Once again, numerous nominees for Golden Globes, bestowed annually by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, have connections to Connecticut.
The nominees were announced on Monday. Some of them grew up here, some live here now and some have performed here. Connecticut colleges and universities can be a big factor. Of this year’s nominees, songwriter Bryce Dessner and actor Paul Giamatti went to Yale, while “The White Lotus” creator Mike White is a Wesleyan alum.
Connecticut theaters also play a big part as well. Ariana Grande and Stephen Schwartz both were involved with shows produced by Goodspeed Musicals, Parker Posey appeared at Yale Repertory Theatre and Steve Martin had three of his plays done at the Long Wharf Theatre.
Here’s how this year’s Golden Globes nominees are connected. The winners will be announced in a televised ceremony on Jan. 11, 2026.
“Abbott Elementary,” nominated for Best Television Series (Musical or Comedy), features Waterbury native Sheryl Lee Ralph in its cast.
Alexandre Desplat, nominated for Best Original Score (Motion Picture) for Benedicio Del Toro’s “Frankenstein,” will have a different one of his film scores performed live on March 28, 2026, at The Bushnell when the Hartford Symphony Orchestra accompanies a screening of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2.”
Bryce Dessner of the band The National is nominated for Best Original Song (Motion Picture) for “Train Dreams,” which he co-wrote with Nick Cave. Dessner is a graduate of both Yale College and the Yale School of Music and in recent years served as the first artist-in-residence of the university’s Schwarzman Center.
Cynthia Erivo, nominated for Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Motion Picture (Musical or Comedy) for “Wicked: For Good,” performed at the Ridgefield Playhouse — a popular spot for Broadway stars to bring their solo concert acts — in 2018, when she was known as the Tony-winning star of the musical version of “The Color Purple.”
Paul Giamatti, nominated for Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Limited Series, Anthology Series, or a Motion Picture Made for Television for “Black Mirror,” grew up in Connecticut and was schooled at Choate Rosemary Hall, Yale College and the Yale School of Drama. His father was president of Yale University. Giamatti returned to the Yale Rep, where he’d performed as a student, to play Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” in 2013. Giamatti won a Golden Globe in 2024 for “The Holdovers.”
Paul Giamatti, who has been nominated for Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Limited Series, Anthology Series, or a Motion Picture Made for Television for “Black Mirror,” grew up in Connecticut and was schooled at Choate Rosemary Hall and the Yale School of Drama. (Photo by Alexandre Schneider/Getty Images For Paramount+)
Ariana Grande, nominated for Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role in any Motion Picture for “Wicked: For Good,” appeared in the musical “13” at Goodspeed Musicals’ Norma Terris Theatre in Chester in 2008. She was with the show when it transferred to Broadway later that year.
Ethan Hawke is nominated for Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Motion Picture (Musical or Comedy) for playing Broadway lyricist Lorenz Hart in “Blue Moon.” The film is also nominated for Best Motion Picture (Musical or Comedy). Hart and his collaborator Richard Rodgers, whose dissolution as a creative team forms the plot of “Blue Moon,” adapted Connecticut icon Mark Twain’s “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court” as a musical in 1927. “Blue Moon” takes place on the Broadway opening night of “Oklahoma!,” Rodgers’ game changing hit with his new writing partner Oscar Hammerstein II. The world premiere of “Oklahoma!” took place at the Shubert Theatre in New Haven, where the show had its pre-Broadway tryout. Hawke himself has spent time in Connecticut. He is known to have sheltered in New Milford with his family during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dwayne Johnson, nominated for Male Actor in a Motion Picture (Drama) for “The Smashing Machine,” spent part of his childhood in Hamden attending Shepard Glen Elementary School and Hamden Middle School.
Amy Poehler, nominated for Best Podcast for her celebrity interview podcast “Good Hang,” was the subject of a bizarre social media posts last month from the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection, referencing the podcast as well as a joke Poehler made while hosting “Saturday Night Live” about allegedly started a line of wine coolers which “like me, are banned in the state of Connecticut.” The post, meant to educate about how liquor brands need to be registered in the state, read “Hey @amypoehler, Connecticut Liquor Control here. We promise Connecticut is a “good hang.” Come register your brand with us so we can get Poehler’s Coehlers on the shelf.” In another state reaction to Poehler’s monologue, the Facebook page of the Connecticut Office of the Attorney General posted “Amy Poehler — Pursuant to my authority as Attorney General under Connecticut General Statutes 3-125, the ban is hereby lifted and you are permitted to enter Connecticut.”
