Jayson has the distinction of having two films in both the 2015 and the 2016 Sundance Independent Film Festivals. In 2016 with Christine and The Birth of a Nation which won both the Audience Award and the Grand Jury Prize; and also in 2015 with 99 Homes and Mississippi Grind. Jayson also has had the honor of acting in two films that premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. In 2016 with The Book of Love and again in 2019 with Only. He also is in The Devil to Pay (known as Reckoning at the time) featuring Danielle Deadwyler (Till) that had its world premiere at the Atlanta Film Festival in 2019 where the film won Best Georgia Film.
An Atlanta, GA native best known for his recurring roles of Wendall Jelks on SundanceTV’s Rectify and Gavin on AMC’s The Walking Dead, Jayson is primarily known for his work as an actor. Over the last decade Jayson has been seen in, to name a few, American Made with Tom Cruise, Christine with Rebecca Hall, Tracy Letts and J. Smith Cameron, Where the Crawdads Sing, and Hulu’s recent mini-series Candy. In 2023 he will be in the films Emancipation directed by Antoine Fuqua and You’re Killing Me featuring Dermot Mulroney and the late great Anne Heche.
Now Jayson is stepping into producing. With a few small projects under his belt, he is finally premiering his passion project, the short film Chipper. Penned by Ruckus Skye and Lane Skye (The Devil to Pay, Becky, Rattle the Cage), Jayson stars as Reese, a prodigal son brought home by a father with a family secret and a cry for help. Chipper will be debuting in the Spring of 2023 at Poppy Jasper Int’l Film Festival and making the festival circuit in 2023 and 2024. Chipper has screened at over thirty festivals as of September 2023. Winning awards at several.
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Best known for his recurring roles of Wendall Jelks on SundanceTV’s Rectify and Gavin on AMC’s The Walking Dead, he has also had roles on Peacock’s Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist, Netflix’s Outer Banks, Amazon’s One Mississippi, CBS’ NCIS:New Orleans, FOX’s Sleepy Hollow, CW’s The Vampire Diaries and in the films Where the Crawdads Sing, Emancipation, American Made, Christine, The Birth of a Nation, The Book of Love, 99 Homes and Mississippi Grind, Jayson has been busy working with wonderful film makers and show-runners such as Craig Brewer, Olivia Newman, Doug Liman, Nate Parker, Antonio Campos, Ramin Bahrani, Ray McKinnon, Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden. He also found time to star in the films Only, The Devil to Pay, Heavy Water and Northfield. All are smaller budgeted high-end Atlanta produced independent films.
Since Rectify‘s debut in 2013, Jayson has become a bit of a fixture at the Sundance Film Festival. Representing not only Rectify but two films in 2015 and two again in 2016.
Other recent work includes I Saw the Light, Anchorman II, 42, Being Mary Jane, Footloose (2011), Coma and other projects and plays. Jayson has shared set time with some Hollywood heavyweights such as Don Cheadle, Tom Cruise, Leslie Odom jr., Frieda Pinto, Armie Hammer, Maisie Williams, Michael Shannon, Andrew Garfield, Ryan Reynolds, Ben Mendelsohn, Laura Dern, James Woods, Lauren Ambrose, Cuba Gooding Jr., Demi Moore, and David Duchovny.
As a native, Georgia remains his home and he lives in Athens, GA and Kirkwood/Atlanta with his wife Lisa. He is repped by Alexander White in Atlanta and Henderson Represents (HRI) in Los Angeles.