Jason Mewes

Jason Mewes
Mewes at the Florida SuperCon, June 2015
Born	Jason Edward Mewes (1974-06-12) June 12, 1974 (age 42) Highlands, New Jersey
Occupation	Actor, comedian, film producer, MC
Years active	1994–present
Spouse(s)	Jordan Monsanto (2009–present)
Children	1
Website	Official site

Jason Edward Mewes (born June 12, 1974) is an American television and film actor, film producer and internet radio show host. He has played Jay, the vocal half of the duo Jay and Silent Bob, in longtime friend Kevin Smith's films.

Jason Edward Mewes was born on June 12, 1974 in Highlands, New Jersey, and grew up in a working-class neighborhood. He never knew his father, and his mother was an ex-con and a drug addict. Relates Mewes: "She used to check into hotels and take TVs and sell them...I guess it really ain't funny, but it's weird because it was so fucked up...She used to steal mail. I used to drive around with her and she'd pull up and make me reach into mailboxes. It really wasn't pleasant." Although this exposure to drugs at first served to make him averse to them, he eventually began using them after graduating from high school.

His best friend was future filmmaker Kevin Smith, who described Mewes this way: "[Jason]'s the kind of dude you know for five minutes and he whips his cock out. I was like, somebody should put this dude in a movie. I just wanted to see if anybody outside our group of friends finds him as funny as I do."

While working toward a career in roofing, Mewes made his film debut in Smith's 1994 film Clerks as Jay. The film was a huge success resulting in Mewes becoming closely identified with the role, which he also played in Mallrats (1995), Chasing Amy (1997), Dogma (1999), Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001), Clerks II (2006) and the upcoming sequels Mallrats 2 (2016) and Clerks III (TBA). He also supplied Jay's voice in the short-lived Clerks: The Animated Series. He, along with Kevin Smith, performed in the films Scream 3 and Bottoms Up and on Canadian television series Degrassi: The Next Generation. He appeared in two episodes of a three-part story arc in which he and Smith film a new addition to Smith's View Askew films titled Jay and Silent Bob Go Canadian, Eh? at Degrassi Community School. They appear again on Degrassi (in a two-part episode), at the premiere of Jay and Silent Bob go Canadian, Eh? in Canada. Mewes, Smith, and Degrassi star Stacie Mistysyn made the cover of the January 29, 2005 issue of Canadian TV Guide.