Jason Michael Weaver was born on July 18, 1979, in Chicago, Illinois, to Marilyn Haywood and Robert Weaver. He is best known for his roles in the sitcom Smart Guy as Marcus Henderson and as the singing voice of young Simba in Disney’s The Lion King (1994). He also has a feature on rapper Chingy’s single “One Call Away.” Although Smart Guy was responsible for the majority of Weaver’s fame, he made the most significant financial move of his acting career three years before his first appearance as Marcus Henderson, with the help of his musical mother.
Personal Life
Jason rarely discusses his personal life because he prefers to avoid the media spotlight. Nonetheless, some details have emerged. Jason is married, and his wife’s name is Myra Weaver. The couple did not say when they married, but Jason did say he was the father of two sons, but did not say what their names were. Jason, despite his success since his adolescence, had a difficult childhood; his father was never present, as he stated in one of many interviews, and he grew up outside of Chicago, raised solely by his mother. He met Michael Jackson while working on “The Jacksons: An American Dream,” and he spoke about his time with him.
Career
Weaver began acting at the age of 11 in 1990, but he was not an immediate success in the industry. His first recorded role was as Ernie in the television film The Kid Who Loved Christmas — the film received generally positive reviews, but Weaver played a minor role and received little critical acclaim. When Oprah Winfrey, who would go on to star in the series herself, offered him a role in the TV miniseries Brewster Place, he began to gain more acclaim in the industry.
Though it was only eleven episodes long, Brewster Place was well-received by audiences and earned Weaver a tentative spot in the film industry. However, his big break didn’t come until after his singing role as Simba in 1994. In 1997, he was cast as Marcus Henderson in Smart Guy, a sitcom about a 10-year-old genius named T.J. Henderson (Tahj Mowry) whose intelligence and success irritate his teenage brothers, Floyd (John Marshall Jones) and Marcus (Tahj Mowry) (Weaver). The show aired on The WB for three seasons from 1997 to 1999, and it helped launch Weaver’s career. As has been previously mentioned, one of Weaver’s first significant roles was singing young Simba’s songs in The Lion King — classics like “Hakuna Matata” and “I Just Can’t Wait to be King”.

Weaver revealed to VladTV that Disney initially offered him $2 million up front as payment for his contract in the beloved animated classic. Though that figure appeared to a fifteen-year-old Weaver to be an enormous sum of money, his mother had other ideas. “That amount of money is something to the average middle-class family in the ’90s,” he said during the interview. “But my mother immediately says, ‘Wait a minute,'” she says.
Knowing Disney’s immense reputation in the film industry and consistent pattern of success, Weaver’s mother decided to take a calculated risk: she wanted her son to be paid based on royalties, rather than the original offer of a $2 million dollar payout.
However, after the Lion King became one of Disney’s most successful films of all time, that decision proved to be one of the best of Weaver’s life; though he declined to share exact figures with the interviewee, he has stated that the royalties he received from the film were well over the $2 million he would have otherwise been paid. Jason Weaver’s success could be attributed to his musical family and musical childhood. His mother even sang backup for Aretha Franklin on the Sparkle soundtrack album. She is a key member of the female vocal group Kitty & the Haywoods, which is based in Chicago.
Weaver has found success not only in the acting industry but also in the music industry over the course of his career. He distinguishes himself from other actors by his ability to sing and produce music. His singing role in The Lion King, though minor, was perhaps the most important of his career, paving the way for other singing opportunities later in his life. Weaver’s early musical exposure and diversity of talent helped propel him to financial and acting success.
Jason Weaver may not be as well-known as he was in the late 1990s, but his success speaks for itself. Despite the fact that he is now a semi-retired actor, only taking on a role every couple of years (his three most recent credited roles were in 2016, 17, and 20), he has an estimated net worth of $3 million. Talent like his doesn’t come along very often, and he can certainly attribute some of his success to his family, particularly his mother. But it was Jason, above all, who fell in love with music and honed his craft until it became profitable. Keeping going even when things were tough.
Net Worth
Jason Weaver, an American actor and singer, has a net worth of $3 million dollars as of 2023. Weaver is best known for his roles as Marcus Henderson on The WB sitcom Smart Guy and Jerome Turrell on the short-lived ABC series Jerome Turrell.
Facts
NET WORTH: | $3 MILLION |
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Profession: | Professional Actor |
Date of Birth: | July 18, 1979 (age 43) |
Country: | United States of America |
Height: | 5 ft 10 in (1.8 m) |