Early life

Groff was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, the son of Julie (née Witmer), a physical education teacher, and Jim Groff, a harness horse trainer and driver. He has one older brother, David, and is a first cousin of singer James Wolpert, a semifinalist on the fifth season of The Voice. Groff was raised in Ronks, Pennsylvania.

His father's family is Mennonite; 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."

He graduated from Conestoga Valley High School in 2003 and intended to attend Carnegie Mellon University, but 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 realized he would "never be able to pay off these college loans" and decided to move to New York instead.

While still living in Lancaster, Groff performed at the Fulton Opera House (in The Sound of Music, Ragtime, Evita, My Fair Lady, Peter Pan, The Pirates of Penzance, and Rags) and the Ephrata Performing Arts Center (as Edgar in Bat Boy and Ugly in Honk!).

Career

Groff earned his Actors' Equity Association card in 2005, doing the musical Fame at the North Shore Music Theatre. In the same year, he made his Broadway debut as an understudy and swing for the musical In My Life by Joseph Brooks. The musical was about a boy with Tourette's 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. 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.

Groff played as Claude in the Shakespeare in the Park production of Hair, which ran July 22 through August 31, 2008. He also appeared as Michael Lang in Ang Lee's major motion picture, 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 guest starred 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 Noël 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 returned to Glee in Saturday Night Glee-ver as the coach of his former Glee club, Vocal Adrenaline. From August to October 2012, Groff appeared as Ian Todd in the second and final season of the Starz TV series Boss.

Groff played Ken in the Center Theatre Group's production of the Tony Award winning play Red, alongside Alfred Molina reprising his role as painter Mark Rothko. The show ran from August 1 to September 9, 2012. In March 2013, Groff and Molina reprised their roles for six more performances of the play, this time in the L.A. Theatre Works. These performances, like all that take place on LATW, were recorded to be broadcast on radio.

Groff voiced one of the lead roles in Disney's animated feature Frozen. His character, Kristoff, is a rugged mountain man and ice trader. The film premiered on November 19, 2013, and went into wide theatrical release on November 27. Following the movie's massive commercial success and its ranking as the highest-grossing animated film of all time, the sixth highest-grossing film of all time, and the highest-grossing film of 2013, Groff reprised his role in the short sequel Frozen Fever, which premiered on March 13, 2015. Groff and his co-stars also appeared in the television special The Story of Frozen: Making a Disney Animated Classic, which aired September 2, 2014, on ABC.

Groff starred as Patrick Murray, a gay video-game developer, in HBO's dramedy Looking, which, following an eight-episode initial order in 2013, was renewed for a second season. On March 23, 2015, HBO cancelled Looking after its second season, and has made plans to conclude the show's story in a movie later that year. In April 2013, Groff joined another HBO production, playing Craig in the film adaptation of the Larry Kramer play The Normal Heart.

Groff returned to the London stage (for the first time since his West End debut in 2010) on May 19, 2015, to star in a one-night-only concert staging of the musical How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying at the Royal Festival Hall.

Groff starred in a production of the musical A New Brain presented as part of the New York City Center's Encores! Off-Center staged concert series. The show was directed by the its co-writer James Lapine, and took place June 24-27, 2015.

Groff joined the cast of the musical Hamilton on March 3, 2015, replacing Brian d'Arcy James in the role of King George III. He held the role for the remainder of the show's Off-Broadway production, through May 3, 2015. He reprised the role in the Broadway production, which started performances July 13, 2015. Groff, along with the rest of the musical's cast, won a 2016 Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album for the show's original Broadway cast recording.

In March 2016, it was announced Groff was starring in Mindhunter, an upcoming Netflix series executive produced by David Fincher and Charlize Theron, based on the book Mind Hunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit. He's set to play FBI agent Holden Ford, a serial killer investigator in the Behavioral Science Unit. Together, Groff's and Holt McCallany's characters "interview serial killers in an effort to help them solve current murders."

