Jackson Rathbone

Monroe Jackson Rathbone V (born December 14, 1984) is an American actor, singer, and musician best known for his roles as Jasper Hale in The Twilight Saga and Sokka in the live-action The Last Airbender. From 2008 to 2012, he was the vocalist and occasional guitarist, bassist, drummer, and keyboardist of the funk rock band 100 Monkeys.

Early life Monroe Jackson Rathbone V was born in Singapore on December 14, 1984, the son of American parents Randee Lynn (née Brauner) and Monroe Jackson Rathbone IV. He has three sisters, including ceramic artist Kelly Rathbone. He is distantly related to Civil War general Stonewall Jackson and English actor Basil Rathbone, being descended from the Rathbone family of Liverpool. His great-grandfather, Monroe Jackson Rathbone II, was the chairman of Standard Oil, which later became Exxon.

Rathbone attended the Trinity School of Midland and started out in local theater with the Pickwick Players youth actors program, initially doing musical theater. For his junior and senior years of high school, he attended the Interlochen Arts Academy in Interlochen, Michigan, where he majored in acting.

In 2008, he played Jasper Hale in the film Twilight, based on the best-selling novel by Stephenie Meyer. He reprised his role in the sequels to Twilight, The Twilight Saga: New Moon, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse and The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 and Part 2. In 2009, Rathbone played Jeremy in S. Darko. In addition to that role, he won kudos for his performance as a serial killer on Criminal Minds. Rathbone played the role of Sokka in The Last Airbender, a 2010 film based on the animated series.

Rathbone formerly performed in a funk band called 100 Monkeys with two friends whom he met in high school at Interlochen Arts Academy, Ben Graupner and Ben Johnson, Jackson plays the guitar, bass, drums, keyboard, mandolin, trumpet, harmonica and is on vocals. The band released three albums in 2009. In December 2009, 100 Monkeys began a 100-city tour that took them to nearly every state in the US by mid-2010. The band continued to tour into 2011 to coincide with the release of their new album, Liquid Zoo, which was released in June. The band headed overseas for their first international dates in winter 2011. In November 2010, it was reported he had been cast in the Warner Premiere and Dolphin Entertainment action comedy web series Aim High alongside Aimee Teegarden. The show in which he portrays Nick Green, a high school junior who's just starting a new school year as one of the country's 64 highly trained teenage operatives, premiered on October 18, 2011, on Facebook being the first "social series" ever created.

Charity work Rathbone is an honorary board member for Little Kids Rock, a national nonprofit that works to restore and revitalize music education in disadvantaged U.S. public schools. He has shown support for the organization in several ways, including donating a signed Twilight script for auction, visiting a Little Kids Rock classroom, and delivering instruments to students.

Personal life Rathbone married Sheila Hafsadi on September 29, 2013. Hafsadi is Iraqi-American. They reside in Alpharetta, Georgia, a daughter born May 31, 2016, and another son born January 5, 2020. His close friend and Twilight co-star Nikki Reed is the godmother of their elder son.

On September 18, 2014, Rathbone was on a JetBlue flight to Austin from Long Beach when its engine exploded. The plane returned to Long Beach for an emergency landing. There were four injured, but all passengers survived.

Filmography Film

Television

Web Year Title Role Notes 2011–2013 Aim High Nick Green 16 episodes, also executive producer