# Jeffrey Omura

Jeffrey Omura (born April 23, 1985) is an American actor, politician, and labor organizer. He has worked onscreen in Succession, Hawaii Five-0, Blue Bloods, and Gossip Girl as well as onstage with the Public Theater, Playwright's Realm, Ma-Yi Theater Company, National Asian American Theater Company, Arena Stage, Weston Playhouse, St. Louis Rep, Hartford Stage, and others.

## Early life and education

Jeffrey Omura is of Japanese descent and was born at Sparrow Hospital in Lansing, Michigan, on April 23, 1985, and raised in the suburb of Okemos, Michigan. He is the third child of Linda Omura (born Ratliff) and Glenn Omura. The couple met while attending Michigan State University, and were married in 1969 - only two years after interracial marriage was legalized in the United States in Loving v. Virginia.
Omura graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in 2007.

## Career
### Acting

In 2007, Omura was cast in The Public Theater's Shakespeare in the Park production of Romeo and Juliet, directed by Michael Greif. In 2008, Omura earned his Actors' Equity Association union card performing in the "The Plant That Ate Dirty Socks" an early musical written by Tony Award nominee Joe Iconis.
Omura made his television debut on the CW's Gossip Girl episode "Desperately Seeking Serena", playing Todd Jansen, the ex-boyfriend of Nelly Yuki. The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) featured Omura in its 2009 Walt Disney Television Casting Project Showcase.

### Political campaigning

Omura was a volunteer for the John Kerry campaign, registering students in Okemos, Michigan, to vote. In 2008, Omura spent a month as a full-time field organizer for the Barack Obama campaign in Lansing, Michigan. In 2018, Omura campaigned for congressional candidate Katie Hill in Santa Clarita, California. Omura was active in two 2020 Democratic campaigns: first, Elizabeth Warren's Democratic Primary campaign in New Hampshire; and then Joe Biden's Presidential campaign in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

### Actors' Equity

In 2016, the Actors' Equity Association was renegotiating its agreement with the Off-Broadway League of Theaters. Omura created and led the Fair Wage On-stage grassroots movement to demand higher wages. With their help, Equity negotiated record-breaking wage increases from 32% to 83%. In 2017, Omura ran for a seat on Equity's National Council and won a three-year term. In 2018, he was elected the chair of the International Actors Committee, allowing him to advocate for immigrant artists. Omura was re-elected to Equity's Council in 2020, where he helped and supported union members during an industry-wide shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He was influential in resolving a public jurisdictional battle between SAG-AFTRA and Equity. He is one of the organizers behind the #BeAnArtsHero campaign, which organized the national arts sector to collectively lobby Congress for direct arts relief during the 2020 pandemic. The campaign was instrumental in securing $15 billion for the arts.
In 2021, City & State New York named Omura to their Labor 40 Under 40 List in recognition of his work with Actors Equity Association.

### City Council

Omura ran a successful campaign to represent New York City Council District 6 in 2021.

## Television credits

| Year | Title | Role |
| 2008 | Gossip Girl | Todd Jansen |
| 2011 | Damages | Henry Thain |
| 2011 | White Collar | Chad Stewart |
| 2013 | The Michael J. Fox Show | Ted |
| 2014 | Blue Bloods | Patrick Dunleavy |
| 2014 | High Maintenance | Brandon |
| 2016 | Limitless | Danny |
| 2016 | The Blacklist | Trey |
| 2016 | The Interestings | Robert Takahashi |
| 2017 | Gone | Kyle Parrish |
| 2018 | Elementary | Sonny Kwan |
| 2018 | Succession | Rob |

## Theater credits
### Off-Broadway

* Romeo & Juliet (Public Theater/NYSF)
* Joe Iconis's The Plant That Ate Dirty Socks (TheatreWorksUSA)
* Charles Francis Chan Jr's Exotic Oriental Murder Mystery (National Asian American Theater Company)
* House Rules (Ma-Yi Theater Company)
* Hamlet (Public Theater Mobile Unit)
* Hello, from the Children of Planet Earth (The Playwrights' Realm)
* Fruiting Bodies (Ma-Yi Theater Company)

### Regional

* Take Me Out (barebones productions)
* Macbeth (Hartford Stage)
* La Dispute (Hartford Stage)
* A Midsummer Night's Dream (The Repertory Theater of St. Louis)
* Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Weston Playhouse)