What is Jonathan Groff's Net Worth?
Jonathan Groff is an American actor and singer who has a net worth of $10 million. Jonathan Groff is best known for playing King George III in the award-winning Broadway musical "Hamilton" and for his role as Jesse St. James on the television series "Glee." His voice is well-known to be that of the characters Kristoff and Sven in the animated "Frozen" films, and his stage portrayals have led to critics referring to him as charismatic, magnetic, crafty, disarming, and exceptional, even when the vehicles of his performances garnered less than positive acclaim.
Early Years
Jonathan Drew Groff was born on March 26, 1985, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, one of the two children born to horse trainer Jim Groff and physical education teacher Julie (Witmer). Groff's father was a Mennonite, and his mother was a Methodist. Groff was thereby raised as a Methodist in an Amish community. As a child, he and his brother would stage entertainments in their barn as he was in love with acting. He joined the drama clubs in both middle school and high school. At the age of seventeen, he directed and starred in a high school theatre festival performance of "You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown" at the Fulton Opera House in Lancaster. The show won him a community award. Additional theatrical performances during his teens took place at the Fulton Opera House as well as the Ephrata Performing Arts Center. These included "The Sound of Music," "Peter Pan" and "My Fair Lady."
In 2003, Groff graduated from Conestoga Valley High School in Lancaster. He was supposed to be starting classes at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh that year but decided to postpone his college education when he won the role of Rolf in a national tour of the musical "The Sound of Music," based on the 1949 memoir of Maria von Trapp. When the tour ended, he decided not to pursue institutional studies and instead moved to New York, where he was confident there would be work waiting.
Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images
Stage & Theatre
In 2006, Groff originated the role of Melchior Gabor in the Broadway production of "Spring Awakening," a rock musical based on the 1891 German play of the same name by Frank Wedekind. The show won eight of the eleven awards it was nominated for, including a Tony Award for Best Musical and a Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album. Groff received the Theatre World Award for Outstanding Debut Performance.
From July 2008 to August 2088, Groff portrayed the character of Claude in a theater production of the 1967 rock musical "Hair." Later that year, he played Billy Noone, a gay soldier fighting in Iraq, in a stage production of the Craig Lucas play "Prayer for My Enemy." The following year, he played the characters of Walter Riemann and Gray Korankyi in another Craig Lucas play – "The Singing Forest." Groff received an Off-Broadway Theatre Award for both plays.
In August 2009, Groff played Dionysus – the god of winemaking – in a New York stage production of the ancient Greek tragedy "The Bacchae." The play was performed as part of The Public Theater's Shakespeare in the Park series.
From 2010 to 2011, Groff played Clifford Anderson in a production of the 1978 Ira Levin play "Deathtrap" at the Noel Coward Theatre in London, and from September 8, 2011, to October 22, 2011, he was part of the cast of "Submission" at the MCC Theater in New York. In the latter play, Groff portrayed Danny Larsen, a white student who submits a play under the guise of being an African-American woman.
In 2012, Groff appeared in the John Logan play "Red" at the Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles and reprised his role the following year for another Los Angeles performance. On June 11, 2013, in New York, he played a pirate apprentice in a Delacorte Theater production of "The Pirates of Penzance."
Groff performed in a one-night London stage concert of the 1961 musical "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying" on May 19, 2015." Later that year, he performed – as part of the Tony-honored Encores! concert series – in the musical "A New Brain" based on the life of American composer William Finn, who suffers from arteriovenous malformation. That same year, Groff replaced American actor Brian d'Arcy James in the role of King George III in the biographical musical "Hamilton." The film and its cast went on to win over 60 awards, including Tony Awards, Grammy Awards, and a Pulitzer Prize.
On July 23, 2017, Groff performed in a concert production of the musical revue "Sondheim on Sondheim" at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, California. In 2018, he starred as 1950s music icon Bobby Darin in a three-day production of "The Bobby Darin Story" at the 92nd Street Y community center.
