Samantha Jones
NYC
SAMANTHA JONES is an actor and director based in her home town of New York City. Most recently Jones received incredible reviews for her portrayal of the lead role Valmai in the world premier of PIT written by Melisa Annis. PIT was produced at Theatre for the New City. She also directed Missy Pyle and her band in SEXY AS HELL at Joe's Pub. Currently she is in further development with Pyle for her upcoming solo show.
Jones is best known for her hilarious original characters in all four of her solo shows and her work as an improvisational comedian. Raised by director/writer Debbie Jones, Jones was always encouraged to pursue her love of performing. After completing college and 10 years of acting training, it was no surprise to Jones her mother suggested stand-up comedy be the next logical step for the budding comedian. Though stand-up sounded terrifying, Jones already had plenty of experience hosting variety shows in college. So it was then that Jones began an exciting journey into stand-up comedy, improv and sketch comedy.
In 1995, Jones managed to find herself a place in a weekly live sketch comedy show. For three years Jones wrote new musical acts and sketches for the cast each week. With only a few days each week to write and rehearse, Jones discovered writing solo pieces was much easier to squeeze in between work and gave her more time to prepare for the show. This is where her work as a solo performer was born. Jones created monologues and characters based on her life growing up in NYC. These characters eventually were put onto her first solo show, I’M IN CHARGE OF THE COATS. Directed by Debbie Jones, it was well received at the HERE Arts Center under the program run by NBC.
Jones continued to collaborate with her team and family which is DORA MAE PRODUCTIONS. Three more solo shows came out of Jones and her team and the writing expanded to included original pieces written by her sisters, Jeannine Jones and Rebecca Lally. The fourth show, BUTTERFLY SUICIDE was one of 12 shows selected for the Solo Nova Arts Festival at P.S.122.
She also played the lead role of Blue in THE BREEZEWAY written and directed by Debbie Jones.
Adding singer songwriter to her list of credits, back in her sketch comedy days, the weekly need for brand new materiel often made Jones turn to her guitar. She created a ridiculous sketch about a brother and sister folk-goth singing duo called CRAZY POTATOe (the E was intentional)