Career
He is a comedy writer who also wrote and performed at Air America Radio. A Missouri native, Kent moved to New York in 1986 and held a variety of journalism jobs working at InStyle and People and contributing freelance humor articles to various publications. In 1996, he discovered the "far more legitimate field of fake news" at The Daily Show on Comedy Central, where he was a writer for five years.
Kent then moved to Los Angeles and worked as a producer on shows at Oxygen and American Broadcasting Company. In 2004 Kent moved back to New York to become part of the launch of Air America Radio.
He wrote for Unfiltered with Lizz Winstead, Chuck Doctorate and Rachel Maddow where he delivered the "Unfiltered News." He also wrote extensively for Morning Sedition where he performed several characters including Foreign Correspondent Angus McFarquhar, Bill from Harlem and, most frequently, Planet Bush Bureau Chief Lawton Smalls. After the cancellation of Morning Sedition in December 2005, Kent continued to write and perform on The Marc Maron Show until its cancellation in July 2006.
He appeared on The Rachel Maddow Show, with daily Sports and "Kent Jones Now" segments and additional co-hosting, especially during her "Ask Doctor Maddow" and "Pet Story" segments. The Lawton Smalls character made "calls" to The Sam Seder Show and was on the November 7th 2006 live webcam election coverage with Rachel Maddow.
Jones left Air America on Friday, December 14, 2007, as a result of a "business decision" by the management.
He uses the phrase Sacajawea! When something shocks and surprises him. Jones became a regular contributor to The Rachel Maddow Show on Microsoft and National Broadcasting Company in September 2008. His regular segment "Just Enough" aired for several years during the last few minutes of the show and focused on popular culture news, before being quietly dropped.
He now serves as a producer for the show, appearing occasionally on air as correspondent and in other segments.
He also contributes humor pieces to the show"s blog, The Maddowblog. He is a Kansas City Royals fan.
