From Stephen Schwartz to Kathryn Hahn, 2025 Golden Globe nominees have CT ties (2025)

Name a major hit movie or TV show and you’ll likely find a Connecticut connection: An actor who went to school here, performed at one of the state’s major regional theaters or played a local music venue with their band.

The nominations for the 2025 Golden Globe Awards, presented by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, were announced on Monday, and at least 17 nominees are from, have performed in or have other associations with Connecticut.

Here are some of the ways you may know these internationally renowned stars of stage and screen before the award ceremony airs live on CBS on Jan. 5, 2025, as well as the network’s Paramount+ streaming service.

Ted Danson, nominated for Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series (Musical or Comedy) for “Man on the Inside,” attended the Kent School in Kent when he was a teenager in the early 1960s, playing on the school basketball team.

Colman Domingo, nominated for Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Motion Picture (Drama) for “Sing Sing,” starred in Athol Fugard’s drama “Coming Home” at the Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven in 2009.

Jesse Eisenberg, nominated for Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Motion Picture (Musical or Comedy) for “A Real Pain,” also wrote and directed that film. “A Real Pain” has several themes in common with “The Revisionist,” a play by Eisenberg that West Hartford’s Playhouse on Park staged in 2018. Both involve a man making a trip to Poland to explore his Jewish heritage.

“True Detective: Night Country,” nominated for Best Television Limited Series, Anthology Series, or Motion Picture Made for Television, stars Yale University graduate Jodie Foster and also features Yale School of Drama grad Michael Potts, who has appeared in several shows at the Yale Repertory Theatre over the years.

Donald Glover, nominated for Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series (Musical or Comedy) for “Mr. and Mrs. Smith,” was due to perform at Mohegan Sun Arena this past August but the show was canceled the same day it was supposed to happen — a special disappointment since this was the final tour of Glover’s pop alter ego Childish Gambino.

Kathryn Hahn, nominated for Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Series (Musical or Comedy) for “Agatha All Along” (which also features Connecticut resident Patti LuPone in its cast) is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama who, while a student, appeared in a production of Aristophanes’ comedy “The Birds” at Yale Repertory Theatre in 2001.

Allison Janney, nominated for Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role on Television for “The Diplomat,” attended Hotchkiss School in Lakeville as a child.

Edward Norton, nominated for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in Any Motion Picture for “A Complete Unknown,” graduated from Yale in 1991 (not its drama school but as an undergraduate who studied history). He returned to campus in 1999 to speak about his career, which was about to hit a new plateau with the release of “Fight Club.”

Sheryl Lee Ralph, one of the stars of the sitcom “Abbot Elementary,” nominated for Best Television Series (Musical or Comedy), grew up in Waterbury where she attended Driggs Elementary School.

Kali Reis, nominated for Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role on Television for “True Detective: Night Country” is also a Women’s Welterweight boxer who has had bouts at Mohegan Sun Arena.

Trent Reznor, who is nominated with his frequent collaborator Atticus Ross for Best Original Score for “The Challengers,” was the leader of Nine Inch Nails, which visited Connecticut on major national tours half a dozen times between 1995 and 2013, including at the Meadows (now the Xfinity Theater), Hartford Civic Center (now the XL Center) and Mohegan Sun Arena.

Stephen Schwartz, the composer and lyricist of “Wicked” — nominated for four Golden Globes, including Best Motion Picture (Musical or Comedy), is a longtime Ridgefield resident. His many musical theater shows have been produced throughout Connecticut, including at Goodspeed Musicals (reworked versions of “Rags” and “Snapshots”), the Long Wharf (“Working”) and Ridgefield’s ACT of CT, among many other theaters. “Wicked” has come to Connecticut on tour numerous times, once at the Oakdale Theatre but mostly at The Bushnell, most recently in March/April of this year.

Jeremy Strong, nominated for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in Any Motion Picture for “The Apprentice,” graduated from Yale in 2001, but told The New Yorker magazine in 2021 that he “never really felt accepted” by the undergraduate Yale Dramat theater group. Tickets to Strong’s return to Yale for a 2022 talk, held amid his success on the series “Succession,” sold out in 45 seconds.

Billy Bob Thornton, nominated for Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series (Musical or Comedy) for “Landman,” has also played Connecticut with his band The Boxmasters, including a gig this past October at The Kate in Old Saybrook.

Hans Zimmer, the composer nominated for Best Original Score Motion Picture, often has his works performed by symphony orchestras. The touring Hollywood Film Orchestra will perform a concert of “Music by Hans Zimmer and Others” at the Shubert in New Haven on April 25. Zimmer’s music was part of the recent tour of “The Lion King” at The Bushnell.

The Steve Martin/Martin Short/Selena Gomez series “Only Murders in the Building,” nominated for Best Television Series (Musical or Comedy), has had many graduates of the Yale School of Drama (now the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale) in its cast over its four seasons, among them Meryl Streep, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Adina Verson and Maulik Pancholy.

Since Connecticut has so many stages suited to stand-up comedy, it’s not a surprise that every nominee for Best Performance in Stand-Up Comedy on Television — Nikki Glaser, Ali Wong, Jamie Foxx, Ramy Youseff and Seth Meyers — has played Connecticut, some of them many times. Glaser, the host of the 82nd Golden Globes, will be at The Bushnell in Hartford on March 7.