Jonathan Groff

Jonathan Groff
Born	Jonathan Drew Groff March 26, 1985 (1985-03-26) Lancaster, Pennsylvania, United States
Other names	jon-Groff
Occupation	Singer-songwriter, actor
Years active	2005–present

Jonathan Drew Groff (born March 26, 1985) is an American singer-songwriter, stage, television and film actor. He originated the role of Melchior Gabor in the stage musical Spring Awakening and appeared as Jesse St. James in the musical television series Glee.

Personal life

Groff was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, to a Methodist mother – Julie, a gym teacher – and Mennonite father – Jim, a harness horse trainer and driver. He has one older brother, David. Of his upbringing, he has said "My mother’s side of the family is Methodist, which is how I was raised. It was conservative in that I had strong values—sitting down and eating with the family every day, listening to authority and going to church every week and having perfect attendance at Sunday school. But at the same time, my parents always encouraged my brother and me to be happy with what we were doing. My parents were athletes in high school; my mom and my dad were the stars of the basketball team, but they never pushed my brother and me to be anything we didn’t want to be." Groff graduated from Conestoga Valley High School in 2003.

Groff told Broadway.com during the National Equality March in Washington, D.C., that he is "gay and proud". Groff guest starred in the back nine episodes of the first season of Glee along with Spring Awakening co-star Lea Michele. During his role with Lea Michele in "Spring Awakening", they became best friends. He introduced Michele to Glee creator Ryan Murphy prior to the show's start.^{[citation needed]}

Career

Groff had a year of waiting tables in New York until he booked his first acting job in 2005 as a swing/dance captain for the musical "In My Life" by Joseph Brooks (songwriter). The musical was about a boy with tourettes syndrome, and Groff understudied the lead part. He never performed in the role.

Groff originated the role of Melchior Gabor in the Broadway production of Spring Awakening. He played the role from the musical's Broadway debut on December 10, 2006 through May 18, 2008. He also played the same role in the original Off Broadway production earlier during the summer of 2006. Groff also was in the National Tour of The Sound of Music as Rolf, and appeared in Fame at the North Shore Music Theater in Beverly, Massachusetts. In April 2007, he was nominated for a Drama Desk Award for his role in Spring Awakening. In May 2007, he was nominated for the Tony Award as Best Leading Actor in a Musical for his performance, with the award eventually going to David Hyde Pierce.

He played the recurring role of Henry Mackler on the ABC soap opera One Life to Live. His storyline about a school shooting on the long-running soap opera was nixed due to the Virginia Tech shooting in April 2007, and he is no longer on the show.

Before performing on the Broadway stage, Jonathan was a performer at The Ephrata Performing Arts Center in Ephrata, Pennsylvania. There he portrayed such characters as Edgar in Bat Boy: The Musical and Ugly in Honk!.

Groff played as Claude in the Shakespeare in the Park production of Hair, which ran July 22 through August 31, 2008, and as Michael Lang in Ang Lee's film, Taking Woodstock.

Groff has appeared in the Off-Broadway production of Prayer for My Enemy by Craig Lucas (Prelude to a Kiss, Light in the Piazza) about the consequences the Iraq war has had on an American family.

In August 2009, Groff performed The Bacchae as Dionysus as a part of the Public Theater's Shakespeare in the Park.

He was guest starring on Glee as Jesse St. James, the male lead of rival glee club, Vocal Adrenaline for eight of the back nine episodes. He also serves as a love interest for his former Spring Awakening co-star Lea Michele's character, Rachel Berry. Newsweek critic Ramin Satoodeh stated that Groff was unconvincing in the role of the straight Jesse ("he seems more like your average theater queen, a better romantic match for Kurt than Rachel"). Groff's performance was defended by Glee creator Ryan Murphy and guest star Kristin Chenoweth, both of whom described Satoodeh's essay as homophobic; it was also condemned by GLAAD president Jarrett Barrios.

In August 2010 he made his West End debut in Deathtrap, at the Noel Coward Theatre in a production directed by Matthew Warchus.

Groff returned to Glee at the end of the second season, where his character tried to ask Rachel for forgiveness. He returned to the show on May 10 to finish out the remainder of the second season. Despite leaving the show for the first part of its third season, Groff is set to return to Glee again in episode 7 as the coach of his former Glee club, Vocal Adrenaline.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2007	One Life to Live	Henry Mackler	11 episodes
2008	Pretty Handsome	Patrick Fitzpayne	Pilot
2009	Taking Woodstock	Michael Lang
2009–present	Glee	Jesse St. James	Recurring; 11 episodes
2010	West End	Simon Russell
2010	Conspirator, TheThe Conspirator	Louis Weichmann
2010	Twelve Thirty	Jeff
2011	Glee Encore	Jesse St. James

Discography

Cast recordings

• Spring Awakening (2006)
• Glee: The Music, Volume 3 Showstoppers (2010)
• Glee: The Music, The Power of Madonna (2010)
• Glee: The Music, Volume 6 (2011)

Featured singles

Single	Year	Peak chart positions					Album
		US	AUS	CAN	IRL	UK
"Highway to Hell" (Glee Cast featuring Jonathan Groff)	2010	—	—	88	—	89	Glee: The Music, The Complete Season One
"Run Joey Run" (Glee Cast featuring Jonathan Groff)		61	64	45	12	27
"Another One Bites the Dust" (Glee Cast)		79	—	53	41	101
"Bohemian Rhapsody" (Glee Cast)		—	—	—	—	—
"Hello" (Glee Cast featuring Jonathan Groff)		35	79	37	31	35	Glee: The Music, Volume 3 Showstoppers
"Total Eclipse of the Heart" (Glee Cast featuring Jonathan Groff)		16	28	17	3	9
"Like a Virgin" (Glee Cast featuring Jonathan Groff)		87	99	83	47	58	Glee: The Music, The Power of Madonna
"Like a Prayer" (Glee Cast featuring Jonathan Groff)		27	28	27	2	16
"Rolling in the Deep" (Glee Cast featuring Jonathan Groff)	2011	29	—	—	—	—	Glee: The Music, Volume 6
"—" denotes releases that did not chart.

Other appearances

• In February 2011, Jonathan appeared in two promotional videos for his brother Dave's commercial kitchen supply site, WEBstaurantstore.com. The first was one promoting the company's Facebook fanpage and contests for its customers. The second was a special Valentine's Day video in which he made a martini and promoted products sold on the site. The martini he made was a special recipe created especially for Jonathan called the "She Loves Me Martini", for the video by Dee Brun, "The Cocktail Deeva".

Awards and nominations

Nominations

• Drama League Awards: Distinguished Performance 2007
• Drama Desk Awards:: Outstanding Actor in a Musical 2007
• Tony Awards: Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical 2007

Awards

• Theatre World Award, 2007
• Obie Award, 2009 (for both "Prayer for the Enemy" and "Singing Forest")
• WhatsOnStage London Newcomer of the Year Award, 2011 (for "Deathtrap")

External links

• Jonathan Groff at the Internet Broadway Database
• Jonathan Groff at the Internet Movie Database
• Jonathan Groff at Allmusic