From September 2019 to January 2020, Groff played Seymour Krelborn in a Westside Theatre production of the horror-comedy musical "Little Shop of Horrors." For this role, he was nominated for a Grammy Award and Drama League Award and won an Outer Critics Circle Award and a Lucille Lortel Award.
In 2022, Groff starred as Franklin Shepard in a New York Theatre Workshop performance of the Stephen Sondheim musical "Merrily We Roll Along." He revived the role in 2023 and won a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical.
(Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty Images for Karl Lagerfeld)
Television
Jonathan Groff portrayed Henry Mackler on the American daytime soap opera "One Life to Live" from April 2007 to May 2007.
In 2010, he began portraying Jesse St. James, one of the main antagonists in the American musical comedy-drama series "Glee." He appeared in 15 episodes and on four of the show's soundtrack albums.
From August to October 2012, Groff played political aide Ian Todd in the American political drama series "Boss," and from 2014 to 2015, he starred as gay video game developer Patrick Murray in the American comedy-drama series "Looking."
Groff played Craig Donner in the 2014 American television drama film "The Normal Heart," – which was adapted from playwright and public health advocate Larry Kramer's play about the New York City AIDS crisis during the 1980s. The film won a Critic's Choice Award and a Primetime Emmy Award.
In 2017, Groff played FBI agent Holden Ford in the Netflix crime thriller series "Mindhunter," and in 2020, he joined the cast of the adult animated superhero series "Invincible."
Groff produced the concert documentary film "Spring Awakening: Those You've Known" in 2022 and hosted the PBS documentary "Broadway: Beyond the Golden Age." That same year, he voiced the character of Ollie – a lost toy rabbit searching for the boy he belongs to – in the Netflix live-action/animation series "Lost Ollie."
Film
Jonathan Groff made his film debut in 2009 in the comedy-drama film based on the memoir of Elliot Tiber, "Taking Woodstock," in which he portrayed American concert producer Michael Lang.
In 2013, he played a repressed gay man in the American comedy-drama film "C.O.G.," an adaption of the book "Naked" – a collection of essays by American comedian David Sedaris.
Groff appeared as Agent Smith in the 2021 American science fiction film "The Matrix Resurrections."
In 2023, he played the character of Eric in the American psychological horror film "Knock at the Cabin."
Voice
In 2013, Jonathan Groff voiced the characters of Kristoff and Sven in the animated Disney film "Frozen." The film won an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a British Academy of Film and Television Arts Award. It became the highest-grossing animated film of all time. Groff reprised his roles in the 2015 sequel "Frozen Fever." He voiced Kristoff again in 2017 in "Olaf's Frozen Adventure" and in the 2019 film "Frozen II" which beat out the initial film as the highest-grossing animated film of all time.
Podcast
Jonathan Groff starred in the three-act podcast musical "36 Questions" based on a psychological study of interpersonal closeness in 2017.
Philanthropy
Jonathan Groff supports Broadway Cares, which raises funds for ASIDS-related causes; the Elton John AIDS Foundation; The Point Foundation; Habitat for Humanity; Actors Fund of America; The Theatre Development Fund; The Hispanic Federation Emergency Assistance Fund; and the civil rights advocacy organization Color of Change. He also took part in the virtual fundraiser Ham4Change, which raised over a million dollars for organizations working to end racism.
Personal Life
When asked about his sexuality by a reporter in 2009, Jonathan Groff announced publicly for the first time that he was gay. In 2014, he served as Grand Marshal at the New York City Gay Pride Parade. The following year, he was honored with a Point Horizon Award by the Point Foundation – an organization providing financial aid to college-bound LGBTQ+ students, and with a Bayard Rustin Award from Equality Pennsylvania – which advocates for LGBT rights. In 2017, the LGBT magazine Out named him Entertainer of the Year.
Groff has dated American actors Gavin Creel and Zachery Quinto, and New Zealand choreographer Corey Baker.
