Age: 41
male
Jonathan Drew Groff (born March 26, 1985) is an American actor and singer. He began his career on Broadway, rising to prominence for his portrayal of Melchior Gabor in the original production of Spring Awakening (2006-2008), for which he was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical, becoming one of the youngest nominees for the award, at age 21. He returned to Broadway to portray King George III in the original production of Hamilton (2015), for which he earned a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical. For the original cast album of Hamilton, he, along with the other singers on the recording, won the Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album. Branching out into film and television roles, Groff made his film debut in Ang Lee's Taking Woodstock (2009), and became a recurring guest star in the Fox musical-comedy series Glee (2009–2015) as Jesse St. James. He voiced the roles of Kristoff and Sven in Disney's Frozen franchise, including Frozen (2013) and Frozen II (2019), two of the highest-grossing films of all time, as well as the short films Frozen Fever (2015) and Olaf's Frozen Adventure (2017). Groff starred as Patrick Murray in the HBO comedy-drama series Looking (2014–2015), the network's first TV series centering around the lives of gay men, as well as its subsequent television film, Looking: The Movie (2016), and portrayed FBI Special Agent Holden Ford in the Netflix period crime drama Mindhunter (2017–2019), produced by David Fincher, for which he won a Satellite Award. In 2021, he received a nomination for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Anthology Series or Movie for his performance in the Disney+ live stage recording of Hamilton. Groff starred in the fourth installment of the Matrix franchise—The Matrix Resurrections (2021)—as Smith, replacing Hugo Weaving from the original trilogy. 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, and voiced the lead role of Ollie in the Netflix series Lost Ollie. He stars in M. Night Shyamalan's apocalyptic horror film Knock at the Cabin (2023) and will return to Broadway in fall 2023 in the first revival of Stephen Sondheim's Merrily We Roll Along.
"EPIC is a sung-through adaptation of Homer's Odyssey inspired by musical theater, it tells the story of Odysseus as he tries to return from Troy to Ithaca after the ten-year-long Trojan War. Along the way, he must face gods and monsters that attempt to prevent him from returning to his wife, Penelope, and his son, Telemachus. Taking inspiration from diverse sources, the series makes use of various musical genres and narrative techniques derived from anime, video games, and theatre. The musical gained popularity in 2021 through social media such as TikTok, and faced production troubles due to multiple lawsuits between the creator and original record company. It has received praise from reviewers for the emotional depth and narrative complexity it exhibits through its musical format."
