Orlando Jones

For the American colonist and maternal grandfather of Martha Washington, see Frances Jones (colonist).

Orlando Jones
Jones in April 2010
Born	(1968-04-10) April 10, 1968 Mobile, Alabama, U.S.
Medium	character actor, sketch comedy
Nationality	American
Years active	1987–present
Genres	film, television, stand-up
Spouse	Jacqueline Staph ​ (m. 2009)​
Children	1

Orlando Jones (born April 10, 1968) is an American actor and stand-up comedian. He is known for being one of the original cast members of the sketch comedy series MADtv, for his role as the 7 Up spokesman from 1999 to 2002, and for his role as the African god Anansi on Starz's American Gods.

Early life

Jones was born in Mobile, Alabama, on April 10, 1968. His father was a professional baseball player in the Philadelphia Phillies organization. He moved to Mauldin, South Carolina, when he was a teen and graduated from Mauldin High School in 1985. One of his early acting experiences involved playing a werewolf in a haunted house to help raise money for the junior/senior prom. Jones enrolled in the College of Charleston, South Carolina. He left in 1990 without finishing his degree.

To pursue his interest in the entertainment industry, Jones, together with comedian Michael Fechter, formed a production company, Homeboy's Productions and Advertising. Together Jones and Fechter worked on several projects including a McDonald's commercial with basketball superstar Michael Jordan for the McDonald's specialty sandwich the "McJordan".

He scored his first Hollywood job in 1987, writing for the NBC comedy A Different World, on which he had a small guest role in the season five finale. During 1991-92, Jones penned the Fox series Roc and, in 1993, he co-produced The Sinbad Show. He also made a brief appearance on the FOX sitcom Herman's Head in 1992.

Career

MADtv

After hosting Fox's music series Sound FX, in 1994, Jones became one of the original nine cast members of MADtv. Unlike some of his fellow original repertory performers on MADtv, Jones came to the show with limited sketch comedy experience.

Throughout the first two seasons of MADtv, Jones produced characters like the Cabana Chat band leader Dexter St. Croix and Reverend LaMont Nixon Fatback, the vocal follower of Christopher Walken. He was also noted for his impressions of Thomas Mikal Ford, Temuera Morrison, Warwick Davis, Danny DeVito, Michael Jai White, Eddie Griffin, and Ice Cube.

After two seasons on MADtv, Jones left the show to pursue a movie career. However, Jones returned to MADtv in 2004 to celebrate its 200th episode.

Other television projects

Aside from MADtv, Jones made many other television appearances. Perhaps his most popular and enduring television appearance was in a series of humorous commercials as the spokesperson for 7 Up where he gained wide recognition.

This exposure led to a plethora of opportunities for Jones. First, he hosted an HBO First Look special in 2000 and then, in 2003, was given his own late night talk show on FX called The Orlando Jones Show. Although his talk show was short lived, Jones continued to make additional television appearances. In 2003, he appeared on The Bernie Mac Show and on Girlfriends. In 2006, Jones decided to return to television as one of the lead characters of ABC's crime drama The Evidence, as Cayman Bishop. He has also appeared in two episodes of Everybody Hates Chris, the first in 2007 as Chris's substitute teacher and the second in 2008 as Clint Huckstable, an allusion to the character Cliff Huxtable played by Bill Cosby on The Cosby Show.

In 2008, he appeared as Harold Wilcox, a violent veteran with PTSD, on New Amsterdam. In the first season of the show, Jones also starred on Wild 'N Out. Jones was the first guest star on the show. Jones was the co-host of ABC's Crash Course (which was canceled after 4 episodes). On November 16, 2009, it was announced on TV Guide that Jones had been cast as Marcus Foreman, Eric Foreman's brother on House, appearing in the season six episode "Moving the Chains". In 2013, he was hired as a principal actor in the FOX television series Sleepy Hollow. The freshman drama opened to FOX's highest fall drama premiere numbers since the premiere of '24' in 2001.

From 2016 through 2019, Jones portrayed Mr. Nancy, aka the African god Anansi, in the Starz series American Gods.

Film projects

After leaving MADtv, Jones expanded his cinema résumé. He appeared in a bit part in his first big screen film, In Harm's Way (1991), then joined Larry David in the feature Sour Grapes (1998), playing the character of an itinerant man. Subsequently, he appeared in Woo (1990), Mike Judge's Office Space (1999), alongside fellow MADtv alumnus David Herman, and in Barry Levinson's praised drama, Liberty Heights (1999). Since then, Jones has appeared in Magnolia (1999), New Jersey Turnpikes (1999) and in Harold Ramis' Bedazzled (2000).

During the 2000s, Jones' career began to branch out. In addition to his witty appearances in the 7-Up campaigns, Jones played the role of Clifford Franklin in The Replacements (2000) and the horror film From Dusk till Dawn 3: The Hangman's Daughter (2003). In 2002, Jones landed the lead role of Daryl Chase in the action-dramedy Double Take (2001), alongside Eddie Griffin, and worked with David Duchovny, Seann William Scott and Julianne Moore in Ivan Reitman's sci-fi comedy, Evolution (2001). Jones was also in the 2009 film Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant and he appeared as the computer Vox 114 in The Time Machine (2002). His other more recent films includes Biker Boyz (2003), Godzilla (2005), Runaway Jury (2003) and Primeval (2004). Jones appeared in an uncredited cameo and played in Grindhouse Planet Terror (2007 film).

