“I started out as a singer and a musician, and I was taught that your job is just to get out of the way of Brahms or Arthur Miller or Shakespeare and convey the brilliance that they created.”

American actor, active since 1986

Jonathan Kimble Simmons is an American actor, active since 1986. He is known for a long career in film, television, and stage, and for winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for Whiplash (2014). He played Terence Fletcher, the demanding jazz instructor in Whiplash, and later earned a second Academy Award nomination for portraying William Frawley in Being the Ricardos (2021). His career also includes more than 200 screen and stage credits, along with a British Academy Film Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award.