Childhood & Early Life
Coco Jones was born on January 4, 1998, in Columbia, South Carolina, United States, to Mike Jones and Javonda as one of their four children. Her father played in NFL for nine seasons for four teams and her mother is a studio singer.
Coco has three siblings - Steven, Aja and Mike Jr and was raised in Lebanon, Tennessee. She used to sing from a very early age and made her first stage performance at her kindergarten graduation in front of a packed auditorium of parents singing ‘America the Beautiful’ at just six years of age.
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Career
She came across Disney casting heads when she was nine following which she commenced her journey as song-writer and actress. She competed in Disney Channels Worldwide Inc owned American radio network ‘Radio Disney’ in 2006 and garnered attention for the song ‘Real You’.
She was selected in 209 to perform live on the Maury Povich hosted syndicated American tabloid talk show ‘Maury Povich Show’ in its episode ‘The Most Talented Kids’.
In October 2010, she released her eponymous debut CD ‘Coco Jones’ that paved way for her concert series, ‘UBU-STOP THE BULLYING’. That year she also joined the singing contest ‘Radio Disney's Next BIG Thing’ taking part in its Season 3 (2010/2011) along with 4 other artists namely Kicking Daisies, Amber Lilly, Matthew Johnson and Sacha Edwards.
During 2011-2012, she performed ‘Stand Up’ and took part in sketches as guest star of the American Disney Channel sketch comedy series ‘So Random!’.
She then landed up with her real breakthrough playing the starring role of Roxanne "Roxie" Andrews, a famous singer, in the Paul Hoen directed Disney Channel Original Movie ‘Let It Shine’ at just 14. The musical teen television film premiered in the US and Canada on June 15, 2012, and in the UK and Ireland on July 20 of that year.
She starred along with Tyler James Williams, Brandon Mychal Smith and Trevor Jackson among others in ‘Let It Shine’. The film garnered viewership of 13.9 million during its premiere and emerged as the number one film among the younger generation starting from kids of six years to the teens in 2012 giving Coco widespread recognition and popularity.
Apart from acting, Coco has also contributed as singer in several songs of soundtrack of ‘Let It Shine’ which went on to top the US Kid Albums chart. She has also contributed singly in tracks ‘What I Said’, ‘Who I'm Gonna Be’ and ‘Good to Be Home’; and with Tyler James Williams in tracks ‘Guardian Angel’, ‘Me and You’ and ‘Let It Shine’.
The year 2012 turned out to be a significant one for Coco as she also came up with her debut single ‘Holla at the DJ’ that had a December 6 premiere on Radio Disney and a release on iTunes on the following day. Its video was premiered on December 12 of that year on Disney Channel and thereafter on VEVO. That year she also performed at the NAACP Awards Nominees Luncheon.
She played the recurring role of Kelsey in five episodes of the American sitcom ‘Good Luck Charlie’ during 2012-2013.
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On March 12, 2013, she released her extended play ‘Made Of’ under Disney Music Group’s American record label Hollywood Records. She performed at the Radio Disney Music Awards that year along with American boy band ‘Mindless Behavior’ and received the ‘Funniest Celebrity Take’ award at the event.
She then collaborated with Jukebox, Julie Frost, David Banner and Ester Dean in May 2013 for an album.
She became an independent singer in 2014 after being dropped by Hollywood Records in January that year. She came up with a lyric video of her first independent single titled ‘Peppermint’ on August 29 that year. On September 4, the track was officially released as lead single of Coco’s first studio album on iTunes.
The December 3, 2014 episode ‘Oh Brother Here Art Thou’ of the television series ‘The Exes’ saw her playing the role of a high school student called Vanessa.
She essayed one of the lead roles (Kimberley T. Zulkowski) in the 2016 film ‘Grandma's House’. The film was directed by Paul D. Hannah and had actors like Loretta Devine and Paige Hurd among others in starring roles.
The 2017 Gregory Caruso directed adventure comedy drama film ‘Flock of Four’ featured Coco in the role of Ava Moore.
Over the years, she has also spawned singles like ‘Glitter’ (2014) along with country artist Katie Armiger from Sugar Land, Texas; ‘Let 'em Know’ (2015); and ‘Let Me Check It’ (2017).
She has also featured in several tracks including in ‘Whodunit’ and ‘Don't Push Me’ from ‘Shake It Up:Live 2 Dance’ (2012); ‘Guardian Angel’ and ‘Me and You’ from ‘Let It Shine’ (2012); and ‘Lights All Over the World’ from ‘Disney Holidays Unwrapped’ (2013) among others.
