Jefferson Mays

Acting

Jefferson Mays

Born

1965-06-08 (61)

Place of birth

Connecticut, USA

Known for

Acting

Credits

46 titles

Jefferson Mays (born Lewis Jefferson Mays; June 8, 1965) is an American film, stage and television actor. Mays was raised in Clinton, Connecticut with his parents, a naval intelligence officer and a children's librarian, and his siblings. Mays graduated from Yale College, where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree, and the University of California, San Diego, where he earned a Master of Fine Arts. Mays appeared on Broadway in I Am My Own Wife, a Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Doug Wright, from November 2003 (previews) to October 31, 2004. He had appeared in the play Off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons in May 2003, and at the La Jolla Playhouse in July 2001. Mays won the 2004 Tony Award…

Known for

Law & Order poster
7.3

In cases ripped from the headlines, police investigate serious and often deadly crimes, weighing the evidence and questioning the suspects until someone is taken into custody. The district attorney's office then builds a case to convict the perpetrator by proving the person guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Working together, these expert teams navigate all sides of the complex criminal justice system to make New York a safer place.

Law & Order

1990

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit poster
8.0

In the criminal justice system, sexually-based offenses are considered especially heinous. In New York City, the dedicated detectives who investigate these vicious felonies are members of an elite squad known as the Special Victims Unit. These are their stories.

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit

1999

Nurse Jackie poster
7.1

Every day is a matter of life and death in a hectic New York City hospital, but for Nurse Jackie that's the easiest part. Between chronic back pain that won't quit, and a personal life on the constant edge of collapse, it's going to take a white lie here, a bent rule there, and a handful of secret strategies to relieve the pain, and stay one step ahead of total disaster.

Nurse Jackie

2009

The Blacklist poster
7.6

Raymond "Red" Reddington, one of the FBI's most wanted fugitives, surrenders in person at FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C. He claims that he and the FBI have the same interests: bringing down dangerous criminals and terrorists. In the last two decades, he's made a list of criminals and terrorists that matter the most but the FBI cannot find because it does not know they exist. Reddington calls this "The Blacklist". Reddington will co-operate, but insists that he will speak only to Elizabeth Keen, a rookie FBI profiler.

The Blacklist

2013

Law & Order: Criminal Intent poster
7.6

The third installment of the “Law & Order” franchise takes viewers deep into the minds of its criminals while following the intense psychological approaches the Major Case Squad uses to solve its crimes.

Law & Order: Criminal Intent

2001

The Good Wife poster
7.6

Alicia Florrick boldly assumes full responsibility for her family and re-enters the workforce after her husband's very public sex and political corruption scandal lands him in jail.

The Good Wife

2009

Film credits

2020s · 6 titles

The Tragedy of Macbeth poster
6.9

Macbeth, the Thane of Glamis, receives a prophecy from a trio of witches that one day he will become King of Scotland. Consumed by ambition and spurred to action by his wife, Macbeth murders his king and takes the throne for himself.

The Tragedy of Macbeth

2021

Rebuilding poster
6.5

After wildfires take his ranch, a cowboy named Dusty winds up in a FEMA camp, finding community with others who lost homes, including his daughter and ex-wife.

Rebuilding

2025

Seneca poster
5.0

Rome in 65 AD, Emperor Nero's tyrannical regime has reached its zenith, Nero's self-indulgence and excessiveness brings up the opposition against him, conspiracies threaten his power. By all means Nero tries to defend his despotic claim of sovereignty. The famous philosopher Seneca has been Nero's teacher, mentor and close advisor since childhood, he is significantly involved in his ascent. Nevertheless, Nero gets weary of Seneca and Nero uses a foiled attack on his life to falsely accuse Seneca of being an accomplice.

Seneca

2023

Los Vampires poster
NR

In 1930 Hollywood, a Spanish actor is cast in the night shoot of a soon-to-be-legendary vampire film, forced to imitate the English-speaking star who performs the same role by day. The two actors regularly meet at the transitory hours of their shoots, and a rivalry stirs between them. All the while, a string of murders are occurring on and around the soundstage.

