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Jessica Ruth "Jessie" Mueller, born in Evanston, Illinois, is a Tony Award-winning actress renowned for her Broadway roles as Carole King in Beautiful: The Carole King Musical and Jenna Hunterson in Waitress. Raised in a family of actors, her parents Jill (Shellabarger) and Roger Mueller were Chicago-based performers, and her three siblings also pursued careers in the performing arts. Jessie developed her passion for theatre at Evanston Township High School and later majored in Musical Theatre at Syracuse University.
After graduating, she returned to Chicago, where from 2005 to 2011 she built a diverse theatre career, earning critical acclaim that hinted at her future Broadway success. In 2006, Mueller played Lady Mortimer in Henry IV with the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-Upon-Avon. In 2009, she won her first Joseph Jefferson Award for her role as Carrie Pipperidge in Carousel, followed by two more nominations in 2011, winning again as lead actress for Amelia Balash in She Loves Me.
While performing in Shout! The Mod Musical, Jessie secured her first Broadway role in a revised production of On a Clear Day You Can See Forever alongside Harry Connick Jr. She debuted on Broadway as Melinda Wells on December 11, 2011. Although the show had a brief run, her performance earned glowing reviews and her first Tony nomination. She made her television debut as Carrie Pipperidge in Live at Lincoln Center’s Carousel and continued in New York with an Off-Broadway Into the Woods and Broadway’s The Mystery of Edwin Drood and Nice Work If You Can Get It.
In 2014, Jessie originated the role of Carole King in Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, a performance that established her as one of Broadway’s leading actresses. She won the Tony Award and Drama Desk Award for Best Actress, as well as the Grammy Award for Best Musical Theatre Album for this role. Sara Bareilles, who was composing the musical Waitress, saw Jessie at Beautiful’s opening night and immediately pictured her as the lead, a role Jessie took on Broadway in 2016, earning a third Tony nomination and second Grammy nomination.
Mueller was scheduled to return to Broadway on February 28, 2018, as Julie Jordan in Carousel. Since 2016, she has expanded into television and film, guest-starring on shows like The Family and Blue Bloods. She is also set to make her film debut in Steven Spielberg’s The Post, starring Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks. Jessie frequently appears on television as herself in talk shows and televised concerts; her performance at Chicago Voices earned her a Chicago/Midwestern Emmy nomination in 2017. She also performed at the Tony Awards in 2014 and 2016 and served as a presenter in 2015.