Personal life

Groff overcame melanoma skin cancer in his early 20s.

Groff came out as gay in October 2009 during the National Equality March in Washington. Since 2010, Groff was rumored to be dating actor Zachary Quinto. In September 2012, Quinto confirmed that he and Groff were in a relationship. In July 2013, it was reported that the two had broken up.

An advocate for the LGBT community, Groff was listed in Out Magazine's OUT100 as one of the 100 most compelling LGBT people in 2013 and again in 2014, this time alongside Murray Bartlett and Russell Tovey, his fellow out co-stars in Looking. Also in 2014, he was named a Grand Marshal of the New York City Pride Parade, alongside actress Laverne Cox and National LGBTQ Task Force executive director Rea Carey. In April 2015, he was honored by the Point Foundation with the Point Horizon Award, which "recognizes a young trailblazer who has taken a leadership role as an advocate of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer community." According to Point Foundation's executive director and CEO, Jorge Valencia, Groff "is a proud member of the LGBTQ community and uses his position to speak about both the challenges and opportunities young LGBTQ people face in society. As an actor and an advocate, Groff is an inspiration to the next generation of LGBTQ leaders." In December 2015, he was honored by the Equality Pennsylvania organization with the Bayard Rustin Award, which "recognizes a Pennsylvanian who is continuing the work to ensure that the LGBT community will be visible, accepted, and celebrated in our society." According to the organization, Groff "is a highly visible role model and activist for the LGBT Community. And in this role, every day, he brings home the strong and resonant message that LGBT people can do anything, be anything, and can live lives of value and worth."

Filmography

Film
Year	Title	Role	Notes
2009	Taking Woodstock	Michael Lang
2010	Twelve Thirty	Jeff
2010	Conspirator, TheThe Conspirator	Louis Weichmann
2013	C.O.G.	Samuel
2013	Frozen	Kristoff Bjorgman	Voice
2014	Sophie	Ben	Short film
2014	Sniper, AmericanAmerican Sniper	Young Vet Mads
2015	Frozen Fever	Kristoff Bjorgman	Voice, short film
2018	Frozen 2	Kristoff Bjorgman	Voice

Television
Year	Title	Role	Notes
2007	One Life to Live	Henry Mackler	11 episodes
2008	Pretty/Handsome	Patrick Fitzpayne	TV pilot
2010-2012, 2015	Glee	Jesse St. James	14 episodes
2012	Good Wife, TheThe Good Wife	Jimmy Fellner	Episode: "Live from Damascus"
2012	Boss	Ian Todd	Main cast; 10 episodes
2014-2015	Looking	Patrick Murray	Main cast; 18 episodes
2014	Normal Heart, TheThe Normal Heart	Craig Donner	TV film
2016	Looking: The Movie	Patrick Murray	TV film, follow-up to Looking
2017	Mindhunter	Holden Ford	Main cast

