Joe Tippett

Joe Tippett (born March 1, 1982) is an American actor.^[1][2] He is known for playing Sam Strickland in the NBC drama series Rise^[1] and John Ross in the HBO crime drama miniseries Mare of Easttown.

Joe Tippett
Born	(1982-03-01) March 1, 1982 (age 43) Washington, D.C., U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	2006–present
Partner(s)	Sara Bareilles (2015–present; engaged)

Early life

Tippett was born on March 1, 1982,^[3] and grew up in Damascus, Maryland.^[4] He attended Damascus High School, where he was on the football team.^[5] He was also involved in his school's theater department, where he performed in his first musical, Bye Bye Birdie.^[4] After graduating from high school, he went to West Virginia University on a full scholarship but later dropped out.^[4]

Career

Tippett did an apprenticeship and worked his first professional job at the Williamstown Theatre Festival.^[4][6] In 2015, he made his Broadway debut as Bait Boy in Airline Highway.^[4] The same year, he played Earl Hunterson in the American Repertory Theater production of Waitress.^[7] Two years later, Tippett played the leading man in the Off-Broadway production of All the Fine Boys.^[8]

In 2018, Tippett played Coach Strickland on NBC's Rise.^[6] In 2019, Tippett filmed the TV movie Patsy & Loretta, playing the role of Doolittle Lynn, Loretta Lynn's husband. The TV film was broadcast on the Lifetime channel on October 19, 2019.^[9][10][11] The same year, Tippett was cast as Lucius King in NBC's Prism which is inspired by Rashomon, a 1950 Japanese drama directed by Akira Kurosawa.^[12]

In September 2021, Tippett reprised his role as Earl Hunterson in the Broadway return engagement of Waitress.^[13]

Personal life

In August 2015, Tippett met singer-songwriter Sara Bareilles during the out-of-town tryout for Waitress at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and they began a relationship in 2016.^{[14][15][16][17]} The couple made their first public appearance at the 2017 Tony Awards.^[18] On New Year's Day in 2023, Tippett and Bareilles announced their engagement.^[19][20]

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Ref.
2006	Gray Matters	Ben
2011	Doctors of the Dark Side	Unknown	Documentary
2012	Damascus Roads	Finch	Short film
2016	Our Time	Jamie
2018	Monsters and Men	Officer Montori
2019	Patsy & Loretta	Doolittle Lynn
2022	Mr. Harrigan's Phone	Craig's father
	Spirited	Owen Briggs
2023	Waitress: The Musical	Earl Hunterson
2024	A Complete Unknown	Dave Van Ronk

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Ref.
2013	Boardwalk Empire	Cal	Episodes: White Horse Pike, The North Star
2015	The Blacklist	Jasper Skeehan	Episode: "Kings of the Highway"
2016	Bull	Merle Deavers	Episode: "Callisto"
2017	Chicago Justice	Jake Benjamin	Episode: "Friendly Fire"
2018	Rise	Sam Strickland	10 episodes
	Dirty John	Bobby	Episodes: "Red Flags and Parades", "Shrapnel"
2019	The Act	Scott / Wolverine 2	Episode: "Two Wolverines"
	Patsy & Loretta	Doolittle "Mooney" Lynn	Lifetime TV film
	The Morning Show	Hal Jackson	4 episodes
2021	Mare of Easttown	John Ross	Miniseries
2022	Alaska Daily	Jamie	Recurring
2023	Monarch: Legacy of Monsters	Tim	Main role
2025	American Primeval	James Wolsey	6 episodes

Stage

Year	Title	Role	Venue	Ref.
2013	Ashville	Jake	Off-Broadway
2015	Airline Highway[21]	Bait Boy	Broadway
	Waitress	Earl Hunterson	Boston
2016	Indian Summer	Jeremy	Off-Broadway
	Familiar	Brad
	This Day Forward	Emil
2017	All the Fine Boys	Joseph
2017–2018	Waitress	Earl Hunterson	Broadway
2018	Our Very Own Carlin McCullough[22]	Jay	Los Angeles
2021	Waitress[13]	Earl Hunterson	Broadway