James Roch Lemon II (born June 6, 1983) is an American model and actor. After playing football for

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

and (briefly) the

Oakland Raiders The Oakland Raiders were a professional American football team that played in Oakland from its founding in 1960 to 1981 and again from 1995 to 2019 before relocating to the Las Vegas metropolitan area where they now play as the Las Vegas Raide ...

, Lemon began appearing in national commercial and print ad campaigns before getting into acting full-time. He is best known for the role of Nurse Kenny Fournette on the

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

drama '' The Night Shift''.

Early life

Lemon was born and raised in

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

. After graduating high school, he attended

and played running back on the Stanford Cardinal football team while also earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Management Science & Engineering in 2005. He played briefly for the

, but was cut during 2006 training camp. After moving to the

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

area to continue his football training, he went on to pursue modeling and acting.

Career

Lemon was an action-capture actor for the ''

Madden NFL ''Madden NFL'' (known as ''John Madden Football'' until 1993) is an American football video game series developed by EA Tiburon for EA Sports. It is named after Pro Football Hall of Fame coach and commentator John Madden and sold more than 130 m ...

'' series of video games from 2009 through 2012. In 2017, Lemon portrayed Devin Wade, the protagonist of ''

Madden NFL 18 ''Madden NFL 18'' is an American football sports video game based on the National Football League, developed and published by EA Sports for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. The 29th installment of the ''Madden NFL series'', the game features New Engla ...

'' "Longshot" story mode. His first film role was as the main character Jenkins in the little-known stoner comedy ''Bad Batch''. He next appeared in the 2012–13 Web series ''Shadow Love'' before getting his big break in 2013 when he was cast in his first major film role: playing Oliver in

Tyler Perry Tyler Perry (born Emmitt Perry Jr., September 13, 1969) is an American actor, comedian, filmmaker, and playwright. He is the creator and performer of the Madea character, a tough elderly woman. Perry's films vary in style from orthodox filmmak ...

’s '' A Madea Christmas''. Most recently, he appeared as Nurse Kenny Fournette, a main character on the NBC medical drama '' The Night Shift'', which ran for four seasons (2014–2017).

Filmography

Film and television

Video games

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lemon, JR Living people 21st-century American male actors American male television actors 1983 births