Orlando Jones

Orlando Jones (born April 10, 1968) is an American stand-up comedian and actor.

Jones was born in Mobile, Alabama, in 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 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.

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".

During 1991–92, Jones penned the Fox series Roc and, in 1993, he co-produced The Sinbad Show.

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.

He also made a brief appearance on the FOX sitcom Herman's Head in 1992.

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 performed as 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.

Subsequently, he appeared in Woo (1998), Mike Judge's Office Space (1999), alongside fellow MADtv alumnus David Herman, and in Barry Levinson's praised drama, Liberty Heights (1999).

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.

Since then, Jones has appeared in Magnolia (1999), New Jersey Turnpikes (1999) and in Harold Ramis' Bedazzled (2000).

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.

The freshman drama opened to FOX's highest fall drama premiere numbers since the premiere of 24 in 2001.

In 2003, he appeared on The Bernie Mac Show and on Girlfriends.

However, Jones returned to MADtv in 2004 to celebrate its 200th episode.

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.

Notably, one commercial had him wear a t-shirt that had 7 Up's then-slogan Make 7 Up Yours divided between the front and back with the double entendre on the back that featured the Up Yours part; 7 Up would sell the shirt through specialty retailer Spencer Gifts for many years.

This exposure led to a plethora of opportunities for Jones.

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 in 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.

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

After leaving MADtv, Jones expanded his cinema resume.