University of Illinois graduate Jon Michael Hill, who is up for a Tony Award for outstanding featured actor in a play, on Monday won the Outer Critics Circle Award in that category, for his performance in "Superior Donuts" by Tracy Letts.

The Outer Critics Circle Awards will be handed out during the group's 60th annual award ceremony May 27 at Sardi's Restaurant in New York City.

"These awards are frequently a sign of where the Tonys might go," said Henson Keys, director of the UI Department of Theatre acting program. Hill, a native of Waukegan, graduated from the program in 2007 with a bachelor's of fine arts degree.

The Tony Awards ceremony will be broadcast live from Radio City Music Hall by CBS Television, starting at 7 p.m. June 13.

Hill also won a Theatre World Award for outstanding Broadway debut performance in "Superior Donuts" as a street-wise young man who takes a job at a rundown doughnut shop in Uptown Chicago.

And the Drama League has included him in a long list of the season's best performer nominees for the Distinguished Performance Award. The Drama League ceremony will be Friday.

Definitely on a roll, Hill also heard that ABC Television has picked up the pilot, "187 Detroit," for broadcast this fall. In it he plays the partner to a homicide cop portrayed by Michael Imperioli, who played Christopher Moltisanti in the hit TV series "The Sopranos." Imperioli is the lead in the new series, which is set in Detroit but will be filmed in Atlanta.