Jeff Hiller

Jeff Hiller, born December 7, 1975, in San Antonio, Texas, is an American actor, comedian, and improvisor. He is best known for playing Joel on the HBO Max series Somebody Somewhere and for winning the 2025 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for that role. He is married to artist Neil Goldberg and lives in New York City.

Hiller graduated from Winston Churchill High School in San Antonio in 1994, where he took part in early theater productions. He initially enrolled at Texas Lutheran University intending to pursue a career in ministry, completing theology coursework before shifting his focus to performance. He earned a bachelor's degree in theater from the university in 1998. During his junior year, he spent time studying in Namibia. He was raised Lutheran and has a sister named Melissa.

He began performing improv comedy at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in 2001, where he was a member of the teams People People, The Scam, Creep, Rumpleteaser, and Police Chief Rumble. He also taught improv comedy for a decade and founded the all-gay improv troupe Neely O'Hara.

Hiller made his Broadway debut in 2010, playing John Quincy Adams in the rock musical Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson. His television credits include Guiding Light, Ugly Betty, 30 Rock, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Psych, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, and Community. He appeared in the films Morning Glory and Ghost Town. In 2018, he stepped into Drew Droege's solo show Bright Colors and Bold Patterns off-Broadway, a production directed by Michael Urie.

Hiller portrayed Joel across all three seasons of Bridget Everett's Peabody Award-winning series Somebody Somewhere, which premiered in 2022. His character's medical condition, morphea, mirrors Hiller's own diagnosis; the condition causes hair loss and other dermatological changes. He received the 2025 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for the role. Also in 2025, he played Mr. McQueen in a revival of Urinetown and published a memoir titled Actress of a Certain Age: My Twenty-Year Trail To Overnight Success, released June 10, 2025. The first printing of the book contained a misprint on the spine, omitting an "R" from the word "Certain," which Hiller addressed with humor on The Daily Show with Desi Lydic. In June 2025, he appeared as a panelist on NPR's Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!, and in August 2025 he was interviewed by Terry Gross on Fresh Air.