Jesse Williams

JESSE WILLIAMS is an activist/actor/entrepreneur and former high school teacher.

Williams made his Broadway debut in “Take Me Out” written by award-winning playwright Richard Greenberg and directed by Scott Ellis. The Second Stage production debuted at the Helen Hayes theater in April 2022 to rave reviews. Williams was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Performance By An Actor In A Featured Role and the show won the Tony for Best Play Revival.

Most recently Jesse was seen in the Netflix romantic comedy, Your Place or Mine, alongside Reese Witherspoon, and he will next be seen in Season 3 of Only Murders in the Building, alongside Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez.

Williams spent 12 season playing ‘Dr. Jackson Avery’ on ABC’s hit series “Grey’s Anatomy” and has appeared in TV and films including The Cabin in the Woods, “Little Fires Everywhere,” “Lee Daniels’”, “The Butler”, “Band Aid”, “Selah and the Spades” and most recently, “Secret Headquarters” with Owen Wilson on Paramount+ (currently the streaming service’s #1 streamed original feature film).

Williams executive produced the 2020 Oscar winning short film “Two Distant Strangers”. He served as senior producer and correspondent alongside Norman Lear for their EPIX docuseries “America Divided.” He executive produced the documentary “Stay Woke: The Black Lives Matter Movement,” which premiered summer 2016 and is currently touring internationally.

Williams is a partner, and board member of Scholly, a mobile app that has connected students directly to over 100 million dollars in unclaimed scholarships. He is the co-founder of BLeBRiTY, a very successful black culturally centered mobile game and the Ebroji Mobile App, a popular cultural language keyboard.

Williams is founder of the production company, farWord Inc. and the executive producer of “Question Bridge: Black Males,” a series of transmedia art installations on display as part of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture's permanent collection.

Williams gained international attention for his 2016 BET Humanitarian Award acceptance speech. He is also the youngest member to sit on the Board of Directors for both Advancement Project, a leading national civil rights advocacy organization, and Harry Belafonte’s arts and social justice organization, Sankofa.org.