Parker Posey, nominated for Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role on Television, co-starred in the world premiere of Will Eno’s play “The Realistic Joneses” at Yale Repertory Theatre in 2018.
Julia Roberts is nominated for Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Motion Picture (Drama) for playing the role of a Yale professor in “After the Hunt.” The movie is set in Connecticut but was not filmed here. Roberts’ breakthrough film, “Mystic Pizza” in 1988, was both set and filmed in the state, and she also starred in “Call Jane,” filmed in Hartford in 2021.
“The White Lotus,” which was nominated for Best Television Series (Drama), was created by Mike White, who graduated from Wesleyan University in 1992. (Michael Tran/AFP/Getty Images/TNS)
Adam Sandler, nominated for Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role in any Motion Picture for his dramatic turn in “Jay Kelly,” received a plaque on the Mohegan Sun Arena Walk of Fame in September for his sold-out stand-up appearances at the venue. Sandler has referenced Connecticut in several of his comedy movies, including this year’s “Happy Gilmore 2,” which has scenes set (though not actually filmed) in Connecticut.
Stephen Schwartz, nominated twice for Best Original Song (Motion Picture) for “No Place Like Home” and “The Girl in the Bubble” in “Wicked: For Good” is a longtime Ridgefield resident who had other Broadway hits besides “Wicked.” Schwartz has worked locally with Goodspeed Musicals, which debuted a revised version of his immigrant-themed musical “Rags” and also did productions of his “Pippin,” “The Baker’s Wife” and “Snapshots.” The Ridgefield-based ACT of CT did “Snapshots” more recently, in 2021.
Martin Short and Steve Martin, both nominated for Male Actor in a Television Series (Musical or Comedy) for “Only Murders in the Building,” tour a comedy/music show together. The tour has visited Connecticut many times, including just last week (Dec. 5) at the Oakdale in Wallingford. Martin is also a playwright, and three of his plays were produced at the Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, including his adaptation of the German comedy “The Underpants” in 2013 (with the same production playing Hartford Stage a couple of months later), “Picasso at the Lapin Agile” in 2014 and the world premiere of “Meteor Shower” in 2016. The musical he wrote with Edie Brickell, “Bright Star,” toured to New Haven’s Shubert Theatre in 2018.
Teyana Taylor, nominated for Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role in any Motion Picture for “One Battle After Another,” is known for a performance she did not make in Connecticut. In 2021, while on her farewell tour as a pop music artist, she had to a cancel a Mohegan Sun appearance hours before it took place due to exhaustion and other health issues.
Tessa Thompson has no direct ties to Connecticut but the movie for which she is nominated for Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Motion Picture (Drama), “Hedda,” is based on the Henrik Ibsen stage play “Hedda Gabler,” which has a rich history in the state. The play is currently playing through Dec. 20 at the Yale Repertory Theatre, where its director, James Bundy, chose it as the last show he’ll direct before stepping down after 22 years from his dual role as the artistic director of Yale Rep and dean of the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale. The world famous actress Eva LeGallienne brought “Hedda Gabler” to New Haven’s Shubert Theater on tour in 1939. The Long Wharf Theatre staged it in 2000 with Martha Plimpton starring in a new adaptation by that theater’s then-artistic director Doug Hughes. There have also been two major student productions during Bundy’s time at the drama school.
“The White Lotus,” nominated for Best Television Series (Drama), was created by Mike White, who graduated from Wesleyan University in 1992 and did some of his first filmmaking projects there.
Several of the nominees for Best Performance in Stand-Up Comedy on Television this year have brought their stand-up acts to Connecticut over the years. Sarah Silverman played Mohegan Sun Arena last year and Ridgefield Playhouse in 2013 and 2016. Bill Maher’s visits to the state go back to the 1980s, though he recently announced that he is no longer touring. Another frequent visitor, Kevin Hart, who is know for using Connecticut as a tryout ground for new material he hopes to tour with, canceled a scheduled show at Bridgeport’s Total Mortgage Arena this year with less than a week’s notice and without explanation.