The Superior Rise of Donut Man Jon Michael Hill

Age: 24

Hometown: Waukegan, Illinois

Currently: Making his Broadway debut as Franco Wicks, a brash young man who goes head to head with Michael McKean as the ex-hippie owner of a rundown Chicago doughnut shop in Tracy Letts’ Superior Donuts.

You’ve Got Talent: Hill discovered performing in elementary school and vividly recalls the high school drama teacher who “put a Hamlet monologue in my hands. That really inspired me to keep working.” A second boost came when he attended a summer conservatory acting program for teens at nearby Northwestern University. “One of the teachers there told me that if I stuck with it, I could do whatever I wanted in this business,” Hill remembers. Inspired, he auditioned at just one college—the University of Illinois—and was accepted.

Mix It Up: “You don’t even want to hear all the things I did at U of I!” the mild-mannered Hill exclaims. Actually, we do. “My first show was King Lear—I was Edgar—and then Ain’t Misbehavin’, my favorite musical I’ve been involved in. I did some Bertolt Brecht. I got to do Six Degrees of Separation, which was incredible. I did a farce [A Flea in Her Ear]. And then I played Richie in A Chorus Line.” Along the way, the young actor’s parents were his chief cheerleaders. “My father was in a band, but he gave it up when he had me and my brothers,” Hill explains. “I don’t think he had the chance to do what he loved, so he’s very supportive of me following my dream.”

Power Mentors, Part One: Talent wins out, but being in the right place at the right time doesn’t hurt either. When Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre asked a U of I professor to suggest a young actor for a play by Bruce Norris called The Unmentionables, the prof mentioned Hill—and in his senior year, he found himself acting alongside Amy Morton, directed by Anna D. Shapiro (you know them from Letts’ August: Osage County), then moved with the show to Yale Rep. Hill did so well, he was tapped to become the youngest official member of the Steppenwolf company upon graduation in 2007. “They felt the ensemble could use me around,” he says modestly. “I’m very blessed to have an artistic home.”

Power Mentors, Part Two: You never know what a classroom exercise may turn into, particularly if the teacher is a Tony Award-winning director. During a senior Shakespeare seminar conducted by Daniel Sullivan, Hill played Puck in a mini version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The following summer, he snagged the role for real in Central Park, again directed by Sullivan. The production got off to a scary start when Sullivan fell through a trap door on the first day of tech rehearsals, but the intrepid director made it back just two weeks later. “I remember the whole experience as being magical,” Hill says now. “Everyone out in the elements together, sharing this piece of theater—it was unlike anything I had ever done.”

Letts Go! The Steppenwolf connection proved powerful when ensemble member Tracy Letts set his sights on Hill. “I had done a reading for him,” the young actor says of the Tony-winning playwright, “and he asked me if I’d be interested in a play he hadn’t written yet.” In other words, Letts shaped the character of Franco—described by Hill as “an extremely funny and intelligent kid who comes into this doughnut shop and shakes up Michael McKean’s life”—especially for him. “It’s unbelievable!” he cries. And after a sellout run in Chicago, he and the Superior Donuts company are ready for Broadway. Well, sort of ready. “I’m shaking in my boots,” Hill claims. “I haven’t slept in months. I’m a pretty subdued guy, and New York isn’t really a place for the subdued.” Hmm…can a “subdued guy” find lasting happiness as an actor? “Oh yes,” he says quickly. “You save the drama for the stage.”