John Earl Jelks Biography

John Earl Jelks was recently seen in Radio Golf at The Goodman Theatre in Chicago, Center Stage in Baltimore, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Mark Taper Forum and Yale Repertory Theatre. Prior to Radio Golf, he appeared as Citizen Barlow in Gem of the Ocean, a role he also played on Broadway, at The Goodman Theatre, Mark Taper Forum and at Huntington Theatre (NAACP Ovation Award). Other theater credits include Pill Hill (Chicago Theatre Company), Diary of a Black Man (Union Square Theatre, London’s Shaw Theatre), Joe Turner’s Come and Gone (Missouri Repertory Theatre, Penumbra Theatre Company) and The Piano Lesson (San Francisco’s Lorraine Hansberry Theatre). He also appeared in Zeinabu Irene Davis’s Sundance-nominated film Compensation. Mr. Jelks dedicates this performance to his children Jamal, Jabari, and Jamila and his late wife, Naomi.