Jonathan Groff

Jonathan Groff is a Tony Award-nominated American stage performer and TV actor. He was born on March 26, 1985, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

Career

Groff is best known for originating 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. Other Broadway credits include the 2005 musical, In My Life.

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 for his performance in Curtains.

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. Henry was killed off the soap on May 8, 2007 after having a drug-induced heart attack while driving a car and subsequently crashing.Template:Fact

Groff was also in the National Tour of The Sound of Music as Rolf, and appeared in Fame at the North Shore Music Theater in Beverly MA.

Before performing on the Broadway stage, Groff was a performer at The Ephrata Playhouse in Ephrata, PA. Here he portrayed such characters as Edgar in Bat Boy: The Musical and Ugly in Honk!. After the success of Spring Awakening, Groff made a visit to The Ephrata Playhouse to reunite with some of his old cast members during a special event entitled "An Evening With Jonathan Groff". Groff also performed in numerous productions at The Fulton Opera House in Lancaster, PA where he accumulated a substantial amount of acting experience.

Some earlier jobs of his included being a waiter at The Chelsea Grill of Hell's Kitchen, a ride operator at Dutch Wonderland,Template:Fact and a counselor at a theater camp in York, Pennsylvania where he taught acting to 11 and 12 year olds.

Jonathan Groff left Spring Awakening. His last show was May 18, 2008. Part of his decision to leave is due to his starring role as Claude in the Shakespeare in the Park production of "Hair", running July 22 through August 31, though he left the production on August 17, August 16 being his final performance. Jonathan decided not to join the Broadway revival of Hair, starring much of the Public Theater cast from its run at the Delacorte in Central Park, which began previews at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre on March 6 2009 and officially opened on March 31, 2009.

Groff played Woodstock organizer Michael Lang in acclaimed director Ang Lee's movie, 2009 movie Taking Woodstock.

Groff was also 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. The show co-starred Tony winners Victoria Clark and Michelle Pawk. It played in the fall of 2008 at the acclaimed Off-Broadway theater Playwrights Horizons.

Groff also performed in "The Bacchae" as Dionysus as a part of a Public Theater's Shakespeare in the Park. He's also known for his recurring role of Jesse St. James in seasons 1 through 3 and 6 of The Fox Comedy-Drama Musical series Glee and as the voice of Kristoff in Disney's Frozen, its sequel Frozen II and its Spinoffs, all of which also featured Idina Menzel.

He currently stars alongside Daniel Radcliffe and Lindsay Mendez in Merrily We Roll Along on Broadway

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

also Obie Award, 2009 (for both "Prayer for the Enemy" and "Singing Forest")