Peter Hayden Dinklage was born on June 11, 1969, in Morristown, New Jersey, to John Carl Dinklage, an insurance salesman, and Diane Dinklage, an elementary-school music teacher. He was born with achondroplasia, a common form of dwarfism. Dinklage grew up as the only dwarf in his family in the historic Brookside section of Mendham Township, New Jersey, with his parents and older brother, Jonathan. He is of German and Irish descent. Jonathan graduated from the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University and is a violinist for the musical "Hamilton". As a child, Dinklage and his brother performed puppet musicals for people in their neighborhood. Dinklage has described Jonathan as being the "real performer of the family," saying that his brother's passion for the violin was the only thing that kept him from pursuing acting.