Thomas Kenton "Kent" Jones (born June 12, 1964) is a writer and performer on MSNBC's ''

The Rachel Maddow Show ''The Rachel Maddow Show'' (also abbreviated ''TRMS'') is an American liberal news and opinion television program that airs on MSNBC, running in the 9:00 pm ET timeslot Monday evenings. It is hosted by Rachel Maddow, who gained a public p ...

''. He is a comedy writer who also wrote and performed at

Air America Radio Air America (formerly Air America Radio and Air America Media) was an American radio network specializing in progressive talk radio. It was on the air from March 2004 to January 2010. The network was founded as a left wing alternative to counter ...

Career

Missouri Missouri is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee): Iowa to the north, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee to the east, Arkansas t ...

native, Kent moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

in 1986 and held a variety of

journalism Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the " news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree. The word, a noun, applies to the occupation (pro ...

jobs working at ''

InStyle ''InStyle'' was an American monthly women's fashion magazine founded in 1994. It was published in the United States by Dotdash Meredith. In February 2022, it was announced that InStyle would cease print publications and move to a digital-only f ...

'' and ''

People A person ( : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of prope ...

'' and contributing freelance humor articles to various publications.

The Daily Show

In 1996, he discovered the 'far more legitimate field of fake news' at ''

The Daily Show ''The Daily Show'' is an American late-night talk and satirical news television program. It airs each Monday through Thursday on Comedy Central with release shortly after on Paramount+. ''The Daily Show'' draws its comedy and satire form from ...

'' on

Comedy Central Comedy Central is an American basic cable channel owned by Paramount Global through its network division's MTV Entertainment Group unit, based in Manhattan. The channel is geared towards young adults aged 18–34 and carries comedy programmin ...

, where he was a writer for five years. Around this time, Jones was a writer on the TV special Unauthorized Biography: Milo, Death of a Supermodel. In 2000, Kent and his fellow writers won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy, Variety or Special, as well as the Peabody Award for Excellence in Broadcasting. Kent then moved to

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

and worked as a producer on shows at

Oxygen Oxygen is the chemical element with the symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a member of the chalcogen group in the periodic table, a highly reactive nonmetal, and an oxidizing agent that readily forms oxides with most elements as ...

and ABC.

Air America and Rachel Maddow Show

In 2004 Kent moved back to New York to become part of the launch of

. He wrote for ''Unfiltered'' with

Lizz Winstead Lizz Winstead (born August 5, 1961) is an American comedian, radio and television personality, and blogger. A native of Minnesota, Winstead is the co-creator of ''The Daily Show'' along with Madeleine Smithberg, and served as head writer. Ear ...

, Chuck D and Rachel Maddow where he delivered the "Unfiltered News." He also wrote extensively for '' Morning Sedition'' where he performed several characters including Foreign Correspondent Angus McFarquhar, Bill from Harlem and, most frequently, Planet Bush Bureau Chief Lawton Smalls. After the cancellation of ''Morning Sedition'' in December 2005, Kent continued to write and perform on '' The Marc Maron Show'' until its cancellation in July 2006. He appeared on ''The Rachel Maddow Show'', with daily Sports and "Kent Jones Now" segments and additional co-hosting, especially during her "Ask Dr. Maddow" and "Pet Story" segments. The Lawton Smalls character made "calls" to '' The Sam Seder Show'' and was on the Nov 7th 2006 live webcam election coverage with Rachel Maddow. Jones left Air America on Friday, December 14, 2007, as a result of a "business decision" by the management. Jones became a regular contributor to ''The Rachel Maddow Show'' on MSNBC in September 2008. His regular segment "Just Enough" aired for several years during the last few minutes of the show and focused on pop culture news, before being quietly dropped. He now serves as a producer for the show, appearing occasionally on air as correspondent and in other segments. He also contributes humor pieces to the show's blog, The Maddowblog. The show and its entire staff won an Emmy award in 2011 for Outstanding news and discussion analysis.

References

External links

The Rachel Maddow Show
*
Kent Jones archive at The Rachel Maddow Show
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, Kent Living people 1964 births Writers from Missouri American radio personalities Emmy Award winners