Hi! My name's Jonathan Wessel and I'm a firefighter/EMT who has had a life-long passion to become a professional actor/singer. Ever since I was a child, I have gravitated toward the performing arts, beginning with the cello at age four. As I reached my early teens I began to get involved with theater, acting in plays and growing in my love for telling great stories. When I reached my senior year of high school, I felt God putting the desire to be a performer on my heart as a professional, with the goal of impacting others for Him through my performances. My love for storytelling and making a lasting impact on others has shaped what I do in my life as I pursued acting in film. After many long years of struggling, I finally began to book roles in short and indie feature films, culminating in over 30 screen roles in 8 years. When covid hit, all my acting jobs stopped, and I went without any acting roles for about two years before booking small projects again, but they dried up fast. It was shortly before my acting took off initially that I began taking voice lessons and discovered I had a God-given talent for singing and began to find opportunities there as well. It wasn't until 2018 that I began to get involved in musical theater, though it was rare for me to do a musical.

Fast forward a few years. I was struggling to find any performing arts work, and made the difficult decision to quit acting. Since I have a desire to help people, I joined a fire department and went to school to be an EMT, followed by attending fire academy. My love for helping others was being fulfilled by serving my community in a very tough but rewarding job. After a medical incident during a fire, I was placed on medical leave from the department and am currently waiting to meet with a few doctors to see if I am cleared to return to duty. In the meantime I have been involved with more musical theater and, through the encouragement of my voice teacher and other professional performers in my life, decided to pursue being a professional performer again, focusing on musical theater. I applied to two different schools for acting for musical theater, and was accepted into the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City for the fall 2026 school session. I was super excited to be accepted and am looking forward to the possibility of attending their 2-year conservatory so that I can train to be the best I can be as a musical theater performer and tell stories that will move and inspire those who watch. My goal is to achieve a level of proficiency as a performer so that I can compete for jobs at the professional level and make a living doing what I love most;

However, school is not cheap. As someone who is currently out of one job while waiting to be cleared by doctors, and only working a second part-time job, being able to afford school is a real challenge. I have been awarded a merit scholarship from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, as well as a Pell Grant, but that leaves me with over $40,000 that I still need to pay out-of-pocket. I have been offered several loans which would bring my total cost down to $30,000, but I am determined not to go into debt to be able to attend school. That being said, I have been applying for other scholarships and am hoping to receive many to cover the cost, but currently I need $1,250 to cover the initial enrollment fee and housing deposit ($750 enrollment fee, $500 housing deposit). If I am unable to raise/earn enough money to attend this fall, I plan to defer my enrollment until next school year, however the enrollment fee is still required to secure my deferment for the next school year.

If you would like to help ease the burden of school costs so that I can attend the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and train to become the highest-level performer I can be, please donate to my GoFundMe. Any amount you give is appreciated. If you can't give, please share this page with others who may be interested in helping. Thank you and God bless.