J.R. Lemon

The initial goal for J.R. Lemon was not to go into acting. Instead, the Atlanta native strived to go into the NFL, as he was a running back at Stanford University. After graduating college in 2005, he made an attempt at joining the NFL, but aside from a brief backup stint on the Oakland Raiders, Lemon never made it. Determined, he continued to train while living in Los Angeles. His football career never went further, but his proximity to the world of modeling led to creative applications of his abilities. Lemon wound up working with video game developer EA as a motion-capture actor for the Madden NFL video games from 2009 to 2012. At the same time, he also started getting acting gigs, first with comedy "Bad Batch" (2012) and then with the webseries "Shadow Love" (2012-2013). He made his major acting debut in Tyler Perry's "A Madea Christmas" (2013), which opened up more doors. Following a one-off appearance on "Hawaii Five-0" (CBS 2010-), Lemon was cast as a lead on the medical drama "The Night Shift" (NBC 2014-). He also appeared in the Angela Bassett-directed Whitney Houston biopic "Whitney" (2015).