervor" by Rolling Stone.
From November 14 to December 21, 2008, Groff appeared as Billy Noone, a closeted gay soldier fighting in Iraq, in the off-Broadway production of Prayer for My Enemy, a play written by Craig Lucas. The production was directed by Bartlett Sher and performed at Playwrights Horizons. Ben Brantley wrote in The New York Times that the play is "muddle-headed" and "disconnected", but Groff "exudes the charismatic aura of distressed youth". From April 10 to May 17, 2009, Groff appeared as Gray Korankyi and Walter Riemann in the off-Broadway production of another Craig Lucas play, The Singing Forest, alongside Olympia Dukakis at the Public Theater. The play, directed by Mark Wing-Davey, was described by critics as "convoluted" in plot but with strong performances, praising Groff for his "natural emotional transparency [that] helps add layers to Gray". For both performances, Groff received an Obie Award.