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Jerry Winsett began his performing career singing with his own band in Clarksville and Nashville, Tennessee. He then found his way to the stage at Austin Peay State University, where he won numerous awards and was elected to the position of President of the Alpha Psi Omega honorary dramatics fraternity. Before leaving Tennessee, Jerry performed professionally at Nashville Children's Theater, Theatre Nashville, and Opryland USA as well as many other Southern stages in such productions as "1776", "Wind in the Willows", "Man of La Mancha", "The Marriage of Figaro" and "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown". He has returned to Tennessee many times as a guest artist at events such as the Tennessee Arts/Tennessee Artists Festival where he created the role of Danny (aka Cupid) in the musical "Constellations from the Heart" and as a guest artist at A.P.S.U. in "A Funny Thing Happened On The Way to the Forum".
Jerry left Tennessee for New York City, where his night club act, "Schoch and Jerry" (with Tim Schoch), was rated "Tops in Town" by Showbusiness Magazine. He spent a year in Manhattan Punchline's "Comedy Corps" and appeared Off Broadway in "The Rivals", "Lorenzaccio", "Smoke", and "The Smiling Assassins".
Then he headed west. L.A. stage credits include "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and "The Taming of the Shrew" at the Richard Basehart Theatre; and "Cyrano de Bergerac" and "The Alchemist" at The Globe. (Regarding his performance in "The Alchemist", reviewers called him "a monster of sexual rapacity".) He then trod the boards as Sir Toby Belch in The Nevada Shakespeare Festival's production of "Twelfth Night", and performed in the premiere production of "Pssst! Tell 'em Joe Sent Ya" at Back On Broadway Dinner Theatre. Just before leaving L.A., Jerry was seen as Renfield in Dancing Dog Theatre Company's highly praised production of "Dracula" and starred with Lane Davies in The Santa Susana Repertory Company's acclaimed production of "Man of La Mancha". (Dale Wasserman, author of "... La Mancha" was one of S.S.R.C. founding Board Members.) Jerry was also on the board of directors of Dancing Dog Theatre Company, L.A.'s first producing classical repertory Theatre Company as well as being the Administrative Director of Santa Susana Repertory Company.
On "the big screen" Jerry has been featured in such films as "Radio Days", "The Chosen", "One Crazy Summer", "The Sicks O'Clock News", "Almost An Angel", "Tax Season", "Sunset Strip" and "Paulie". He portrayed "Merton the Farmer" in the film, "Torque" produced by the same production team that brought us "Fast and Furious" and "XXX". Jerry is most well know for his role of Geoffrey, the ill fated Dentist in "Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri (for which he won a SAG Ensemble award). He has two films in post production - "Remember Yesterday" and "One True Loves".
No stranger to television, Jerry has starred in a score of TV commercials in every situation imaginable... from trying to feed a recalcitrant kitty for "Tender Vittles" to a special effects extravaganza for "TV-Guide" and packing an elevator for "Fed-Ex". He's been seen as everything from a Female Choir director to a dancing Taste Bud and was in the original "Time to Make the Donuts" commercial for Dunkin Donuts.
Jerry has co-starred on numerous television shows including "Newhart", "It's Gary Shandling's Show", "Mr. Belvedere", "Coach", " Life Goes On" and the pilot for "Live Shot". He has starred on "Superior Court", "Divorce Court", "Family Medical Center" and "Sweethearts" and was a hit as the corrupt Mayor Lloyd Lloyd, a series regular, in the Nickelodeon TV series "The Snooker Report". Most recently he finished Guest Starring in an episode of Atlanta, Direced by Donald Glover.
As a writer, three of Jerry's projects, "Gold's Fever", "Who Killed Mayor Stratton" and its sequel, "Who Murdered the Mayor" were produced by the Santa Susana Repertory Company. He has co written two TV pilots," Jerry's Critters" and "Last Laughs" ; and has collaborating credits on two screenplays. He has written over 50 songs with partner Tim Schoch, many of which were in their very successful nightclub act "Schoch and Jerry". Pssst! Tell 'em Joe Sent Ya!, a musical he wrote sold out houses at "Back On Broadway" in Santa Monica, and Dracula, a play he co-wrote with Terry Marinan of Dancing Dog Theatre Company had a highly successful, extended run at the Whitefire Theatre in Sherman Oaks, California. Jerry is now working on a one man play/musical called "Speed Limits" ,a stage version of "The Chimes at Midnight", and a plethora of scripts for his production company, "Murder Mystery Productions".
Jerry has also written for a variety of other mediums. He has had poetry printed in numerous publications, has had short stories published in journals and magazines and co-authored a paper for Scientific America titled "The Care and Training of Phocena, Phocena". (He also was an accomplished animal behaviorist. Jerry trained dolphins, whales, sea lions and other marine animals at Mystic Marinelife Aquarium and was the first animal behaviorist to be on staff at a zoo in the United States when he became the Curator of Animal Behavior at the New York Zoological Society's Bronx Zoo. Jerry's activities as a leading animal behaviorist have been written about in The New York Daily News, The Scientific America and Psychology Today.)
Since relocating to Wilmington, North Carolina, Jerry has appeared in stage productions of "Chicago", "Tommy", "Noah", "1776", "Pippin", "God's Favorite", "Big River" - for which he won a Thalian Award for his portrayal of "Pap Finn" and "Guys and Dolls" - winning him a second Thalian Award for his portrayal of "Nicley Nicley". He starred in the critically acclaimed productions of "Other People's Money" for Opera House Theater Company, Theater Exchange's "A Christmas Carol" and the title role in "The Big Friendly Giant".
Regionally he performed in the inaugural season of the Tennessee Shakespeare Festival's production "A Midsummer's Night Dream" as Nick Bottom the Weaver. (A role he will repeated with them the following year.) He followed those as Launce in #Two Gentlemen of Verona" and Aegeon in "Comedy of Errors".
Most recently, Jerry was a Guest Artist playing Sancho in Man of LaMancha for the Prague Shakespeare Company.
Jerry has performed as a voice actor in over 30 Anime films, including voicing Artaru's Dad in the complete "Urusei Yatsura - Obnoxious Aliens" series. Other work includes voice roles in such popular titles as Crusher Joe, Sailor Victory and The Dark. As his alter-ego "Jericho", Jerry has voiced such popular characters as Brick in the Kate the Bondage Queen series and George in Love Doll. He was twice a voice over artist board panelist at Dragon-Con.
Jerry is a member of SAG-AFTRA, serving on national committees and as an Executive Board member for the Washington-Mid Atlantic local. He is also a member of Actor's Equity and is listed in "Who's Who in American Entertainment" and "Who's Who in America".
When not performing, writing, singing or counseling, Jerry spends countless hours tending his many Bonsai trees, and is an avid angler because "There's nothing more relaxing than tricking a critter into biting a sharp piece of metal and then dragging it out of its natural environment by the lips!" Other hobbies include reading, archery, fencing, poetry and telling jokes with his friends. He collects dragons and loves to cook and his recipe for Chicken and Dumplings was published in the "Celebrities of Tennessee Cookbook." His family is fond of his "Jerry's Grape Jelly Hamburgers".
He lives in Wilmington North Carolina with his wife Diane, an accomplished pianist and cellist and the long standing foundation of his success. Jerry's son Logan is a professional musician residing in St. Louse performing under the name "Haunted Ghost". He has released numerous albums on his own label, "Special Species" as well as other recording companies' labels.
