Jill Marie Jones is best known by her TV name, “Toni Childs” on the long-running show, Girlfriends. Before Hollywood came calling, Jones was a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader for two years, a Dallas Mavericks Dancer for one year, and toured with the United Service Organization (USO) and United States Department of Defense to Korea, Japan, Israel, and Egypt. She has also performed on “Monday Night Football” and “The Miss Texas Pageant.” She started her career as model, before moving to Los Angeles to pursue acting full-time.
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“It was amazing,” Jill says referring to her time as a cheerleader. “It enabled me to travel the world at a young age, at18. We did a lot of work with the USO and USDD, and went all over the world—Israel, Korea, Egypt and Japan. I think I tried out with 1400 girls, so it was a huge thing! I have girlfriends to this day that I cheered with. It was a great experience.”
When asked about how she still keeps her cheerleading body, she’s not shy about telling the truth. “The thing about living in California is there are a ton of mountains and it’s always beautiful weather! I hike, I box. And you know what? My house has literally 47 steps to get up to the front door—no joke! I feel like any day I couldn’t get to the gym, I can go up and down a couple times and feel like I’ve done some work.”
Jones has had some exciting roles since “Girlfriends” including a role in the drama “Delilah” airing on the Oprah Winfrey Network.
“Delilah” is a legal thriller about a Black female lawyer who lives in Charlotte, North Carolina and seeks justice for those who need it most while balancing her home life with her kids, her love life and everything else in between; in this season Delilah’s job is even more difficult than usual since she’s going to have to go up against her best friend Tamara in a case that’s going to place both of them in grave danger, a case that leads all the way to the heart of the American military-industrial complex and the highest corridors of power.
“I play Tamara Roberts. She’s a single mother and very independent. Her main focus has been her career and is working towards trying to become partner at her [law] firm. She really values and appreciates her long friendship with Delilah and sees them all as family. It’s a storyline that so many women can relate to,” Jones said.
In her experience in Hollywood, Jones said that the industry has changed a lot, in terms of colorism, from her start as an actress, but there is so much more work to be done.
“I think we have a long way to go, but I’d be remiss in saying that I see a lot of change from where I first started,” she said. “I remember…in casting sessions having someone tell me to ‘sass it up’ a bit…It’s crazy that I’ve been in this business as long as I’ve been…but I really do think that we’ve come a long way, but we should not become comfortable here because we have so much more to go. But I do see a lot of change. I really do.”
The sassy, selfish girlfriend Jones played on the hit show, always perfectly wore the correct shade for her skin tone and the color never escaped the outline of her lip. In fact, many blogs and social media sites are dedicated to her beautiful, juicy and adoring lips. Here are three tips that we’ve gathered from the lip goddess herself:
In her newest role, Jones plays Detective Amanda Fisher in the series, Ash Vs. Evil Dead from horror film fanatics beloved Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead franchise. When preparing for the audition, and looking for inspiration for her character, Jones said she channeled someone incredibly close to her.
“My mother was a federal investigator for almost 40 years and there’s a lot of her that I tried to put into Amanda,” she said, admitting that it made her feel closer to her character.
“My mother is a living, breathing example of what a woman can do and how strong and fearless we can be,” Jones says proudly.
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