Featuring performances by 116 student participants representing 58 Regional Awards Programs across the U.S.

The evening will also celebrate the recipients of the
2026 INSPIRING TEACHER AWARD

Bowen Yang hosts the 2026 Jimmy Awards on June 22
at Broadway’s Minskoff Theatre

JIMMYAWARDS.COM

The Broadway League Foundation is pleased to announce the 116 nominees who will be traveling to New York City to participate in the 17th annual Jimmy Awards^® ceremony and compete for top honors and numerous other scholarships. Five-time Emmy® Award-nominated comedian, actor, writer, and podcast host Bowen Yang will host the ceremony taking place on Monday, June 22, 2026, at the Minskoff Theatre on Broadway.

The Jimmy Awards is the national talent showcase celebrating high school musical theatre students from across the country and featuring dynamic ensemble and solo performances. Each participating Regional Awards Program awards top honors to two local student performers and sponsors their travel to New York to participate in the Jimmy Awards on June 22. At the Jimmy Awards ceremony, a panel of judges will bestow awards and scholarships, including the awards for Best Performance by an Actor and Best Performance by an Actress.

The 2026 Jimmy Awards Participating Regional Awards Programs and their Nominees :
https://www.jimmyawards.com/winners-and-nominees/2026-jimmy-awards

The Jimmy Awards congratulates the recipients of the 2026 INSPIRING TEACHER AWARD, presented by MJ, which honors educators for providing valuable guidance and encouragement to their students and school communities. The honorees were nominated for this recognition last spring by 2025 Jimmy Awards nominees and subsequently selected by a committee of Broadway League members. This year’s recipients are Kristy Kosko, Greece Arcadia High School (Stars of Tomorrow, Rochester, NY) and Peter Smeallie, Albert Einstein High School (Brandon Victor Dixon Awards, Washington, D.C.).

The 2026 Jimmy Awards Student Reporter Initiative with support from Broadway News will welcome two student reporters to NYC. Autumn Grace Tabb from the Nevada High School Musical Theater Awards (Las Vegas, NV) and George McCallum from The Stephen Sondheim Awards (New Haven, CT) were selected following a nationwide submissions process and will cover the Jimmy Awards on social media from The Minskoff Theatre on June 22, providing fans an inside look at the final preparations for the evening performance. Autumn Grace and George will also conduct exclusive interviews with the winners of the 2026 Best Performance by an Actor and Actress Awards following the ceremony. As part of the experience, they will be granted a special visit to the WABC studios to observe the behind-the-scenes production of an upcoming news segment.

The 2026 Jimmy Awards will stream for free online beginning at 7:30pm (Eastern) on Monday, June 22. Streaming links and information will be available at jimmyawards.com prior to the ceremony. The ceremony will remain available online for three days afterwards, through Thursday evening, June 25.

American Sign Language interpretation will be provided during the Jimmy Awards. For those interested in ASL interpretation, they can watch a live interpreter via an alternate YouTube stream. Live closed captions will be available through the "CC" feature on the primary YouTube stream. Links will be available closer to the ceremony.

Follow the Jimmy Awards on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok & YouTube!

The Jimmy Awards is an industry leader in charting the future of live performance, with over 90 alumni having performed on Broadway and in National Tours and numerous others enjoying robust careers in film, television, and music.

Apples and Oranges Arts is the streaming and video production partner of the Jimmy Awards. The official media partner of the Jimmy Awards is WABC-TV.

The Jimmy Awards^®/The National High School Musical Theatre Awards ^® (NHSMTA^®)is a coast-to-coast celebration of outstanding student achievement, recognizing individual talent in vocal, dance, and acting performance. The program impacts over 180,000 students who participate in regional high school musical theatre competitions sponsored by presenters of Touring Broadway productions throughout the United States. The 2026 Jimmy Awards anticipates welcoming 116 nominees from 58 cities across the country as they make their debuts on a Broadway stage. Named for Broadway impresario James M. Nederlander, the Jimmy Awards has been the catalyst for more than $9,000,000 in educational scholarships.

Founded in 2009 by Nederlander Alliances LLC, Pittsburgh CLO, and Broadway Education Alliance (BEA), the mission of the NHSMTA is to advance a national conversation about the importance of arts education, honor teachers and their schools’ commitment to performing arts education, and contribute to the development of future arts workers and audiences for live performing arts in communities across America.

Presented by The Broadway League Foundation Inc., the NHSMTA invites two nominees from each local regional ceremony to New York City for a 10-day theatre intensive that includes coaching sessions, training, and rehearsals led by some of Broadway’s most accomplished professionals. Their experience will culminate in an extraordinary talent showcase performed live in front of an audience on a Broadway stage. For more information, please visit JimmyAwards.com.

The Broadway League conducts the program through The Broadway League Foundation Inc., its philanthropic division. The Foundation’s mission is to support the arts education, community engagement, and audience access programs of the Broadway League, which envisions a world that universally recognizes Broadway theatre as a dynamic, vibrant, inclusive, and accessible entertainment experience. The Foundation is a corporation organized under the Not-for-Profit Corporation Law of the State of New York, the purposes of which are exclusively charitable as defined in Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986. Donations to support the program can be made at www.JimmyAwards.com.