Early Life
Hamm was born in St. Louis, Missouri, to Daniel and Deborah Hamm. His father ran a family trucking company and his mother was a secretary. Hamm's parents divorced when he was two, and he lived in Creve Coeur, Missouri with his mother, until her death from colon cancer when he was 10. Hamm then moved in with his father, who died when Hamm was 20.
| “ | Acting was fun, but my grandfather would always tell me, 'It's never too late to be an engineer.' You were supposed to get a 'job' job and do acting on weekends or at school. | ” |
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—Hamm's early view of acting |
Hamm attended the private John Burroughs School in Ladue, Missouri, where he was a member of the football, baseball, and swim teams and dated future actress Sarah Clarke. Hamm's first acting role was as Winnie the Pooh in first grade; at 16, he was cast as Judas in Godspell, and enjoyed the experience, though he did not take acting seriously. Following graduation in 1989, Hamm enrolled at the University of Texas, where he was a member of the Upsilon Chapter of Sigma Nu fraternity. Hamm returned home to attend the University of Missouri after his father's death. At Missouri he answered an advertisement from a theater company looking for players in a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, auditioned, and was cast in the production. Other roles followed, such as Leon Czolgosz in Assassins.
After graduating in 1993 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English, Hamm returned to his high school to teach eighth-grade acting as a gesture of repayment for the school's support during his adolescent years. One of his students was Ellie Kemper, an actress best known for her role on The Office.
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