The Truth About The This Is Us Writer Who Died At Age 39
We've recently had some very sad news out of Hollywood — according to a Twitter announcement from Rain Management Group, TV writer Jas Waters has passed away at just 39 years of age. As RMG eulogizes her, "Jas was a talented & gifted writer, an amazing person, & a sweet soul who will be forever missed. Though she is no longer with us, her impact will be felt for years to come. The Los Angeles Times confirmed the fact of her death, stating that Waters had been found dead in her Hollywood home but adding that the cause of death has yet to be determined according to information received from her cousin, Ty Levey.
Waters had not been active on her Twitter account @JasFly for the past month, although her final tweet was an enigmatic "Some s*** just changes you." Tragically, all of the replies seem to have been posted after her death, now that it's too late for her to learn how much she'll be missed.
Jas Waters' work in TV and movies
According to her IMDb profile, Waters' first screen credit came on a 2002 movie called Blue Car where she worked as a second assistant producer. Her LinkedIn profile also details film production work on Spiderman 1 and 2, Hardball, Save The Last Dance, MTV's Real World, Barbershop 1 and 2, and NBC's hospital drama ER. She also wrote and directed, "Everybody's Haitian," a PSA produced by Jay Z that was made in support of Haiti's earthquake relief.
More recently, she worked as a writer on five different TV series. Her first writing gigs came in 2017 when she worked on one episode of VH1's The Breaks and contributed to five episodes of Comedy Central's Hood Adjacent with James Davis. 2017 also brought her highest-profile assignment, working as a staff writer on the NBC family comedy-drama This Is Us. While Waters left This Is Us in 2018, she continued to work as a screenwriter. Waters contributed to the screenplay for the 2019 rom-com What Men Want, a movie that starred Taraji P. Henson as a mind-reading sports agent, and also worked as a story editor on 10 episodes of Jim Carrey's Showtime original series Kidding, another comedy-drama. Her most recent writing gig seems to have involved penning a Kidding episode called "A Seat on the Rocket" that aired this year.
Jas Waters' gigs outside Hollywood
Waters also had a wide-ranging career apart from her TV and movie credits, and her LinkedIn profile has quite a tale to tell. She ran a highly successful entertainment blog called Fly Style Life from 2007 to 2010, and in 2012 landed a job as the pop culture columnist for Vibe magazine where she interviewed such luminaries as Warren Buffett, Drake, Jay-Z, Joan Rivers, and Spike Lee (a rather mixed bag).
Waters also spent some time working in the music industry, producing videos with stars such as Bow Wow, Sean "Diddy" Combs, Common, Jermaine Dupri, Jagged Edge, and R. Kelly, directing videos for Motown artists BJ The Chicago Kid and Kevin Ross, and producing The #DREAMmix, which she described as "an inspirational mixtape featuring Kendrick Lamar, Common, Swizz Beatz and Mona Scott-Young." Waters even took a turn in front of the cameras a few times, starring in the VH1 reality program Gossip Game, a show that followed the lives of women in hip-hop media. She also appeared in Jump Off TV's Debate Lounge on YouTube.
Social media reacts to Jas Waters' passing
Tributes have been pouring in from fans of Waters' work as well as showbiz folks who've had the privilege of working with her over the years. ThisIsUsWriters tweeted their devastation, and Mandy Moore replied to say she'd be "Sending love and light to @JasFly 's family and loved ones." Fellow writer Sade Sellers called her a "true Libra Queen," saying, "She had no idea how much she impacted/inspired/encouraged me on a daily. RIPOWER Jas."
Perhaps the most poignant eulogy for Waters comes by way of Dave Holstein, a showrunner for Kidding who spoke to the Los Angeles Times once the news of her passing broke. He called her death "a devastating loss for those who knew her and lived in her light." The part that will really make you cry, though, is where he shared a quote from Waters herself, saying, "One of my favorite lines of hers is resonating especially loud with me today: 'Our scars do not mean we are broken. They are proof we are healed.'" Oh, Jasfly. If only that had been true for you, and you were with us still.