Tom Jones Bio

Director Tom Jones is a comedy dialog director working in both commercials and television.
Tom Jones-- photo by Riley Jones age 6
Jones has done ad work for major clients including Nationwide Insurance (Jerry-in-the-Box through TM Advertising in Dallas), Miller Lite ("The Lens," Schupp Company, St. Louis); ESPN ("Sawing Is Fun," The Ballpark Agency, Los Angeles); Shell Oil (“The Shell Houston Open,” J. Walter Thompson, Houston), Overhead Door ("Garage Door," Marshall and Henry, Dallas), Applied Materials ("Zamboni," Whitty Hannell & Partners Advertising), The Alamo Bowl (The Atkins Agency, San Antonio, Texas); Sprint ("Frustration," Bromley Communications, San Antonio); and the Virginia Lottery ("Hula Happy," Barber Martin & Associates, Richmond).
First Quad, Jesus College, University of Oxford
Born in the U.S., Jones attended Oxford University, England, getting a master's degree in sociology. He intended to go on to become a professor. But when he started teaching classes during his second year at Oxford: "Within a day, I realized I hated teaching. I had a whole bunch of students. They drove me nuts. They weren't doing their papers, they showed up late for their tutorials, and continually asked for extensions on research assignments. It was a nightmare. Plus it just wasn't that much fun going over the same material every day; I couldn't deal with doing that for twenty or thirty years."
Photo by Matt Uhry
Having decided not to teach, Jones hit England's job market. With strong writing and communication skills, he was hired by the Times of London as a freelance journalist. He continued writing for the Times until his visa ran out and he was "booted from the country." Coming stateside to Portland, Ore., he wrote for the Washington Post's Sunday op-ed page, focusing on international political and social matters.

Concurrently, Oregon Public Broadcasting in Portland read one of his op-ed pieces in the Washington Post and hired him to write for the local affairs program, where he got his first taste of visual storytelling.

With his new knowledge, Jones was invited to direct a commercial via the Ad Club of Portland for the Environmental Federation of Oregon. Soon after he freelance directed PSAs for the Oregon Symphony and Oregon Art Museum, among others. These projects led to his helming a number of campaigns for the Oregon Lottery via Moffatt/ Rosenthal, Portland; which spawned more spot directing jobs, in the San Francisco, Seattle and San Antonio markets.

As Jones became known for directing comedy spots, he enlisted a rare group of performers as his talent pool. "Dave Rath (of Rath-Welker, Los Angeles) manages the group of actors and comedians I work with, and he has been an incredible help for my career," stated Jones. "I was able to get these actors, writers and comedians that never audition for commercials; they just do sitcoms. “Dave Rath is an amazing resource. He introduced me to Brian Posehn (Just Shoot me), John Ennis (Malcolm in the Middle), Patton Oswalt (King of Queens) and Troy Miller (owner and EP of Dakota Films)." The first time used one of Dave’s guys, actor Brian Posehn, as the security guard for the Alamo Bowl campaign; I won Best of Show in the '01 Addy Awards in Texas as well as a National Addy for “Best Local Campaign.”

Jones recently worked with Dave Rath managed comedian Patton Oswalt again (he also worked with him on Genie in 2002) on Comedy Central’s Reel Comedy. Patton interviewed Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn’s about their new summer blockbuster comedy-- Wedding Crashers. Jones says “I always ask for Patton if I have the opportunity. If he’s in a show or commercial, you know it’s going to be funny.
Patton Oswalt on the set of Reel Comedy
Having found his niche as a comedy director, Jones realizes that he is ultimately dependent on finding quality talent. "I try to go to stand-up comedy shows all the time to scout talent, because there are so many funny people that never audition for commercials," he explained. "For me the performance is the most important thing. The script has to be good, but the performance is really the key for me."

In April of 2002, Jones also took his comedy to the next level and started doing episodic TV. Dave Rath got Jones his first TV gig as a Field Director on the Man Show with Jimmy Kimmel and Adam Corolla. Jones says that experience was like “comedy boot” camp. “Working with Jimmy and Adam really helped me to take my directing career to the next level.”

While shooting a segment on The Man Show in 2002, Jones began what was to become an important collaboration and friendship with LA-based DP Matt Uhry and French camera assistant and steady cam operator Nicholas Martin. “I’ve shot so many jobs with these two guys that it’s hard to imagine working with anyone else at this stage. In fact, they’ve both been to Texas so many times they’re actually getting a East Texas accent, y’all.” Jones commented, “I consider Matt and Nicholas an essential part of my team. Matt always delivers spectacular visuals—no matter what the budget—and Nicholas keeps the camera going and is in charge of keeping morale high.” Nicholas is also well-known throughout Texas for his amazing ability to ingest huge volumes of beef at every meal including breakfast.
Matt (left) and Nicholas arriving in San Antonio
Matt also introduced Jones to another important member of his team—Marshall Plante. Marshall is a colorist at The Syndicate in Santa Monica who learned his art from the master of the telecine —Beau Leon. “Hey, I’ll turn down a job if the agency wants me to transfer with someone other than Marsall, that’s how strongly I feel about his work” Jones explained.

In October, Jones shot a special for Comedy Central with Matt Stone and Trey Parker—the creators of South Park. Jones shoot interstitial material—an extended interview with Matt and Trey-- for a four hour South Park marathon to celebrate the release of Stone and Parker’s new Paramount feature “Team America: World Police.”

He followed that up with a Reel Comedy special for Comedy Central featuring interviews with the director and cast of The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. “I shoot with and—when I’m in LA— run into a lot of celebrities but getting to my hero Bill Murray was an amazing experience. I grew-up on his work and it was a dream come true to meet the genius comedic actor from SNL, Ghostbusters and Caddy Shack. He was funny and very nice in person, which is always surprising for some reason!”

Jones says, “My TV work is a direct result of some of the first comedy spots I did with Brain Posehn and John Ennis. I’ve been working with Troy Miller and Tracey Baird at Dakota Pictures since October—they produced Mr. Show and gave Brian, John and Patton along with Jack Black their first gigs on TV.”

With Dakota, Jones has been busy shooting man-in-the street segments for a couple of AMC specials through Dakota. “That been a blast, says Jones, it’s so interesting to hear what people say when you point a camera at them. We’ve done it in LA, New York and San Antonio and I can tell you that people are really different in each place."

It has been a great year in the award shows for Jones. Spots that he shot last summer for the Fatty Golf Tournament did extremely well on the awards show circuit. So far: Finalist in the London International Advertising Awards, the One Club Creative Showcase, and a mention in Creativity Magazine (July, 2004, page 19). Recently, the campaign won four awards in the local Addy competition, Best of Show at the Texas (and the four surrounding states) Addys, and was a finalist in the prestigious One Show. Jones says, “Winning Best of Show in Texas always feels really good. I don’t know if I’m too competitive or what but I love kicking butt like that especially on the snobbish agencies in Dallas and Austin who assume if you live in San Antonio, you must suck as a director.”

Jones is married to Amy and has two children: Trevor, age 16, and Riley, age 12. Amy is an artist and teacher and was recently featured in an episode of "Crafters Coast to Coast" on the HGTV network.

The Jones family enjoys outdoors activities like Hiking and running and enjoyed several trips to Big Bend National Park this year. Tom and Amy are dedicate soccer parents and have the minivan to prove it.