The Little Moments that Build into Big Moments
Two-time Emmy Award winning actor and poet Ron Cephas Jones continues to captivate audiences with his heartfelt and memorable performances on both stage and screen. This year, Jones and his daughter Jasmine Cephas Jones made Emmy history as the first father-daughter duo to both win individual Emmy awards in the same year.
Jones stars in NBC’s award-winning drama series, THIS IS US, which returned to NBC for season 4 in September 2019. Jones plays ‘William Hill’, a gay, recovering addict who becomes reconnected with his biological son while coming to terms with his own terminal cancer. Mandy Moore, Milo Ventimiglia, and Sterling K. Brown co-star in the series. Jones’ heart-wrenching work on the show has earned him two Emmy Awards for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series along with an additional Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor and two Black Reel Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actor. As a cast, the show has received a 2018 SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble, a 2018 and a 2017 Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Drama Series as well as show wins at the Critics’ Choice and People’s Choice Awards.
Jones was recently seen in the AppleTV+ Series TRUTH BE TOLD, which is based on the novel Are You Sleeping by Kathleen Barber. Starring Octavia Spencer as Poppy Scoville-Parnell, the show revolves around a journalist who creates a true-crime podcast to reinvestigate a decades old murder case that may have convicted the wrong killer – someone she condemned. Jones plays Poppy’s father, a former Black Panther who may be in the early stages of dementia, in a performance The Hollywood Reporter called, “magnetic.” Jones will reprise this role in season 2 of the series which has been ordered by Apple TV+.
Next, Jones will star alongside Julianna Moore in Stephen Kings’ new AppleTV+ Series LISEY’S STORY which follows a widow who becomes the object of a dangerous stalker, obsessed with her husband’s work.
On the small screen, Jones was recently seen in LUKE CAGE, Netflix’s critically acclaimed series based on the popular Marvel comic of the same name. In 2015, he appeared in the sophomore season of USA’s Emmy nominated drama series, MR. ROBOT opposite Rami Malek and Christian Slater. His other television credits include Baz Luhrman’s THE GET DOWN for Netflix, AMC’s LOW WINTER SUN, BANSHEE, THE BLACKLIST, LAW & ORDER: SVU, and ABC’s 2008 adaptation of A RAISIN IN THE SUN opposite Phylicia Rashad and Audra McDonald.
Jones can previously be seen in the installment of Sony’s Marvel Universe, VENOM, opposite Tom Hardy, Michelle Williams and W oody Harrelson. Other film credits include Ken Marino’s DOG DAYS, HE GOT GAME, Woody Allen’s SWEET AND LOWDOWN, and PAID IN FULL.
On stage, Jones has appeared in a depth of diverse roles including; Longacre’s Broadway production OF MICE AND MEN opposite James Franco, Second Stage’s BETWEEN RIVERSIDE AND CRAZY, Off-Broadway productions of THE EXONERATED, TWO TRAINS RUNNING, and TITUS ANDRONICUS, Classical Theater Harlem’s THE TEMPEST, as well as the title character in RICHARD III as part of The Public Theater’s Mobile Shakespeare Unit. Jones has also appeared on the London stage in Old Vic London’s THE TEMPEST & AS YOU LIKE IT, the Almeida Theater’s THE LAST DAYS OF JUDAS ISCARIOT, Greenwich Theatre’s OTHELLO, and on Westend, JESUS HOPPED THE A TRAIN.
In 2006, Jones was a recipient of the prestigious “Sustained Excellence of Performance” at the Obie Awards. He has additionally received recognition for his theatre performances at the Connecticut Critics Circle Awards.
Resources
LINKS:
- CALARTS: School of Theater
- IMDB: Ron Cephas Jones
- INSTAGRAM: @cephasjaz
QUOTES:
“It’s all about the action…You can’t focus on what you’re feeling until you can focus on what you’re doing…You don’t feel anything until after the action.”
“You can’t do this to be successful, you have to do it because you love it. Success is a byproduct of doing something you love.”
VIDEOS:
Guest links:
- CALARTS: School of Theater
- IMDB: Ron Cephas Jones
- INSTAGRAM: @cephasjaz
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