Jessie Mueller

Jessie Mueller, born Jessica Ruth Mueller on February 20, 1983, in Evanston, Illinois, is an American actress and singer whose Broadway career spans from 2011 to 2022. She was raised in Evanston by her parents, Jill and Roger Mueller, both actors. Her siblings Andrew, Matt, and Abby Mueller are also actors with credits in Chicago, Off-Broadway, and Broadway productions; as of 2019, three of the four Mueller children had appeared on Broadway. Mueller graduated from Evanston Township High School in 2001 and earned a degree from Syracuse University in 2005. She is Lutheran.

Following her graduation, Mueller built her early career in Chicago, working with the Chicago Shakespeare Theater and traveling to England in 2006 to perform at the Swan Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon, where she played Lady Catrin Mortimer in Henry IV. Her Chicago-area credits include Lizzie Fields in Baby, the Lady-in-Waiting in Once Upon a Mattress, and Esther Smith in Meet Me in St. Louis. At the Marriott Theatre in Lincolnshire, Illinois, she appeared in Shout! The Mod Musical, Shenandoah, Guys and Dolls as Miss Adelaide, and Fiddler on the Roof as Tzeitel. In 2009, she performed at the Goodman Theatre in Animal Crackers as Grace Carpenter/Mary Stewart and in A Christmas Carol as Belle/Catherine. Mueller won Joseph Jefferson Awards in 2008 and 2011 for her portrayals of Julie Jordan in Carousel and Amalia Balash in She Loves Me, respectively, and in 2011 the Chicago Tribune named her Actor of the Year.

Mueller made her Broadway debut in December 2011 in a revised revival of On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, playing Melinda Wells, a role originally performed by Barbara Harris. The production earned her nominations for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical at the 66th Tony Awards and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical. In 2012, she played Cinderella in The Public Theater's production of Into the Woods at the Delacorte Theater, and later that year joined the Roundabout Theatre Company's revival of The Mystery of Edwin Drood as Helena Landless/Miss Janet Conover, earning an additional Drama Desk nomination. From March 29 to June 15, 2013, she took over the role of Billie Bendix in Nice Work If You Can Get It. Also in 2013, she played Carrie Pipperidge in a staged concert production of Carousel with the New York Philharmonic at Lincoln Center, which was filmed and broadcast on PBS's Live from Lincoln Center.

Mueller originated the title role of Carole King in Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, having first performed the role during its San Francisco tryout in 2013 before the production opened on Broadway on January 12, 2014. Her performance earned her the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Musical and the Tony Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical at the 68th Tony Awards. She departed the production on March 6, 2015. On February 8, 2015, she shared the Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album at the 57th Annual Grammy Awards with Carole King and producers Jason Howland, Steve Sidwell, and Billy Jay Stein. That April, she received the Sarah Siddons Society Award at the Marriott Theatre in Lincolnshire, Illinois.

Having workshopped the role of Jenna Hunterson in late 2014, Mueller reprised the character when Waitress, featuring music and lyrics by Sara Bareilles and direction by Diane Paulus, began its out-of-town tryout at the American Repertory Theater in August 2015. The musical opened on Broadway at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre on April 24, 2016. Mueller received a Tony Award nomination at the 70th Tony Awards and a Drama Desk Award nomination for the role, and also earned a 2016 Lilly Award for the production's message of female empowerment and safety. She left the production on March 26, 2017.

Before beginning rehearsals for her next Broadway project, Mueller made her feature-film debut in Steven Spielberg's historical drama The Post, portraying advice columnist Judith Martin alongside Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, Sarah Paulson, and Carrie Coon. The film opened in select theaters on December 22, 2017, with a wide release on January 12, 2018. Also in 2017, she received a Chicago/Midwest Emmy Award nomination for her performance in the Lyric Opera's Chicago Voices concert, which aired on WTTW.

In April 2017, it was announced that Mueller would play Julie Jordan in a Broadway revival of Carousel, a role she had previously performed in Chicago, for which she had won her first Joseph Jefferson Award. The production began previews at the Imperial Theatre on February 28, 2018, opened on April 12, and closed on September 16, 2018. Her performance brought her a second Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Musical and a fourth Tony Award nomination at the 72nd Tony Awards, making her the first actress in any Broadway production of Carousel to receive such recognition for the role.

In early 2019, Mueller starred as Marian Paroo opposite Norm Lewis in the Kennedy Center's semi-staged concert production of The Music Man, which ran from February 6 through February 11. Later that year, she portrayed Loretta Lynn in the Lifetime film Patsy & Loretta, alongside Megan Hilty as Patsy Cline. The film, shot on location in Nashville, premiered on October 19, 2019, and earned Mueller a Critics' Choice Television Award nomination for Best Actress in a Movie/Miniseries at the 25th Critics' Choice Awards.

Mueller joined the cast of Tracy Letts's play The Minutes, which began Broadway previews on February 25, 2020, at the Cort Theatre. The production was halted by the COVID-19 pandemic before its scheduled March 15 opening. It resumed previews in April 2022 at Studio 54 and officially opened on April 17 of that year. In July 2021, Mueller was announced as part of the cast of the Paramount Pictures film Secret Headquarters, set for a 2022 release.