"Always looking for answers, like life was a riddle..."
Jordan Lennon
is an Irish actor, filmmaker and musician (under his stage name Jay-El).
Originally getting his start making comedy videos in his backyard with his family, he hit it big at the age of sixteen when he was cast as the younger version of Sean Penn in The Professor & the Madman. The film's Troubled Production however meant it didn't see release until 2019, with Mel Gibson and director Farhad Safinia refusing to promote it. And Jordan's scenes were cut!
Not letting that deter him, he began making his own films, starting with The Nutters. This light-hearted comedy about a group of Finglas teens was a viral success, proving popular enough to get a Christmas Special. Everyone involved has distanced themselves from it since, gravitating towards more highbrow productions.
As mentioned above, he's also a hip hop musician and rapper under the name Jay-El, often collaborating with his Nutters co-star Mason Creedy - as M.X.J. whenever they're together.
His brother Jackson Lennon is also an actor and filmmaker. Rare is the project of theirs that doesn't involve the other. Not to be confused with a South African songwriter also called Jay El. Or the actor El-Jay Woods.
Tropes associated with his work:
- Against the Setting Sun: Scenes in the "Just For You" video have him, Mason and Caitlin C sitting with the sunset in the background.
- Attention Deficit Creator Disorder: He's been known to bounce from working on a track to a music video to an acting role, and even the occasional DP, editing or directing gig.
- Cluster F-Bomb: He's not shy about dropping f-bombs.
- Cool Shades: Seems particularly fond of this trope. The party scene in The Nutters begins with him donning a pair of shades for cool effect, and he wears them in the "Slow Down" video.
- Creator Backlash: He tried being a YouTuber for a while, but gave it up in 2020 and deleted all his old videos.
- Creator Couple: His girlfriend Amy Donaghue stars in The Nutters as his love interest. She's also appeared in some of his videos, and does makeup and hairstyling on many films he's involved with. She's a YouTuber in her own right, and he's appeared in some of her videos.
- Dark and Troubled Past: He outlines his difficult upbringing in the track "Just For You"."Crumbling inside when thoughts made me feel alone. Zero phone calls cos daddy's never coming home...so I took to the world like butter to a knife. I'd end up bullied for fucking half of me life."
- Dawson Casting:
- In the shorts Trouble and Miles Away, he plays high schoolers when he was nearly twenty.
- Averted in The Nutters, Teen Life and Poisoned Minds - made while he was still a teenager. He was likewise 16 in The Professor & the Madman and had a kiss scene with an actress who was this trope (23).
- Deleted Role: As noted above, his scenes in The Professor & the Madman were deleted.
- Downer Ending: The "Poisoned City" video ends with him seeing police lights in the distance and going Oh, Crap! - continuing the vicious cycle of young people in his area becoming criminals.
- Dublin Skanger: Not a real life example, but his deep voice voice and ability to do Icy Blue Eyes (and unfortunately, prejudice towards North Dubs) lead to him being cast in this role a lot. However, a few of his roles play around with it.
- The Nutters (unsurprisingly since it was written by him) gently parodies it by showing a variety of characters in Finglas, and portraying Jake as the Only Sane Man.
- The short Fine shows that he's gone through a Trauma Conga Line - being frequently bullied and attacked, his girlfriend spreading rumours about him to hide her sexuality - and him being a school shooter is All Just a Dream.
- His single "Poisoned City" is a vicious deconstruction of the trope; about how growing up in a Wretched Hive leads to people getting cynical that life will never improve, and children grow up either idolizing crime and violence or getting desensitized to it. And this in turn leads to the stereotypes.
"Some people only getting jobs if they're faking addresses."- The short Boxed In (not that one) does show him as an aloof older brother, who's fond of boxing. But then his Big Brother Instinct comes out and he has a proper Heel–Face Turn.
- The upcoming Gold Standard has him playing arguably the Token Good Teammate of a criminal gang, and it's in doubt whether he committed the murder he's accused of.
- Eating the Eye Candy: As he says in "Give Me Time" - "she got the moves in the back to let her demonstrate".
- Friendly Rivalry: He jokes that he's often in competition with his on-screen cousin Greg Young, admitting in an interview that he sometimes got bitter seeing Greg enjoy so much success after The Nutters. The two however are good friends and have collaborated many times since. Both are also musicians, albeit in very different genres (Jordan in hip hop, Greg in indie).
- Genki Guy: A very enthusiastic person, full of jokes and stories, and known for making a set lively.
- Good-Times Montage: The "Slow Down" video is essentially Jordan having fun via drinking montage.
