Jay Aubrey Jones is an American Actor and Singer also works in the Financial industry as an executive for a financial institution. He has performed for several repertories and theatre companies throughout the East Coast for nearly three decades. On the internet, Jones is known as the voice behind the Yanny vs Laurel poll and debate.

Jones was born and raised in the state of New Jersey. For most of his early and teenage life, he lived in Atlantic city and is an alum of Atlantic City High School.

Jones attended the Syracuse University College of Visual and Performing Arts where he graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Drama.

Jones has appeared on Broadway and television playing different characters and roles as an actor, dancer and singer.

He was a long time cast member in the production of Cats where he also worked as an understudy. He also played a “comically passive-aggressive priest” on the Michael J. Fox Show.

He was a cast member of Cats from 1982 to 2000.

He still remains and an understudy for the Broadway productions.

In between his performances and his acting gigs, he works in the financial industry as an Executive assistant for JP Morgan Chase and Co.

He currently works as an executive for another company in the financial industry in New York City.

On May 15th, 2018, a debate on the internet began regarding the sound of a word that either sounds like "Yanny" or "Laurel".

^[1] The debate began after

a student using Vocabulary.com to study words and was struck by the bizarre experience of hearing “yanny” when she clicked on the audio for a word meaning “a wreath worn on the head, usually as a symbol of victory.”

So she recorded the recording and posted it on social media to see what others heard.

After the debate took over Twitter with celebrities and famous people such as Stephen King, Ellen DeGeneres, Stephen Colbert, and President Donald Trump, Jones began to take notice as it was covered in the news. ^[1] Jones then began to receive phone calls regarding the debate.

After receiving several phone calls, texts and emails from a producer at Vocabulary.com and other friends, Jones says, "They explained that it was my voice that has been creating this brouhaha for want of a better word."

While working for JP Morgan Chase some time around 2007, a colleague asked if he’d be willing to take part in a project being done by Vocabulary.com.

At the time, the site was in the midst of producing recordings for a vast array of words in standard English, about 200,000 in total.

The team wanted the speakers who worked on those recordings to be familiar with the pronunciations of the International Phonetic Alphabet.

With his expertise in IPA, Jones decided to audition and was soon hired to pronounce words such as "Laurel".

Jones recorded a total of 36,000 words.