70 Facts About Jonathan Groff

Jonathan Drew Groff was born on March 26,1985 and is an American actor and singer.

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

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

Jonathan Groff voiced the roles of Kristoff and Sven in Disney's Frozen franchise, including Frozen and Frozen II.

Jonathan Groff starred as Patrick Murray in the HBO comedy-drama series Looking, a TV series centering around the lives of gay men, as well as its subsequent television film, Looking: The Movie, and portrayed FBI Special Agent Holden Ford in the Netflix period crime drama Mindhunter, for which he won a Satellite Award.

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

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

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

Jonathan Groff's father is Mennonite, and his paternal grandfather, J Wade Groff, was a Mennonite minister.

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

Jonathan Groff 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.

When he was three years old, Jonathan 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.

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

Jonathan 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.

Jonathan 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.

Jonathan Groff was first cast in a workshop of Spring Awakening at Baruch College with Lea Michele, John Gallagher Jr.

Jonathan 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.

Jonathan Groff received the Theatre World Award for Outstanding Debut Performance.

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

From July 22 through August 31,2008, Jonathan 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.

From November 14 to December 21,2008, Jonathan 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.

From April 10 to May 17,2009, Jonathan 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.

Jonathan Groff starred as Dionysus in the play The Bacchae opposite Anthony Mackie from August 11 to 30,2009; it was directed by JoAnne Akalaitis and produced as a part of the Public Theater's Shakespeare in the Park.

Jonathan Groff appeared in a total of fifteen episodes over the first, second, third, and sixth seasons of the series.

From August 21,2010, to January 15,2011, Jonathan Groff made his West End debut in the London revival of Deathtrap, a play written by Ira Levin and directed by Matthew Warchus at the Noel Coward Theatre.

Jonathan Groff played Clifford Anderson, a young brilliant playwright, starring alongside Simon Russell Bale as Sidney Bruhl, his professor.

Jonathan Groff starred in the off-Broadway world premiere of the play The Submission by Jeff Talbott with MCC Theater.

Jonathan Groff portrayed Danny Larsen, a white playwright who submits his play under the pen name of an African-American woman, alongside Rutina Wesley, who played an actress he hires to pose as the writer.

From August to October 2012, Jonathan Groff appeared as Ian Todd, a ruthless political aide, in the second and final season of the Starz political drama series Boss.

Jonathan Groff then played Ken, an artist's assistant, opposite Alfred Molina in the Center Theatre Group production of John Logan's play Red.

On June 11,2013, Jonathan Groff portrayed Frederic, a pirate apprentice, in a one-night-only Shakespeare in the Park gala production of the comic opera The Pirates of Penzance.

In 2013, Jonathan Groff voiced Kristoff, a rugged mountain man and love interest to Anna, and his reindeer Sven in Disney's animated feature Frozen, alongside Idina Menzel, Kristen Bell, and Josh Gad.

From 2014 to 2015, Jonathan Groff starred as Patrick Murray, a gay video game developer, in the HBO comedy-drama series Looking, created by Michael Lannan.

Mr Jonathan Groff always made his tics, inconsistencies, and operatically scaled mistakes believable.

Jonathan Groff portrayed Craig Donner in The Normal Heart directed by Ryan Murphy, the film adaptation of Larry Kramer's autobiographical play of the same name, which depicts the New York City AIDS crisis in the 1980s.

On March 3,2015, Jonathan Groff joined the cast of the hit musical Hamilton by Lin-Manuel Miranda and directed by Thomas Kail, replacing Brian d'Arcy James in the role of King George III.

Jonathan Groff held the role for the remainder of the show's off-Broadway production at the Public Theater through May 3,2015, and he reprised the role in the Broadway production at the Richard Rodgers Theatre from July 13,2015, to April 9,2016.

Jonathan Groff was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical for his performance as the king.

In October 2017, Jonathan Groff starred in the Netflix crime thriller series Mindhunter, created by Joe Penhall and executive produced by David Fincher and Charlize Theron.

Jonathan Groff's character is loosely based on the real-life John E Douglas, one of the first criminal profilers in FBI history.

