Before Jesse Tyler Ferguson was a charming, familiar face in American living rooms on the groundbreaking hit sitcom, Modern Family, he was a charming, familiar face at Joe Allen. This week, we enjoyed a high-spirited round with this versatile actor, producer, author, and regular, who is currently back on Broadway in a much anticipated revival of Richard Greenberg’s Tony Award®-winning, Take Me Out. We explored the life changing philanthropic work Jesse’s Modern Family fame has enabled him to do, the inspiration he found as a young theatergoer in the work of William Finn and James Lapine, the ins and outs of the Albuquerque children’s theater scene, and what it takes to brave the elements on the stage of the Delacorte Theatre.
Jesse Tyler Ferguson made his Broadway debut at the age of 21 as Chip in George C. Wolfe's revival of On The Town, and later went on to originate the role of Leaf Coneybear in Second Stage’s Tony Award®-winning Broadway musical, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (Drama Desk Award, "Outstanding Ensemble Performance"). In 2017, he won the Drama Desk Award for Best Solo Performance for his 40-character turn in the Broadway production of Fully Committed. He has worked extensively with The New York Public Theatre's Shakespeare in the Park in such notable productions as The Merchant of Venice, The Tempest, The Winter's Tale, A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Comedy of Errors where he performed alongside Al Pacino, Sam Waterston, Jesse L. Martin, Martha Plimpton, Hamish Linklater and Lily Rabe. Other theatre credits include Sir Robin in Spamalot and Leo Bloom in The Producers, both at The Hollywood Bowl. He is a five-time Emmy nominee for his role as Mitchell Pritchett on the long-running, Award-winning ABC comedy Modern Family. A longstanding advocate for marriage equality, Ferguson co-founded Tie The Knot (now PRONOUN) in 2012 with his husband, Justin Mikita, where they design limited edition bow ties and clothing, with all the proceeds going to various organizations that fight for LGBTQ equality around the world.