Sean Hayes

Sean Hayes is an American actor, comedian, and producer born on June 26, 1970, in Evergreen Park, Illinois. He was raised in the Chicago suburb of Glen Ellyn, Illinois, the youngest of five children born to Mary Hayes, who directed the Northern Illinois Food Bank, and Ronald Hayes, a lithographer. His father left the family when Hayes was five years old. Hayes attended Glenbard West High School before enrolling at Illinois State University, where he studied piano performance. He left the university two or three classes short of graduation to become music director at the Pheasant Run Theater in St. Charles, Illinois. He also worked as a classical pianist, practiced improv at The Second City in Chicago, and composed original music for a production of Antigone at the Steppenwolf Theatre Company. He relocated to Los Angeles in 1995 to pursue work as a comedian and actor.

As a teenager, Hayes appeared as an extra in the 1986 film Lucas, which was filmed at his high school. His professional debut came with the independent film Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss in 1998. That same year, he was cast as Jack McFarland, a flamboyantly gay and frequently unemployed actor, in the NBC comedy series Will & Grace. The role earned him seven consecutive Emmy Award nominations as Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series, and he won the award on his first nomination. He also received six Golden Globe Award nominations for the performance.

Hayes built a substantial film career alongside his television work. He voiced the villainous white Persian cat Mr. Tinkles in Cats & Dogs (2001) and reprised the role in Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore (2010). He portrayed Jerry Lewis in the CBS film Martin and Lewis (2002) and appeared in Pieces of April (2003), Win a Date with Tad Hamilton! (2004), The Bucket List (2007), Igor (2008), The Three Stooges (2012), in which he played Larry Fine, and Monsters University (2013). He also appeared in The Cat in the Hat as Mr. Hank Humberfloob and provided the voice of the Fish. His more recent film credits include Am I OK? (2022).

On Broadway, Hayes made his debut in the April 2010 revival of the musical Promises, Promises, for which he received a Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in a Musical. That same year, he hosted the 64th Annual Tony Awards on CBS on June 13, 2010, a role for which he received a Primetime Emmy Award. He returned to Broadway in An Act of God, which ran from June 6 to September 4, 2016, following engagements in Los Angeles and San Francisco. His most celebrated stage work came with Good Night, Oscar, a play by Doug Wright in which Hayes portrayed pianist Oscar Levant. The production premiered at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago in 2022 before transferring to Broadway at the Belasco Theatre in April 2023. For that performance, Hayes received both the Tony Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lead Performance in a Play. He subsequently reprised the role on the West End at the Barbican Theatre, earning a Laurence Olivier Award nomination for Best Actor in 2026.

On July 5, 2008, Hayes made his New York stage debut prior to his Broadway bow, appearing as Mr. Applegate in New York City Center's Encores! production of Damn Yankees.

In 2004, Hayes and Todd Milliner, a friend he met at Illinois State University, founded the television production company Hazy Mills Productions. The company has produced series including Grimm, Hot in Cleveland, The Soul Man, and Hollywood Game Night, for which Hayes also served as creator and executive producer. He co-executive produced Hot in Cleveland, which premiered on TV Land in June 2010 and ran for six seasons, and served as co-executive producer on the NBC series Grimm.

In July 2020, Hayes co-created and began co-hosting the comedy and talk podcast SmartLess alongside Jason Bateman and Will Arnett. He also co-hosts a podcast called HypochondriActor with Priyanka Wali. Hayes starred in and executive produced the Netflix series Q-Force, released on September 2, 2021. Hayes and his husband, Scott Icenogle, produce lip-sync videos on their YouTube channel, The Kitchen Sync, and together they wrote a prequel to The Nutcracker.