Biography
Date of Birth
26 December 1985, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, USA
Birth Name
Jonathan Drew Groff
Nickname
Jon
JGroff
Groffsauce
Height
5' 11" (1.8 m)
Trivia
Groff was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actor for "Spring Awakening" in 2007.
He remains very good friends with his "Spring Awakening" co-star Lea Michele.
Groff, along with other openly gay actors (including Sean Hayes and Neil Patrick Harris), was the target of a highly controversial April 2010 Newsweek article by Ramin Setoodeh that argued that gay actors aren't convincing playing straight characters. The article created a huge media backlash, with many public figures (including Groff and Hayes' co-star Kristin Chenoweth) decrying it as homophobic and defending Hayes', Harris', and Groff's performances as straight characters.
While Groff was raised Methodist, his father was raised Mennonite.
Gained a 5 inch scar on his biceps while shooting Glee (2009) because his dance partner for the "Bohemian Rhapsody" performance (in the season 1 finale) accidentally scarred him with her stilettos.
Was in a relationship with fellow actor Zachary Quinto during 2012 till spring 2013.
He is of German, and some Swiss-German, English, and Scottish, descent. He has deep roots in Pennsylvania on both sides of his family (Pennsylvania Dutch, the nickname for Germans in the state).
His role as "King George III" in the Broadway production of "Hamilton" lasted just 9 minutes on each performance. Most of his time, therefore, was spent behind the scenes where had the great privilege of meeting celebrity fans of the show from all walks of life such as, Barack Obama and Michelle Obama, Dick Cheney, Paul McCartney, Madonna, Jennifer Lopez, Lupita Nyong'o, Busta Rhymes, 'Weird Al' Yankovic, Common, etc.
Quotes
Don't let the world define you. In the world of acting, and I think in any profession really, people are really eager to put you in a box and categorize you as one particular thing. Make sure that you always follow your heart and your gut, and let yourself be who you want to be, and who you know you are. And don't let anyone steal your joy.
Just follow your joy. Always. I think that if you do that, life will take you on the course that it's meant to take you. Which is - maybe you're meant to be an actor. Maybe you're meant to be a director. Maybe you're meant to be a producer. Maybe you're meant to be a teacher. But if you just just sort of follow that joy and really explore what excites you, then the rest will take care of itself.
[on working with Andrew Haigh] He has a very specific way of creating naturalism on set - he's not precious about the writing of scenes. If something doesn't feel right he's like 'Just cut it or change it or whatever'. He's very laid back...He would encourage improv into the scene - cut that one line that didn't sound right, and improv at the end - and it ends up becoming really in the moment, which is really exciting and taught me a lot as an actor.
I love the cultural and class difference between Richie and Patrick. It's really interesting and I think also a universal issue of people finding themselves in relationships, gay or straight..There's a Mexican-Cuban dynamic which is really interesting in the reflection of the Latino community. I personally wasn't aware of it until it was written into the show.
[on performing intimate incidents on 'Looking'] Without fail, there was at least one moment of every script where I would grab my hair and be like,'Oh, god, I can't believe I have to do that'. Most of is social anxiety and awkwardness.
[on appearing as Patrick Murray on 'Looking'] One of the cool things about the show is that no one's having a 'coming out' story. My character is 29, and that's the youngest of the ensemble. Most characters are in their 30s and 40s. It's a show with gay characters, but no one's grappling with their sexuality. One of the most successful gay movies ever is 'Brokeback Mountain', where the story is basically two gay men who are both devastated by the fact that they're gay and they're in love with each other. In this show everybody's completely fine with the fact they're gay, and so the issues become about their relationships and work. Hopefully it becomes even more relatable to people who aren't gay.
I was on a date and we both got pretty drunk and then, I don't smoke, but he was smoking a cigarette, and I was so drunk that I thought it looked so sexy. So I sort of took it from him, smoked some, gave it back to him, and projectile vomited everything I had for dinner. The combo of the booze and the smoking and the lasagna. Why did I eat lasagna on a first date?
