J. K. Simmons

Jonathan Kimble Simmons (born January 9, 1955) is an American actor. In television, he is known for playing Dr. Emil Skoda on the NBC series Law & Order, Vernon Schillinger on the HBO series Oz, Assistant Police Chief Will Pope on TNT's The Closer, and the Amazon Prime series Invincible as Nolan “Omniman” Grayson. From 2017 to 2019, he starred as Howard Silk in the Starz series Counterpart.

His film roles include J. Jonah Jameson in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy (2002–2007), and music instructor Terence Fletcher in Whiplash (2014). He is known for voicing Cave Johnson in the video game Portal 2 (2011), Tenzin in The Legend of Korra (2012–2014), Stanford “Ford” Pines in Gravity Falls (2015–2016), Kai in Kung Fu Panda 3 (2016), Mayor Leodore Lionheart in Zootopia (2016), the titular character in Klaus (2019), Pig Baby in Season 4 of the HBO Max animated series Infinity Train (2021), and Omni-Man in the Amazon Prime action animated series Invincible (2021). He reprised his role as Jameson in various Marvel media unrelated to the Sam Raimi trilogy, including multiple animated series and the Marvel Cinematic Universe films Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019) and Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021). He has also appeared in a series of commercials for Farmers Insurance, and also voices the Yellow M&M. He also starred in the third season of the IFC comedy series Brockmire. In 2020, he had recurring roles on the miniseries Defending Jacob and The Stand.

Simmons's performance in Whiplash received widespread critical acclaim and earned him many accolades, including the Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, Screen Actors Guild Award, Critics' Choice Award and BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor.