Jackson Beals (born in Atlanta, Georgia) is a Caucasian American actor, writer, and photographer, 5′ 10″ (178 cm) tall, who earned a B.A. in Creative Writing from Florida State University and splits his time between Atlanta and New Orleans. He has been active since 2008, accumulating over 30 film and television credits, and is also a writer and photographer (under the name Jason Scott). His most notable film credits include Carter in Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay (2008, with John Cho and Kal Penn), Desmond in Contraband (2012, with Mark Wahlberg), a French Lick Bartender in Bullet to the Head (2012, with West), One Eyed Lucas in The Magnificent Seven (2016, with Denzel Washington and Chris Pratt), an Overseer in Free State of Jones (2016, with Mads Mikkelsen), Billy in The Hollow (2016), Detective Burton in The Vault (2017), Ronnie in Trial by Fire (2018), and Leslie Milam in Till (2022, with Daniel Kaluuya). On television he is best known as Detective Mark Daughtry in True Detective (2014, 3 episodes), Brock Mercer in Ozark (2018, 2 episodes), Officer Hart in The Righteous Gemstones (2019, with John Goodman and Walton Goggins), Major General Forrest in Roots (2016, TV mini-series), and Shug Baggot in George & Tammy (2022), with additional credits in Fear the Walking Dead (2018), Banshee (2015), NCIS: New Orleans (2014), TURN: Washington's Spies (2014), Constantine (2014), Sleepy Hollow (2013), Treme (2010), Creepshow (2019), Dolly Parton's Heartstrings (2019), and A Man in Full (2024).