Celebrities, online sleuths and a private detective agency have joined the search for a much-loved Broadway dancer after he disappeared without a trace almost two weeks ago.

The star of two critically acclaimed musicals, including MJ the Musical and Hamilton, Zelig Williams, 28, also travelled with Australian acting royalty Hugh Jackman on his international tour of The Man. The Music. The Show.

Jackman, who has 35 million followers (and another 15 million on X), posted about Williams on his Instagram stories.

“Please … if anyone has any information as to the whereabouts of ZELIG WILLIAMS, please reach out to your local authorities,” Jackman wrote over a photo of the dancer, reported the US NBC News network.

“ZELIG, we love you and are praying for your safe return.”

A talented dancer, Williams, was staying with his mother, Kathy, in his home town of Columbia, South Carolina, over the summer break and had been hosting dance workshops.

Hugh Jackman’s Instagram story about the missing man. Photo: Instagram

She last saw him leave the house at 9.45am on October 3.

NBC reported a New York-based friend received a suspicious SOS alert on her phone later that day saying the dancer had been in a car crash.

One of his first dance teachers, Caroline Lewis Jones, told the network two of Williams’ sisters died in a car crash years ago, a tragedy that was part of his drive to dance and create choreography.

After filing a missing persons report on October 4, his cousin, Mieoki Corbett Jacobs, said police found his SUV in the early hours of October 5 in a car park at the Palmetto Trail on the outskirts of the Congaree National Park near Wateree, South Carolina.

There were no signs of a crash.

“We searched the area near where the car was found,” Corbett Jacobs said, adding that local authorities and community members walked the trails with them using ATVs and drones.

“He didn’t wander off. This is definitely a missing persons (case) with suspected foul play,” she later told CNN.

Formerly known as the Congaree Swamp National Monument, the national park on 10,900 hectares contains the largest expanse of old-growth bottomland hardwood forests in the US.

According to a National Park Service advisory on October 4, several parks were affected by the fury of Hurricane Helene up and down the US eastern seaboard.

Congaree National Park “lost both power and water during the hurricane, and the whole park remains closed until services can be restored”.

The private detective

Kathy Williams and her family hired a private detective, Chandra Cleveland of SHE-Private Investigations, to help in the search for their son and relative.

“Williams, a devoted believer in God, had also been exploring his faith by visiting various churches in the area and may have joined a men’s group,” Cleveland wrote in a statement on her Instagram.

“If you have seen Zelig at your church or have had any interaction with him recently, the family is asking you to come forward.

“Zelig requires medication and concern for his wellbeing is growing.”

She told CNN his case was an example of “missing while black syndrome,” where the disappearances of black men and women receive little to no attention.

“I like to tell everyone that even you can go an hour and not speak to a person, but when you know that’s not their pattern, something needs to be done, and you need to call law enforcement immediately and report that,” she said.

“That’s what this family did.”

Although the Richland County Sheriff’s Office are treating his disappearance as a missing persons case, “they believe it’s possible foul play is involved”, Sheriff Leon Lott has said, his office confirmed to People.

The New Daily has reached out to Sheriff Lott and the Richland County Sheriff’s Office.

Have you seen Zelig?

Dedicated missing persons websites, US Watch, which “serves and protects missing kids”, former school friends and the dance and choreography world are all taking to social media to ask the same question: Have you seen Zelig?

US Watch has volunteers “clearing watch zones” looking for Williams.

Dozens of messages of prayer have flooded his Instagram, but none shedding light on his whereabouts or a motive.

‘Dance was his voice’

Lewis Jones said she had continued to work with him as part of her non-profit dance company in recent years.

Of the thousands of students she has taught over the years, Jones said, Williams was one of the most special dancers she worked with.

“Zelig, when he walks into a room, you just want to be with him. … He makes you want to be better,” Jones said.

“Dance was his voice, for sure, and how he expressed himself best.”