Adam Jacobs

Adam Jacobs is an American Broadway performer born on May 17, 1979, in Half Moon Bay, California. His Broadway career spans from 1988 to 2024 and includes credits in The Who's Tommy, Les Misérables, The Lion King, and Aladdin. He is of mixed Filipino-Jewish heritage, which he has credited with enabling him to take on a wide range of roles throughout his career.

Jacobs began studying piano at age five at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, continuing for eight years before turning his attention to musical theater. He participated in community theater and high school productions, and pursued additional training through summer programs at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco and the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, California. While still in high school, his performance in a production of Evita caught the attention of a representative from the San Francisco Opera, who invited him to audition for a documentary opera about Harvey Milk. He was cast as Young Harvey and took part in a performance marking the anniversary of Milk's assassination as well as a preceding candlelight ceremony. Jacobs went on to study at the NYU Tisch School of the Arts, where he earned a BFA in Theater. During that period he also trained through the Collaborative Arts Project Musical Theater program and the Stonestreet Film and Television Studios program.

Following graduation, Jacobs worked in regional theater and on cruise lines. He toured nationally as Cinderella's Prince in Into the Woods before securing his first Equity production as Nanki-poo in Marriott Theater's Hot Mikado. His career advanced significantly when he was cast as Marius in the national tour of Les Misérables, a role he subsequently reprised in the 2006 Broadway revival. He later joined the Broadway company of The Lion King as Simba and appeared in Mamma Mia! on Broadway as Sky. He also played Daniel Beauxhomme in Paper Mill Playhouse's production of Once on This Island.

Jacobs originated the title role of Aladdin in Disney's stage musical, beginning with the production's world premiere at the 5th Avenue Theatre in Seattle in 2011. After regional and international productions in 2012 and a Toronto tryout in 2013, the show opened on Broadway at the New Amsterdam Theatre on March 20, 2014. His performance earned him a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Actor in a Musical in 2014. He played the role on Broadway through February 12, 2017, then continued in the North American tour, which launched on April 11, 2017. He later appeared on Broadway as Captain Walker in The Who's Tommy.

Jacobs released a solo album titled Right Where I Belong, a collection of Alan Menken songs including "Proud of Your Boy" from Aladdin, "Go the Distance" from Hercules, "Santa Fe" from Newsies, and "Suddenly Seymour" from Little Shop of Horrors, the last performed as a duet with his sister Arielle Jacobs. Arielle Jacobs is also a stage performer and appeared on Broadway as Princess Jasmine in Aladdin and as Imelda in Here Lies Love.

In his personal life, Jacobs met his wife, Kelly Kohnert, while both were performing in a Christmas show in Hershey, Pennsylvania, where she danced and he played Santa Claus. The couple married and had twin boys, born on January 27, 2014. The family relocated to Wilmette, Illinois, in 2018.