Web
Year	Title	Role	Notes
2015-2016	OTP: One True Pairing	Dennis	6 episodes

Theatre

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2005	Fame	Nick Piazza	North Shore Music Theatre May 31 - June 19, 2005
	In My Life	Understudy / Swing	Music Box Theatre October 20 - December 11, 2005
2006	Spring Awakening	Melchior Gabor	Atlantic Theatre Company May 19 - August 5, 2006
2006-08			Eugene O'Neill Theatre December 10, 2006 - May 18, 2008
2007	Hair	Claude Hooper Bukowski	Delacorte Theatre September 22-24, 2007
2008	Hair	Claude Hooper Bukowski	Delacorte Theatre July 22 - August 16, 2008
	Prayer for My Enemy	Billy Noone	Playwrights Horizons November 14 - December 21, 2008
2009	Singing Forest, TheThe Singing Forest	Gray Korankyi / Walter Rieman	The Public Theater April 27 - May 17, 2009
	Bacchae, TheThe Bacchae	Dionysus	Delacorte Theatre August 11-30, 2009
2010-11	Deathtrap	Clifford Anderson	Noël Coward Theatre August 21, 2010 - January 15, 2011
2011	Submission, TheThe Submission	Danny Larsen	MCC Theater September 8 - October 22, 2011
2012	Red	Ken	Mark Taper Forum August 1 - September 9, 2012
2013			L.A. Theatre Works March 14-17, 2013
	Pirates of Penzance, TheThe Pirates of Penzance	Frederic	Delacorte Theatre June 10, 2013
2015	Hamilton	King George III	The Public Theater March 3 - May 3, 2015
	How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying	J. Pierrepont Finch	Royal Festival Hall May 19, 2015
	A New Brain	Gordon Michael Schwinn	New York City Center June 24-27, 2015
2015-2016	Hamilton	King George III	Richard Rodgers Theatre July 13, 2015 - April 9, 2016

Discography

Cast recordings

• Spring Awakening (Original Broadway Cast Recording) (2006) - Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album
• Glee: The Music, The Power of Madonna (2010)
• Glee: The Music, Volume 3 Showstoppers (2010)
• Glee: The Music, Journey to Regionals (2010)
• Glee: The Music, Volume 6 (2011)
• Frozen (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) (2013) - Grammy Award for Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media
• Hamilton (Original Broadway Cast Recording) (2015) - Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album
• A New Brain (2015 New York Cast Recording) (2016)

Other recordings

• "Now" in Dreaming Wide Awake: The Music of Scott Alan (2007)
• "Prayer" in A View of the River: 7 Songs by Will Van Dyke & Jeff Talbott (2015)
• "Making Today a Perfect Day" from Frozen Fever (2015)

Audiobooks

• Broadway Nights (2008) by Seth Rudetsky
• Red (2013) by John Logan

Featured singles

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

Other appearances

In February 2011, Jonathan appeared in two promotional videos for his brother Dave's commercial kitchen supply site, the WEBstaurant Store. 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".

In March 2014, Groff performed at Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS benefit concert Broadway Backwards.

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Work	Result
2007	Tony Award	Best Actor in a Musical	Spring Awakening	Nominated
	Drama Desk Award	Outstanding Actor in a Musical		Nominated
	Drama League Award	Distinguished Performance		Nominated
	Theatre World Award	Outstanding Debut Performance		Won
	Broadway.com Audience Choice Award	Favorite Leading Actor in a Broadway Musical		Won
		Favorite Male Breakthrough Performance		Won
		Favorite Onstage Pair		Won
	BroadwayWorld.com Theatre Fans' Choice Award	Best Leading Actor in a Musical		Nominated
2009	Obie Award	Outstanding Performance	Prayer for My Enemy The Singing Forest	Won
2011	WhatsOnStage.com Theatregoers' Choice Award	London Newcomer of the Year	Deathtrap	Won
2012	BroadwayWorld.com Los Angeles Award	Best Leading Actor in a Play (Touring Production)	Red	Nominated
2013	Behind the Voice Actors Award	Best Male Lead Vocal Performance in a Feature Film	Frozen	Nominated
2014	Gold Derby TV Award	Best Comedy Actor	Looking	Nominated
	EWwy Award	Best Actor in a Comedy Series		Nominated
	NewNowNext Award	Best New Television Actor		Won
2015	Gold Derby TV Award	Best Comedy Actor		Nominated
	Point Horizon Award		LGBT activism	Won
	Bayard Rustin Award			Won
2016	Tony Award	Best Featured Actor in a Musical	Hamilton	Pending
	Grammy Award	Best Musical Theater Album		Won
	Broadway.com Audience Choice Award	Favorite Featured Actor in a Musical		Won
		Favorite Funny Performance		Won
		Favorite Diva Performance		Won

Charities

Jonathan Groff supports the following charitable cause: Gay Rights.

[ Source: Wikipedia ]