Jason Stuart

About Jason Stuart

After years of steady work in film and television, and approaching 150 credits on his IMDB page, actor and comedian Jason Stuart has achieved a pinnacle of success many actors only dream of. "For the last few years, people have started to approach me and say, 'You're that guy,'" he explains with his characteristic gravelly laugh. Indeed, with guest-starring and supporting credits in everything from Billy Bob Thornton show "Goliath" to Judd Apatow's "Love" to "My Wife and Kids" to "Tangerine" and "The Birth of a Nation," Stuart has now established himself as one of those all-too-familiar faces who might just pop up anywhere, in any kind of role.It's just the latest remarkable but true chapter in the career of Stuart, a longtime veteran of stand-up comedy, born in the Bronx and raised in the Fairfax district of Los Angeles. A self-described insecure Jewish kid who turned to theatre and performing to mask his emerging sexual identity - he jokes about going to see Barbra Streisand in "Funny Girl" as a youth and falling in love with Omar Sharif. His talent and determination got him some early professional work in films like "Kindergarten Cop," "Vegas Vacation," and TV shows like "Murder, She Wrote" and "The Drew Carey Show." But by the early-90s, frustrated by years of living in the closet, Stuart chose to come out publicly on an episode of Geraldo Rivera's talk show focused on "Unconventional Comedians."That led to a wave of interest in Stuart as a "gay comedian," giving his act new material and energy, and a purpose (his sexuality, as a Los Angeles Times article from 1995 states, is "a full-time job"). Today, Stuart marvels at how much has changed about the visibility of sexually diverse actors and celebrities, having experienced the transition from "closeted" to "gay" to "queer." "That was such a negative word, 'queer,'" he says. "It was a word 'they' would call you and it still takes some getting used to, but I can see how things are changing. And of course, I'm not just gay or queer, it's just a part of who I am: I'm also a Jew, a man of a certain age, a lover, a friend and a son. But it's always a part of who I am."Just as his identity as a gay man has not fully defined his career, Stuart is also proud of how he has kept his reputation as a comedian while still flourishing as an actor. "I've always thought about myself as an actor first, comedian second," he says. "When I think of what I want to do with the next phase of my career, I think about being a great character actor. I revered the late Philip Seymour Hoffman, his ability to always disappear into his characters, no matter the role. He was a character actor who happened to be a movie star."A look at Stuart's most recent work underscores this, notably playing a similar part - a detective in a crime drama - in two wildly different ways. In Prince Bagdasarian's "Abducted," he plays a police sidekick - "My version of J. K. Simmons or Paul Giamatti," he explains citing two more character actor role models. "I played him like my brother, who has been slightly irritated his entire life." On the other side of the coin is the private detective character Stuart creates in Jon Dabach's "Immortal," a new thriller co-starring Samm Levine and Dylan Baker. "He's much more powerful and intimidating."For Stuart, one of the most significant moments in his recent career was being cast as Joseph Randall, one of the villainous plantation owners at the wrong end of a rebellion in Nate Parker's searin...

Movies Appeared in

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Jason Stuart "Tangerine"

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"The Birth of a Nation" Actor Jason Stuart on PromoHomo.TV

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