In 2011 Jones appeared in the documentary film Looking for Lenny, in which he talks about Lenny Bruce and freedom of speech. In 2012, Jones starred in Joe Penna's original interactive thriller series Meridian created in conjunction with Fourth Wall Studios.

Voice acting

Jones has been featured in many voice acting projects over the years. In 1993, Jones appeared in Yuletide in the 'hood and in 1998, he made a guest appearance in the animated comedy TV Series, King Of The Hill. More recently, he lent his voice to the TV series Father of the Pride and the video games Halo 2 as the marine Sergeant Banks as well as other black marines and L.A. Rush. In 2006, he co-created, produced and voice acted for the MTV2 animated series The Adventures of Chico and Guapo.

In early April 2013, it was largely thought that Jones would be taking Tyler Perry's place as Madea. This stemmed from Jones's own report that he would be taking over the role, and photography of himself impersonating Madea. This led to public outcry from fans. Perry later revealed, however, that this was an elaborate prank played by Jones, stating, "That was an April Fools' joke that HE did. Not true. And not funny. When I’m done with Madea, she is done."

Personal life

Jones married former model Jacqueline Staph in 2009. They have a daughter. In October 2011, Jones provoked controversy when he joked on Twitter that someone should kill former Governor of Alaska and Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin. He apologized for the comment several days later.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1998	Sour Grapes	Digby
1997	In Harm's Way	Andre
1998	Woo	Sticky Fingas
1999	New Jersey Turnpikes	—
1999	Office Space	Steve
1999	Liberty Heights	Little Melvin
1999	Magnolia	Worm	Deleted scenes
2000	Waterproof	Natty Battle
2000	The Replacements	Clifford Franklin
2000	From Dusk till Dawn 3: The Hangman's Daughter	Ezra Traylor
2000	Chain of Fools	Miss Cocoa
2000	Bedazzled	Various
2001	Evolution	Professor Harry Block
2001	Double Take	Daryl Chase
2001	Say It Isn't So	Dig McCaffrey
2002	Drumline	Dr. Lee
2002	The Time Machine	Vox 114
2003	Biker Boyz	Soul Train
2003	Runaway Jury	Russell
2006	Looking for Sunday	Einstein Steinberg
2007	I Think I Love My Wife	Nelson	Uncredited
2007	Primeval	Steve Johnson
2009	Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant	Alexander Ribs
2009	Beyond a Reasonable Doubt	Detective Ben Nickerson
2011	The Chicago 8	Bobby Seal
2011	Seconds Apart	Detective Lampkin
2012	Meridian	Jeff Meyers
2013	Enemies Closer	Clay
2016	The Book of Love	Cornelius "Dumbass" Thibadeaux

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1992	Herman's Head	Cop	Episode: "Guns 'n Neurosis"
1992	A Different World	Troy Douglas	2 episodes
1994	Sound fX	Himself	Unknown episodes
1995–1997	MADtv	Various	41 episodes
1998	King of the Hill	Kidd Mookie	Episode: "Traffic Jam"
2003	Girlfriends	Dr. Darren Lucas	Episode: "Sex, Lies, and Books"
2003	The Bernie Mac Show	Max Trotter	Episode: "For a Few Dollars More"
2003	The Orlando Jones Show	Himself	8 episodes
2004–2005	Father of the Pride	Snack	14 episodes
2005	Wild 'n Out	Himself	Episode: "Orlando Jones"
2006	The Evidence	Inspector Cayman Bishop	8 episodes
2006	The Adventures of Chico and Guapo	Concepcion	8 episodes
2007-08	Everybody Hates Chris	Mr. Newton		Dr. Clint Huckstable	Episodes: "Everybody Hates the Substitute" and "Everybody Hates Homecoming"
2007	Men in Trees	George	3 episodes
2007	Ghost Whisperer	Casey Edgars	Episode: "Unhappy Medium"
2008	New Amsterdam	Harold Wilcox	Episode: "Soldier's Heart"
2008	Pushing Daisies	Magnus Olsdatter	Episode: "The Norwegians"
2009	Rules of Engagement	Brad	4 episodes
2010	House	Marcus Foreman	Episode: "Moving the Chains"
2011	Necessary Roughness	Lazarus Rollins	2 episodes
2011	CSI: Miami	Lawrence Kingman	Episode: "By the Book"
2012–2015	Black Dynamite	Basehead	9 episodes
2013–2015	Sleepy Hollow	Captain Frank Irving	28 episodes
2015	The Haunting of...	Himself	Episode: "The Haunting of Orlando Jones"
2017	Madiba	Oliver Tambo	6 episodes
2017–2019	American Gods	Mr. Nancy	9 episodes
2017	Room 104	Samuel	Episode: "The Knockandoo"
2019	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	Snake	Episode: "Exchange"
2020	The Good Lord Bird	The Rail Man	Upcoming series

External links

• Official website
• Orlando Jones at IMDb
• Biography, Filmography and Photos at Hollywood.com