Jay “The Thoroughbred” Hieron is an American actor, stuntman and former MMA champion. Born in Brooklyn, NY, Hieron was the final IFL Welterweight Champion, competing for the Los Angeles Anacondas, and has also competed in the UFC, WEC, Affliction, Strikeforce and Bellator. He applied the same discipline he learned as a trained fighter and brought it into the world of Acting and Stunts. He has appeared in both feature films and network television in supporting and guest star roles.
Hieron was a two-time state wrestling championship runner-up at Freeport High School and national Junior College Champion at Nassau Community College, where he earned an associate degree. Hieron later attended Hofstra University.
Jay decided to turn to boxing to let out aggression on the bags. Finding it to be an incredibly great stress-reliever, and with encouragement of friends who trained in MMA, Hieron combined his wrestling skills and burgeoning boxing prowess into a professional MMA career.
In March 2006, he won the Lockdown in Paradise in Lahaina, Hawaii, and in June 2006, won his IFL debut at the IFL Team Championships in Atlantic City, NJ. Following the demise of the IFL due to financial concerns, Hieron signed with Strikeforce. He later ended up signing to fight on Bellator Fighting Championships.
After retiring from fight in 2013, Hieron has built a phenomenal second career in Hollywood. From one volatile business to another, he made it work simply through hard work and sheer force of will.
Hieron has appeared in over 100 titles. Some of the most well-known films he has been a part of are: Logan, The Avengers, The Purge, The Heat, and most recently, The Equalizer 2.
Jay’s most recent film was The Equalizer 2, in which he starred alongside the iconic Denzel Washington. The film beat the odds in a box-office upset and debuted at number one – opening to around $36 million. Working alongside Washington was an incredible learning experience for him, and although his role involved quite the fight scene, it was a completely different experience than he was used to in the ring.
“You could be a great fighter – a real fighter in real life – but you can’t transition to film fighting,” Hieron said. “So I took my time and worked hard at learning how to fight for film, to sell the punches and make reactions real and make it look like I’m really getting hit. I had to work on that.”
His scene in the film was shot in parts over the course of several weeks in Boston. This gave the actor plenty of time to observe and study Washington and director Antoine Fuqua. After learning how to fight on camera, Hieron gained a newfound respect for the cinematic art.
“It’s a lot of work. And behind the scenes, there’s a lot of people. From the fight choreographers to the stuntmen to the actors that are doing it. There’s a lot of preparation that goes in behind it that people don’t understand. They just see two guys fighting real quick on TV, but there’s a lot that goes into it preparing for the scene. Over and over again, different camera angles, getting into that same place they were. There’s a lot,” explains Jay.
Jay goes on at least four film/television show auditions each month, and works hard from home to master the roles he is auditioning for. He is showing absolutely no signs of slowing down his acting career.
“You’ve got to just move forward if you don’t get something. One door closes, another one opens, and that’s just life, right? You’ve got to keep moving, one foot in front of the other and that’s it. It’s not for somebody who really catches feelings,” he says.
While his fighting career and his acting roles may have portrayed him as a bad boy, Jay spends a lot of his time involved in the Morlon Greenwood Foundation – a charity event that helps change children’s lives through sports. The foundation’s goal is to raise-up youth to become successful socially responsible citizens through mentorship imparted to encourage the realization of their full potential while respecting diversity within the community.
