Jason E. “Jay” Walker is a native of Cranston, a suburb at the southern border of RI’s capital city. With a strong interest in acting, writing, music & the arts from birth, he has always tried to put everything he is into everything he does. Even as a teen, he absorbed the influences of Shakespeare, Poe, Frost, & Hughes, as well as classical, jazz, rock, soul, pop & hip-hop music. During middle & high school, he studied theater & music, made the morning & afternoon announcements & entertained friends with singing, poetry & numerous impressions. After graduation, he studied theater at RI College & was on the air at the college radio station with three differently formatted shows. While he was in college, Jay performed in school & community theater productions of Merry Wives of Windsor, Much Ado about Nothing, The Boys Next Door, & the musical La Cage aux Folles.
Jay also got caught up in the Providence & Worcester Slam™ & spoken word scenes, where he was further influenced by Michael Brown, Patricia Smith & an array of immensely talented artists. He qualified 3 times for the final round to choose the Providence Slam™ team & sold out of the 1st printings of two desktop publications. However, it wasn’t enough to pay the bills. Having run out of money & motivation, Jay dropped out of RIC for a career in radio, broadcasting as on-air personality “The Night Stalker” at Hot 106 FM, Providence. From there, he somehow found a way into the historic Trinity Repertory Company for the premiere professional performance of Robert Alexander’s A Preface to the Alien Garden. Jay also broadened his horizons even further, becoming a staff writer for Providence Monthly Magazine. His first article with the company was concerning the different winter holidays celebrated by the region. This article garnered the publication recognition by the National Conference on Community & Justice – Rhode Island Chapter with the Michael P. Metcalf Award for Diversity Education in Media, which he was asked to accept on their behalf.
During Jay's time with the magazine, he was blessed by the birth of his first & only child. The boy's mother talked Jay into giving him a first name of Luke & a middle name of Sky, to go with Jay's last name of Walker. Extremely apprehensive at first, Jay eventually warmed to the idea, and now everyone's happy with the li'l Jedi. Jay took a break from pursuing his dreams, in order to try being more financially supportive of his son. Now, he's making the biggest effort ever to be able to do both, while remaining in southeastern New England, near his son. This effort led him to Ahtspot.com, which led him to the Open Call for the RI Film Collaborative’s 48 Hour Film Project 2007, which led Daylight Films to him. He helped in story development & appeared as the suave Latino for Daylight’s submission, Writer’s Block, which won 5 awards in the competition, including 1st runner-up.
Currently, Jay experiences too much spare time between gigs, during which he likes to sing karaoke at pubs all over RI, wowing audiences with his spot-on rendition of Digital Underground's "The Humpty Dance" & Shaggy's "Boombastic," as well as doing straight performances of hits from the '50's to 50 minutes ago. After a long hiatus from the muse & the crafts, Jay is excited to finally be putting all his efforts toward creating art. At the completion of this bio, he is releasing a collection of poems through PublishAmerica.com, is rehearsing for the 2008 season of King Richard’s Faire, has joined the writing staff at Shallow Graves Magazine & is excited that the southern New England film industry will soon be booming, so that he can use that, along with his writing, to achieve his lifelong goal of living off his art & providing for his beloved son.
Availability & Rates:
Currently available weekdays, weeknights, Sunday nights. Rate negotiable. Please
contact me for details. |
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Jay Walker
Cranston, RI
Phone: (401) 688-2435
Email: CrosswalksOptional@yahoo.com |