Los Vampires

2026

Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol poster
10.0

The timeless tale of Ebenezer Scrooge comes to thrilling new life as Tony winner Jefferson Mays plays over 50 roles in a virtuosic masterclass of a performance that must be seen to be believed.

Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol

2020

No artwork available
NR

A woman is contacted out of the blue by the father she hasn't seen since age five. She soon discovers the real – and really strange – reason that he bowed out of her life. It’s a story about parents, children, love, loss and superheroes.

Weathermaker

2025

2010s · 10 titles

Inherent Vice poster
6.5

In Los Angeles at the turn of the 1970s, drug-fueled detective Larry "Doc" Sportello investigates the disappearance of an ex-girlfriend.

Inherent Vice

2014

The Giver poster
6.6

In a seemingly perfect community, without war, pain, suffering, differences or choice, a young boy is chosen to learn from an elderly man about the true pain and pleasure of the "real" world.

The Giver

2014

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs poster
7.1

Vignettes weaving together the stories of six individuals in the old West at the end of the Civil War. Following the tales of a sharp-shooting songster, a wannabe bank robber, two weary traveling performers, a lone gold prospector, a woman traveling the West to an uncertain future, and a motley crew of strangers undertaking a carriage ride.

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

2018

Rebel in the Rye poster
6.6

The life of celebrated but reclusive author J.D. Salinger, who gained worldwide fame with the publication of his novel The Catcher in the Rye.

Rebel in the Rye

2017

I Am Michael poster
5.5

The controversial true story of a gay activist who rejects his homosexuality and becomes a Christian pastor.

I Am Michael

2015

Ned Rifle poster
5.8

Henry’s and Fay's son Ned sets out to find and kill his father for destroying his mother's life. But his aims are frustrated by the troublesome Susan, whose connection to Henry predates even his arrival in the lives of the Grim family.

Ned Rifle

2015

Curated poster
4.8

During a reluctant trip to her late Grandmother's home in the middle of nowhere, Nancy learns that a person's sentiment and complexities aren't limited to the things they leave behind. Created for TNT's Shatterbox project.

Curated

2018

No artwork available
NR

In this chilling and lyrical reinterpretation of Edgar Allan Poe's poem, a narrator mourning the loss of his love, Lenore, wavers on the brink of insanity. Perhaps hallucinating - or not - he sees a mysterious raven, whispering, 'nevermore.'

The Raven

2014

The Cask of Amontillado poster
NR

Deep beneath the streets of Italy lie the catacombs of the Montresors, filled with barrels of wine and the bones of the dead. One evening, friends Fortunado and Montresor venture below the city with promises of the rare vintage wine Amontillado.

The Cask of Amontillado

2014

My America poster
NR

21 monologues written by American playwrights form a sort of fractured portrait of the American collective psyche. Ranging from the sad to the hilarious, from the angry to the tentatively celebratory, many of the major and recurrent issues associated with our fraught but beloved union are reconsidered with elegance, wit, brutal honesty, and a little outright insanity.

My America

2014

2000s · 4 titles

1990s · 6 titles

Series credits

Law & Order poster
7.3

In cases ripped from the headlines, police investigate serious and often deadly crimes, weighing the evidence and questioning the suspects until someone is taken into custody. The district attorney's office then builds a case to convict the perpetrator by proving the person guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Working together, these expert teams navigate all sides of the complex criminal justice system to make New York a safer place.

Law & Order

1990

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit poster
8.0

In the criminal justice system, sexually-based offenses are considered especially heinous. In New York City, the dedicated detectives who investigate these vicious felonies are members of an elite squad known as the Special Victims Unit. These are their stories.

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit

1999

Nurse Jackie poster
7.1

Every day is a matter of life and death in a hectic New York City hospital, but for Nurse Jackie that's the easiest part. Between chronic back pain that won't quit, and a personal life on the constant edge of collapse, it's going to take a white lie here, a bent rule there, and a handful of secret strategies to relieve the pain, and stay one step ahead of total disaster.

Nurse Jackie

2009

The Blacklist poster
7.6

Raymond "Red" Reddington, one of the FBI's most wanted fugitives, surrenders in person at FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C. He claims that he and the FBI have the same interests: bringing down dangerous criminals and terrorists. In the last two decades, he's made a list of criminals and terrorists that matter the most but the FBI cannot find because it does not know they exist. Reddington calls this "The Blacklist". Reddington will co-operate, but insists that he will speak only to Elizabeth Keen, a rookie FBI profiler.

The Blacklist

2013

Law & Order: Criminal Intent poster
7.6

The third installment of the “Law & Order” franchise takes viewers deep into the minds of its criminals while following the intense psychological approaches the Major Case Squad uses to solve its crimes.

Law & Order: Criminal Intent

2001

The Good Wife poster
7.6

Alicia Florrick boldly assumes full responsibility for her family and re-enters the workforce after her husband's very public sex and political corruption scandal lands him in jail.

The Good Wife

2009

Fringe poster
8.1

FBI Special Agent Olivia Dunham, brilliant but formerly institutionalized scientist Walter Bishop and his scheming, reluctant son Peter uncover a deadly mystery involving a series of unbelievable events and realize they may be a part of a larger, more disturbing pattern that blurs the line between science fiction and technology.

Fringe

2008

Westworld poster
8.0

A dark odyssey about the dawn of artificial consciousness and the evolution of sin. Set at the intersection of the near future and the reimagined past, it explores a world in which every human appetite, no matter how noble or depraved, can be indulged.

Westworld

2016

The Closer poster
7.8

Deputy Police Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson transfers from Atlanta to LA to head up a special unit of the LAPD that handles sensitive, high-profile murder cases. Johnson's quirky personality and hard-nosed approach often rubs her colleagues the wrong way, but her reputation as one of the world's best interrogator eventually wins over even her toughest critics.

The Closer

2005

Hacks poster
7.5

Explore a dark mentorship that forms between Deborah Vance, a legendary Las Vegas comedian, and an entitled, outcast 25-year-old.

Hacks

2021

The Americans poster
7.9

Set during the Cold War period in the 1980s, The Americans is the story of Elizabeth and Philip Jennings, two Soviet KGB officers posing as an American married couple in the suburbs of Washington D.C. and their neighbor, Stan Beeman, an FBI Counterintelligence agent.

The Americans

2013

Lie to Me poster
7.9

The world's leading deception researcher, Dr. Cal Lightman, studies facial expression, body language and tone of voice to determine when a person is lying and why, which helps law enforcement and government agencies uncover the truth. But his skills also make it easier for him to deceive others.

Lie to Me

2009

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt poster
7.1

When a woman is rescued from a doomsday cult and lands in New York City, she must navigate a world she didn't think even existed anymore.

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

2015

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt poster
7.1

When a woman is rescued from a doomsday cult and lands in New York City, she must navigate a world she didn't think even existed anymore.

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

2015

Perry Mason poster
7.2

Set in 1932 Los Angeles, the series focuses on the origin story of famed defense lawyer Perry Mason. Living check-to-check as a low-rent private investigator, Mason is haunted by his wartime experiences in France and suffering the effects of a broken marriage. L.A. is booming while the rest of the country recovers from the Great Depression — but a kidnapping gone very wrong leads to Mason exposing a fractured city as he uncovers the truth of the crime.

Perry Mason

2020

Julia poster
7.3

Through Julia Child’s life and her singular joie de vivre, the series explores a pivotal time in American history – the emergence of public television as a new social institution, feminism and the women's movement, the nature of celebrity and America's cultural evolution.

Julia

2022

Liberty! poster
7.8

Dramatic documentary about the birth of the American Republic and the struggle of a loosely connected group of states to become a nation.

Liberty!

1997

Benjamin Franklin poster
6.7

An epic yarn spanning most of the 18th century, the series follows Franklin's career from humble beginnings in Boston to international superstardom: first as a scientist and revolutionary, and then as a founding father and America's first diplomat to France.

Benjamin Franklin

2002

I Am the Night poster
6.6

Fauna Hodel, who was given away by her teenage birth mother, begins to investigate the secrets to her past, following a sinister trail that swirls ever closer to an infamous Hollywood gynecologist connected to the legendary Black Dahlia murder.

I Am the Night

2019

Behind the camera