Darren Criss has been crowned Best Actor in a Musical!

At the 2025 Tony Awards on Sunday, June 8, the Maybe Happy Ending star took the stage at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, where he accepted his prize. "A lot of humans got me here," he quipped, in reference to the robot character he plays in the original musical.

Criss, 38, dedicated his win to his wife Mia, with whom he shares two kids. "The real hero about this for this remarkable journey is my wife, Mia, who took a massive swing on allowing me to do this," he said in his speech. "To allow this crazy upheaval in our life, to make this logistically possible, and for bearing the brunt of raising two tiny friends under three, so that I could raise a singing robot at the Belasco Theatre eight times a week."

Spinning the wheel of his Tony statuette, Criss smiled, adding, "You're the very pedestal that upholds the shiny spinny bit in our lives, and your love and your support for me and our beautiful children, combined with the miracle of working on something as magical as Maybe Happy Ending, has been and will always be award enough."

The actor also shouted out costar Helen J Shen, saying he was "so proud" of a "Broadway debut for the books. This is where you belong." After honoring his mother, father and brother, as well as "every teacher to ever have taught me," he concluded, "Everybody out there, break a leg, and I'm gonna go celebrate with my favorite kind of people to party with: theater people!"

Criss received his first Tony nomination this year for his role as Oliver in Maybe Happy Ending. The musical follows two retired "Helperbot" robots in the distant future as they form an unlikely relationship. The Tony-winning show features a book by Will Aronson and Hue Park with music by Aronson, lyrics by Park and direction by Michael Arden. The Glee alum stars in the work alongside Shen, Dez Duron and Marcus Choi. 

Maybe Happy Ending received a total of 10 Tony Award nominations this year, including Best Musical, Best Original Score and Best Scenic Design of a Musical. Following Criss' win the show also won Best Musical.

Criss made his Broadway debut in the 2012 revival of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. The Emmy winner’s previous Broadway credits also include Hedwig and the Angry Inch and American Buffalo. He also starred in Off-Broadway’s long-running production of Little Shop of Horrors.

Also in the running for the Best Actor in a Musical category were Andrew Durand for Dead Outlaw, Tom Francis for Sunset Blvd., Jonathan Groff for Just in Time, James Monroe Iglehart for A Wonderful World: The Louis Armstrong Musical and Jeremy Jordan for Floyd Collins.

Durand received his first Tony nomination this year for playing train robber Elmer McCurdy in the true story of his death in a 1911 shootout and the bizarre events that followed.

Speaking about his role in the new musical, he told PEOPLE in an exclusive interview, "A lot of times when you do a show, you sort of know the journey is to get it to Broadway. But this one is special to me because it was a group of people who came together and really cared about putting the art first and saying, 'Let's make this great show and then see what happens.' " 

Durand has previously starred in 2023's Shucked and 2018's Head Over Heels. 

Francis, 25, is also part of the first-timers club. He reprises his role of Joe Gillis in Sunset Blvd. after playing the character in the West End revival, for which he earned an Olivier Award. The show, costarring Nicole Scherzinger, nabbed a total of seven Tony nominations. 

When asked about his jaded screenwriter character, he told PEOPLE in an interview, "He's really disgruntled as a human and at the end of his tether… He's only 26, but you just know that he's going to be a belligerent old man, if he ever got there. Do you know what I mean? And so it's really fun to play that each night because it's quite different from who I am as a person in my day-to-day life."

Following his first-time win at the 2024 Tony Awards, Groff, 40, was nominated for his portrayal of the real-life singer Bobby Darin in the new musical Just in Time. The actor also produced the show, which charts the highs and the lows of Darin's iconic career.

Groff made his Broadway debut in 2005’s In My Life before landing his breakthrough role in Spring Awakening. He went on to star in productions of A New Brain, Hamilton, Little Shop of Horrors and Merrily We Roll Along. On screen, he is known for his roles in Glee, Looking and Mindhunter. 

Iglehart, 50, was nominated for playing the titular character in A Wonderful World: The Louis Armstrong Musical. He also co-directed the musical, which closed in February.

The actor, who won his first Tony for Aladdin in 2014, felt a special connection to the real-life jazz singer after taking on his role. "What I found most interesting is how much in certain aspects I feel like I really understood him,” Iglehart said in an interview with PEOPLE. "I'm not a guy who likes conflict. I love acting, but I can't stand drama. Louis just wanted to play his horn. That made him so happy. Performing made him happy. He really didn't want to get into all the drama of money or dealing with people."

Jordan, 40, scored his second-ever Tony nomination for Floyd Collins. He plays the eponymous character in the work, which follows the cave explorer in the weeks he was trapped underground after trying to make a new discovery. 

"I love [Floyd’s] overwhelming sense of hope and positivity. How he can fall into some moments of doubt and fright, but at his core, he's just so wonderfully optimistic and all he cares about is this one thing," he told PEOPLE of his character. "He wants to discover something. To find something new. He wants to live this incredibly full and exciting and joyful life, and to be recognized by his family, his dad and the people around him for something that he's really good at and loves to do."

The actor previously starred on Broadway in Rock of Ages, Newsies, Waitress and The Great Gatsby. 

See PEOPLE's full coverage of the 78th annual Tony Awards, hosted by Cynthia Erivo at New York City's Radio City Music Hall and airing on CBS and Paramount+.