In July 2017, Jonathan Groff starred as Jase in the first podcast musical, 36 Questions, written by Chris Littler and Ellen Winter based on The New York Times article "The 36 Questions That Lead to Love" and a 1997 psychological study on interpersonal closeness.

On July 23,2017, Jonathan Groff performed in a one-night only symphonic concert production of Sondheim on Sondheim at the Hollywood Bowl.

From September 17,2019, to January 19,2020, Jonathan Groff starred in the off-Broadway revival of Little Shop of Horrors at the Westside Theatre as Seymour Krelborn, a florist who raises a plant with a thirst for human flesh, alongside Christian Borle and Tammy Blanchard.

Jonathan Groff was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album as part of the cast recording of Little Shop of Horrors.

Jonathan Groff won an Outer Critics Circle Award, and he received a Lucille Lortel Award nomination and Drama League Award nomination for his performance.

In November 2019, Jonathan Groff reprised his role as Kristoff in the sequel film Frozen II, singing a solo song for the movie titled "Lost in the Woods".

Jonathan Groff reprised the character in the 2017 short Olaf's Frozen Adventure and the video game Kingdom Hearts III in 2019.

Jonathan Groff received a nomination for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Actor in a Supporting Role in a Limited Series or Movie for his performance in the Disney+ live stage recording for his performance in the film.

Jonathan Groff's performance went viral due to his tendency to spray spit while singing.

In December 2020, it was announced Jonathan Groff would be joining the cast of Invincible as Rick Sheridan, an Amazon Prime Video adult animated superhero series based on the comics of the same name created by Robert Kirkman, with the first episodes expected to be released on March 26,2021.

In December 2019, it was announced Jonathan Groff would join the cast for The Matrix Resurrections, the fourth installment of The Matrix franchise, alongside Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, portraying former Agent Smith.

In 2021, it was announced Jonathan Groff would be executive producing a concert documentary following the fifteen-year reunion of the original Broadway cast of Spring Awakening.

Jonathan Groff starred in the role of Franklin Shepard in the 2022 New York Theatre Workshop off-Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim's Merrily We Roll Along.

In March 2022, Deadline announced Groff had been cast in M Night Shyamalan's horror film Knock at the Cabin.

In 2023, Jonathan Groff was announced as a guest star in the fourteenth series of Doctor Who.

Jonathan Groff was diagnosed with melanoma in his early 20s and underwent surgery for removal.

Jonathan Groff abstains from using social media and is a practitioner of Transcendental Meditation.

In 2019, Jonathan Groff purchased a home next to his father's horse farm in Christiana, Pennsylvania.

Jonathan Groff publicly came out as gay when asked by a Broadway.

Jonathan Groff has expressed how much he values being a role model for young people as an out actor, and has advocated for the importance of sharing coming out stories.

Jonathan Groff was initially hesitant to accept the lead role in the gay television series Looking, citing insecurities around being typecast in gay roles, but he ultimately found the experience rewarding: "living in that world and talking about gay issues was truly life-altering for me and made me so much more comfortable in my own skin".

On June 29,2014, Jonathan Groff was a Grand Marshal at the New York City Gay Pride parade.

In 2017, Jonathan Groff was named Out100's Entertainer of the Year, celebrating impactful LGBTQ+ public figures.

In 2009, Jonathan Groff was romantically linked to actor Gavin Creel.

From 2010 to 2013, Jonathan Groff was in a relationship with actor Zachary Quinto.

Jonathan Groff dated New Zealand choreographer Corey Baker from 2018 to 2020.

Jonathan Groff is a longtime supporter of the Elton John AIDS Foundation, serving as an Event Chair for the charity's 14th Annual New York Benefit Gala in 2015.

Jonathan Groff has performed in numerous charity benefits for theater institutions, including the 52nd Street Project, Tectonic Theater Project, Hole in the Wall Gang Camp, Playwrights Horizons, and more.

Jonathan Groff has expressed a passion in encouraging youth theater; Groff has taught master classes in acting and musical theatre for young actors with the New York Film Academy, Broadway Workshop, Temple University, Young Actors' Theatre Camp, and the National YoungArts Foundation, among others.

On October 3,2020, Jonathan Groff participated in a virtual event for the Pennsylvania Democratic Party.