Jonathan Majors

Jonathan Michael Majors (born September 7, 1989) is an American actor.

He attended Cedar Hill High School and graduated from Duncanville High School in 2008.

Majors has described himself as having had a "difficult" childhood, growing up with drug dealers and murderers for neighbors who wore ankle monitors on their release from prison.

As a teenager, Majors was arrested for shoplifting, suspended from high school for fighting, and lived in his car while working two jobs after being kicked out of his house.

He eventually found solace and a "safe space" in the world of theatre, which he joined after watching Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight. Majors felt Heath Ledger's role as the Joker portrayed the complexity of good and evil, evoking memories of the criminals with moralistic dualities he grew up with.

Majors credits Ledger's Joker as the reason he became an actor, and why he seeks to be an inspiration to others.

Majors studied for his bachelor's degree at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, and later attended the Yale School of Drama; he graduated with a Master of Fine Arts in 2016.

Majors secured his first onscreen role in the ABC miniseries When We Rise while still a student at Yale.

In the series, Majors portrayed real-life gay activist Ken Jones; as part of his research for the role, he met with Jones before playing him.

That same year, Majors appeared in his first feature film role as Corporal Henry Woodson in the revisionist Western film Hostiles, written and directed by Scott Cooper.

The film had its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival on September 2, 2017.

It was also screened at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 10, 2017.

More roles followed, in the 2018 films White Boy Rick and Out of Blue. Both of these films screened at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival, with the latter competing for the Platform Prize.

A graduate of the Yale School of Drama, Majors rose to prominence for starring in the drama films The Last Black Man in San Francisco (2019) and Da 5 Bloods (2020), and the HBO horror series Lovecraft Country (2020), for which he received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination.

Majors has since portrayed Nat Love in the western The Harder They Fall (2021), Jesse L. Brown in the war film Devotion (2022), and antagonist Dame Anderson in the sports film Creed III (2023).

In the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), he portrayed Kang the Conqueror in the film Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023), while also appearing as other variants of the character in the Disney+ series Loki (2021–2023).

In March 2023, Majors was arrested for assaulting his ex-girlfriend Grace Jabbari.

That December, he was found guilty of two misdemeanor counts of assault and harassment.

After the conviction, he was dropped from future projects, including the MCU.

Majors was born in Santa Barbara County, California, and spent his early years living with his mother, who is a pastor, his older sister, and younger brother on the Vandenberg military base, as his father was in the US Air Force.

In 2019, Majors rose to prominence after starring in Joe Talbot's critically acclaimed independent feature film The Last Black Man in San Francisco, for which he received an Independent Spirit Award nomination.

The film had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 26, 2019.

It was released by A24 in the United States on June 7, 2019.

Former President of the United States Barack Obama rated it as one of the best films of 2019.

Majors' performance was praised by critics: Manohla Dargis of The New York Times called his performance "a mournful heartbreaker", while Rolling Stone described his turn as "both deeply sensitive and charmingly left-of-center".

Majors also appeared in three other 2019 film releases: Captive State, Gully, and Jungleland.

In 2020, Majors said "Our father, who loved us dearly, just kind of disappeared one day ... and he resurfaced 17 years later."

Majors has since reconnected with his father.

The family moved around various cities in Texas, including Dallas, Georgetown, and Cedar Hill.

In 2020, Majors starred alongside Chadwick Boseman and Delroy Lindo in Spike Lee's war drama film Da 5 Bloods, which was released on Netflix.

That year, he also garnered wider notice for portraying Atticus Freeman in the HBO television series Lovecraft Country.

His performance in Lovecraft Country was favorably reviewed by critics; Vogue dubbed him "the emotional core of the show".

In 2021, Majors starred as the lead actor in Jeymes Samuel's directorial debut film The Harder They Fall, acting alongside Idris Elba, Zazie Beetz, Regina King and Delroy Lindo.

In 2023, he starred in Magazine Dreams and co-starred alongside Michael B. Jordan in Creed III.

The former film was screened at Sundance in January 2023 and acquired by Searchlight Pictures for a release in December that year, but was later pulled from release and ultimately returned quietly to its producers following Majors' harassment and assault conviction.

Majors debuted in the Marvel Cinematic Universe Disney+ series Loki as "He Who Remains" and portrayed Kang the Conqueror in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.

He then appeared as Victor Timely in Loki season 2.

He was originally set to appear in Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars.

However, on December 18, 2023, following his harassment and assault conviction, Marvel Studios announced that they would be parting ways with Majors.

He was also dropped from a planned film about Dennis Rodman.