Jessie Mueller

After graduating, Jessie Mueller returned to Chicago and built her early career with the Chicago Shakespeare Theater, including a 2006 performance at the Swan Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon as Lady Catrin Mortimer in Henry IV. Her Chicago-area credits include Baby, Once Upon a Mattress, Meet Me in St. Louis, Shout! The Mod Musical, Shenandoah, Guys and Dolls, Fiddler on the Roof, Animal Crackers, and A Christmas Carol. In 2011, she won the Joseph Jefferson Award for Best Lead Actress in a Musical for her performance as Amalia Balash in She Loves Me and was named Actor of the Year by the Chicago Tribune.

Mueller made her Broadway debut in the revival of On a Clear Day You Can See Forever (2011), earning Tony Award and Drama Desk Award nominations. She followed with Into the Woods at The Public Theater (2012), The Mystery of Edwin Drood (2012), Nice Work If You Can Get It (2013), and Carousel with the New York Philharmonic (2013).

In 2014, Mueller originated the title role in Beautiful: The Carole King Musical after first playing the part during its 2013 San Francisco tryout. Her performance earned her the Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Musical in 2014. She also shared the Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album in 2015.

Mueller originated the role of Jenna Hunterson in Waitress, first appearing in workshops in 2014 and later starring in the musical's 2015 American Repertory Theater production and its Broadway opening in 2016. Her performance earned additional Tony Award and Drama Desk Award nominations. She remained with the production through 2017.

Her film career began with Steven Spielberg's The Post (2017), in which she portrayed Judith Martin. She returned to Broadway in the revival of Carousel (2018) as Julie Jordan, earning Drama Desk and Tony Award nominations. In 2019, she starred as Marian Paroo in The Music Man at the Kennedy Center and portrayed Loretta Lynn in the Lifetime film Patsy & Loretta, receiving a Critics' Choice Television Award nomination.

Mueller returned to Broadway as Ms. Johnson in Tracy Letts' The Minutes, which began previews at the Cort Theatre in 2020 and officially opened at Studio 54 in 2022 following the pandemic shutdown. In 2021, she voiced Rider in the Netflix animated series Centaurworld and later joined the cast of the film Secret Headquarters (2022). She returned to the Kennedy Center in 2022 to play Miss Adelaide in Guys and Dolls.

Her recent stage credits include a one-night appearance as The Producer in Gutenberg! The Musical! at the James Earl Jones Theatre in 2023. In 2025, she starred as Angel in The Rink at Classic Stage Company.