Atlanta native Jayson Warner Smith is an actor in film, television and theatre. He started in theatre at age nine and since that time, Jayson has been in a play a TV show or a film every year of his life. "It's just always been what I was best at and what I really loved to do." "Nothing made me happier than collaborating with other artists to create something new."

Early on, performing mostly in theatre, Jayson amassed quite a resume of roles but in 2010 he finally scored a larger supporting role in a Hollywood film; the 2011 released remake of Footloose. Yes, there's a remake of Footloose. This role marked the beginning of a new chapter in Jayson's love of acting. Since then he has performed supporting and leading roles in films and TV shows such as, Outer Banks, Anchorman II, The Vampire Diaries, 99 Homes, Mississippi Grind, 42, Fox TV's Sleepy Hollow, Amazon's One Mississippi, Facebook's Queen America, Hulu's Candy and CBS' NCIS:New Orleans.

Jayson is best known for his portrayal of the Savior Gavin on AMC's "The Walking Dead" for two seasons and his portrayal of the horrifyingly despicable death-row serial killer Wendall Jelks for two seasons on Sundance TV's "Rectify".

Trying his hand at Executive producing, Jayson brought the short film Chipper to life in 2022. After a successful festival run (multiple awards won), Chipper can now be found on Vimeo OTT for rental or purchase.

Jayson has performed major supporting roles in, "The Book of Love" with Maisie Williams and Jason Sudeikis, "Christine" with Rebecca Hall, J. Smith-Cameron and Michael C. Hall, Sundance winner "The Birth of a Nation" with Nate Parker and Armie Hammer, and "American Made" with Tom Cruise. Sony and Hello Sunshine's "Where the Crawdads Sing" and Apple's "Emancipation" directed by Antoine Fuqua and starring Will Smith.

He lives in Atlanta and Athens, Georgia USA with his wife Lisa and cats Walter and Simon. Jayson teaches acting in Atlanta. He is repped by The Alexander White Agency.