Jason Weaver
Jason Weaver is an actor, born 1979.
Two jobs made Weaver, and in both of them somebody else got the visible half. He played Michael Jackson between the ages of nine and fourteen in the 1992 miniseries The Jacksons: An American Dream, and he sang Young Simba in The Lion King, uncredited on release. Enormous reach, almost no recognition.
Television supplied the recognition. First Thea, then Marcus Henderson on Smart Guy, the older brother in a house built around a child prodigy, whose comic function is to be outclassed weekly and keep his dignity anyway. Weaver is very good in that particular register: the teenager who is neither the smart one nor the joke and has to hold the middle of the frame while the show happens around him. It is the least rewarded job in a family sitcom and he made it look like nothing.
The adult career has been steadier than most former child actors manage. He was Ernest in Drumline, Teddy in ATL, Weemack Funthes in The Ladykillers, and he has a recurring run as Shaad in The Chi that finally asks him for something other than charm. He also records as J-Weav. In 2025 he appeared as himself at The Lion King at the Hollywood Bowl, singing in public the part he was not credited for the first time around, which is about as tidy a closing of a loop as a career offers.
Movies (7)
TV (4)
Where to start with Jason Weaver
Two starting points, and take them in this order. The Jacksons: An American Dream is the performance: a child actor carrying the most scrutinised childhood in American pop music, and doing it without ever tipping into pure imitation. The Lion King is the voice you already know without knowing it was him.
For the sitcom years, Smart Guy holds up better than the premise suggests, mostly because the sibling scenes are played straight. Then jump forward. The Chi is his best adult work, patient and unshowy, and ATL is the one to watch for pleasure, a roller-rink film with far more feeling than its marketing suggested. Drumline is there for the energy, and The Ladykillers because a starry studio remake is an odd place to find him.