Jason Mohan (born 25 May 1979), known by his stage name Jay Mo, is an English

songwriter A songwriter is a musician who professionally composes musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music gen ...

singer Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

rapper Rapping (also rhyming, spitting, emceeing or MCing) is a musical form of vocal delivery that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and street vernacular". It is performed or chanted, usually over a backing beat or musical accompaniment. The ...

musician A musician is a person who composes, conducts, or performs music. According to the United States Employment Service, "musician" is a general term used to designate one who follows music as a profession. Musicians include songwriters who wri ...

and

filmmaker Filmmaking (film production) is the process by which a motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, starting with an initial story, idea, or commission. It then continues through screenwriting, castin ...

. Currently based in Dubai, Jay Mo was born in London, and educated in England, West Africa, and Los Angeles.

Early career and education

Jay Mo began his musical training from the age of ten when he studied several musical instruments. At the age of 11, Jay Mo recorded his self-titled debut album 'Jay Mo- Jam' under the Pigeon Records label at the TV3 Ghana studios in Ghana with the help of Ghanaian music producer Panji Anoff. At the age of 16, Jay Mo released his album ''Faith in the Black Stars'', for the Ghana World Cup football team (who were competing in the finals in Germany 2006). Recorded with his grou
G-Force
Jay Mo's anthem was titled "We Go Go". G-Force were hailed by the Sports Ministry of Ghana for being the first generation of black and white musicians to hit the West African music scene. Subsequent to his education at

Hurtwood House Hurtwood House is a 15–19 mixed, independent boarding school and sixth form in, Surrey, England. Synopsis Founded in 1970 by Richard Jackson, the main house is an Edwardian mansion set in in the Surrey Hills. The intern students, aged 1 ...

in Surrey in the United Kingdom, Jay Mo completed a degree in Music and the Recording Arts at the

SAE Institute The SAE Institute (SAE, formerly the School of Audio Engineering and the SAE Technology College) is a Private college, private For-profit higher education in the United States, for-profit college with campuses and facilities, including license ...

of London. After graduating, Jay relocated to Los Angeles with the

New York Film Academy New York Film Academy – School of Film and Acting (NYFA) is a private for-profit film school and acting school based in New York City, Los Angeles, and Miami. The New York Film Academy was founded in 1992 by Jerry Sherlock, a former film, ...

in Universal Studios to do his Masters of Fine Arts in Filmmaking where he began working on music videos, commercials and short films, as well as co-writing music for up and coming artists and creating film scores in the independent film sector.

Music career

Jay debuted onto the UK Asian Scene in 2012 with urban pop artist Arjun from London, who has been featured in the MTV's Top 20 Unsigned Acts for 2012. Jay Mo produced the song
With Us Or Against Us
and sent it to Arjun who developed lyrics for the track. The video for the track was then filmed in Los Angeles & directed by Jay. In April 2013, Jay Mo and Geet K. submitted an English Remix of the hit song
Tum Hi Ho
from the Bollywood film "Aashiqui 2" to T-Series ( India's largest Music Label). On 29 June 2013 T-Series announced on their Facebook page that Jay Mo and Geet K. were the winners of the competition amongst thousands of entries from around the world. After relocating to his home in Dubai in 2015, Jay started writing and producing. He created tracks such as HAPPY along with Citi 101.6FM, a tune that became a New Year's anthem in Dubai, & See You Again, a Hinglish mash-up released to celebrate Friendship Day & he was able to carve a niche for himself.

Awards

Jay Mo's film,
The Successor of Katunga
screened at Warner Brother Studios, Hollywood in January 2013. In August 2013, Jay Mo received the award for "Best Children's Film" at th
AOF Festival in L.A.
for the Successor of Katunga. In September 2013 Jay Mo was awarded an African Oscar (NAFCA 2013) – the first winner of Indian descent to win the award. The awards ceremony was held on Saturday 14 September 2013 in Washington D.C. at the Warner Theater. Jay Mo received his award for "Best Original Soundtrack" for the film ''The Foetus'', directed by Hollywood-based Nigerian film director, John Chuka."Jay Mo awarded an African Oscar", The Times of India, 11 November 2013
/ref> In 2014, Jay picked up an African for his own film ''The Successor of Katunga''. Overall Jay's film had about 10 nominations during its two years of touring the festival circuit and picked up seven awards. Including

Pan African Film Festival Pan African Film Festival (PAFF) is a non-profit corporation in Los Angeles, California, that states its goal is to promote "cultural understanding among peoples of African descent" through exhibiting art and film. It hosts a film festival and an ar ...

, Best Shorts, Hollywood CFF, Garifuna Film Fest.

References

External links

Official Website

MTV Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jay Mo 1979 births Living people English male rappers English male songwriters English filmmakers English male singers British male songwriters