--- title: Jonathan Groff Is on the 2026 TIME100 List description: Find out why Jonathan Groff is one of the 100 most influential people of 2026. canonical: https://time.com/collection/100-most-influential-people/2026/jonathan-groff/ article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2026-04-15T11:00:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-07-21T07:21:47.669Z article:section: TIME100 og:title: Jonathan Groff: The 100 Most Influential People of 2026 og:description: Find out why Jonathan Groff is on this year’s list og:url: https://time.com/collection/100-most-influential-people/2026/jonathan-groff/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7ae01845dc198220/69dfb0e7063f5d454ecafe75/T100-2026-Web-Groff-social-01a.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 2400 og:image:height: 1350 og:image:alt: Jonathan Groff: The 100 Most Influential People of 2026 og:type: article twitter:card: summary twitter:title: Jonathan Groff: The 100 Most Influential People of 2026 twitter:description: Find out why Jonathan Groff is on this year’s list twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7ae01845dc198220/69dfb0e7063f5d454ecafe75/T100-2026-Web-Groff-social-01a.jpg?branch=production --- Apr 15, 2026 # Jonathan Groff by Sutton Foster  Jenny Anderson—Tony Awards Productions/Getty Images Jonathan Groff radiates from within. I first saw him onstage during _Spring Awakening_’s original run in 2006, and he was so beautiful and heartbreaking and vulnerable. I went on to see him in [_Hamilton_](https://time.com/4149415/hamilton-broadway-diversity/ "undefined") as King George, and in _Merrily We Roll Along_ as the composer Franklin Shepard, for which Jonathan won his first Tony in 2024\. It’s hard to make that character likable, but Jonathan is inherently likable—you just root for him. Backstage at _Merrily,_ we sat on the floor of his dressing room, shooting the sh-t. He gives the biggest hugs, and he’s a real seeker—he wants to understand the world and his place in it. In the past year, Jonathan’s portrayal of the pop star Bobby Darin in _Just in Time_ has been a tour de force. The show resonated because he was so connected to his character. Jonathan was a fan of mine growing up—and now I’m an überfan of his. _Foster is a Tony-winning actor_ _Join us on_ [_TIME's YouTube_](https://www.youtube.com/time "undefined") _for the 2026 TIME100 Gala Red Carpet Livestream, starting at 6:00 p.m. EST on April 23, 2026—and available after on demand_ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collection/100-most-influential-people/2026/jonathan-groff/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collection/100-most-influential-people/2026/jonathan-groff/"},"headline":"Jonathan Groff","datePublished":"2026-04-15T11:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-07-21T07:21:47.669Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collection/100-most-influential-people/2026/jonathan-groff/","keywords":["TIME 100","list","franchise","Accolades"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7ae01845dc198220/69dfb0e7063f5d454ecafe75/T100-2026-Web-Groff-social-01a.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sutton Foster"}],"creator":"Sutton Foster","articleSection":"TIME100","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7ae01845dc198220/69dfb0e7063f5d454ecafe75/T100-2026-Web-Groff-social-01a.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/time100/","name":"TIME100"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-100/","name":"TIME 100"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collection/100-most-influential-people/2026/jonathan-groff/","name":"Jonathan Groff"}}]}] ```