PERSON: Jesse Williams

Actor, Director, Producer

Jesse Wesley Williams (born August 5, 1981) is an American actor, director, producer, and activist best known as Jackson Avery on Grey’s Anatomy (2009–22; 2024). He has also appeared in films such as The Cabin in the Woods (2012) and The Butler (2013). He provided voice acting and motion capture for Markus in the video game Detroit: Become Human (2018).

He served as an executive producer of the Academy Award-winning short, Two Distant Strangers (2020), and the Tony Award-winning revival of Take Me Out (2022). He also acted in the latter and was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play.

Williams is the youngest member of the board of directors at The Advancement Project, a civil rights think tank and advocacy group. He is also the executive producer of Question Bridge: Black Males, a multifaceted media project, art exhibition, student and teacher curriculum and website, focused on the black male identity and the diversity within the demographic.

He has written articles for CNN and The Huffington Post. He also has been a guest on Wolf Blitzer’s The Situation Room.

In June 2016, Williams won the humanitarian award at the 2016 BET Awards. His acceptance speech highlighted issues of racial injustice, police brutality, and the ‘invention of whiteness’. As a result of his speech, dueling petitions were circulated: one to have Williams fired from Grey’s Anatomy and one to keep him on the series.

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