- Happy Dance:
- He starts doing a moonwalk in the middle of Blood on the Bark. This was apparently unscripted.
- Also starts dancing towards the end of the "Give Me Time" video.
- Hidden Depths: In addition to rapping, he sings a few lines in his collaboration with Maria "Talk".
- "I Want" Song: "Just For You" ends up having him declare what success he wants to achieve.
- In Da Club: "Slow Down", "Give Me Time" and "Talk" are from the perspective of someone trying to pick up a girl in a nightclub.
- Intercourse with You: "Slow Down" is from the perspective of someone trying to score at a party."All I need is your permission, then we're gone."
- Jack of All Trades: Actor, writer, director, producer, cameraman, editor, musician...one of his friends put it best.Luke Byrne: The thing about Jordan is he'll put his hand to anything."
- Lighter and Softer: His first two tracks "Just For You" and "Poisoned City" were quite dark and angsty. His next three "Slow Down", "Give Me Time" and "Switch It" have been more upbeat and light-hearted. The videos for the former two had very bleak colour schemes, with Jordan dressed in plain clothes. The subsequent ones were more vibrant and colourful.
- Love Is a Drug: From "Give Me Time" - "you've got the kind of love that would make me medicate".
- Magnum Opus Dissonance: His favourite role is actually the horror film Blood on the Bark.
- The Mentor: He was the first of his group to get into film, and brought most of them into it. His friend Luke Byrne said in an interview that he'll often try to get everyone involved in a project.
- Mood Whiplash: His "Switch It" video opens with a serious scene of him entering a church to pray...and then he starts basically praying to get laid.
- Mr. Fanservice: He's not shy about showing off more than his talents.
- In The Nutters, he takes his shirt off to go to bed and it remains off until the party. In the Christmas Special, he also disrobes for a shower scene.
- The "Slow Down" video has scenes of him in a pool.
- He does a striptease at the end of the "Give Me Time" video.
- The Gumdrops planned "Beach Please" special would have had a scene with him wearing a speedo.
- Old Shame:
- He'd rather move on from The Nutters, as he's grown a great deal as a filmmaker since then, and got lots of stick from people in his area for making it. He does grudgingly admit "it's what made us".
- The series Teen Life as well, which was intended as a hard-hitting Teen Drama that quickly got destroyed by critics for its laughably bad writing.
- The Other Darrin: Butch in Gold Standard was played by Robert Madden. Jordan assumes the role in the feature film version now that the character is an Ascended Extra.
- Orphaned Series: Poisoned Minds was intended as the pilot for a series that never got off the ground.
- Promotion to Parent: Discussed in "Just For You"."Mother worked so much, so much that I'd miss her/but she had to keep the job, second mother was the sister."
- Real-Life Relative:
- His mother plays Mrs Murphy in The Nutters, and his father plays a news reporter.
- He and Jackson star together in the series Teen Life, and the short Boxed In. Jordan likewise cameos in Jackson's film Listen. Jackson cameos in The Nutters as a party guest.
- Real Life Writes the Hairstyle: He has a buzzcut in the "Poisoned City" video, as well as Costello & Pat Rice's "Le Souterrain" and Lethal Dialect's "K District". This is because they were filmed during the COVID-19 pandemic when barbers were closed, and he had been shaving his head.
- Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: "Poisoned City" is on the cynical end, or at least discusses it."People don't believe that dreams come true, but if you talk about nightmares then they tell you they do."
- Those Two Actors:
- He and Greg Young of course starred in The Nutters together. They reunited for Miles Away, Gold Standard and Life on Pluto. Greg also appeared as an extra in Teen Life.
- He and Mason Creedy - in addition to their music together - have also starred in The Nutters, Blood on the Bark and Poisoned Minds.
- Another Nutters co-star Liam Gaynor, with whom Jordan also starred in Blood on the Bark and the upcoming Family Painting. He's also appeared in some of his videos.
- Tom Hanks Syndrome: He first got known for comedy in The Nutters, but has pursued Darker and Edgier content ever since. An updated version of The Nutters was announced in 2020 however.
- True Companions: His friends - sometimes nicknamed 'The Finglas Crew' - Liam Gaynor, Luke Byrne and Mason Creedy are all extremely close and collaborate all the time. Adam Kearney, Dan O'Neill and Greg Young are considered Honorary True Companions, as they're not from Finglas, but work with them often. Also counts as a Production Posse.
- Two Guys and a Girl: The set-up of "Just For You" - himself, Mason and Caitlin C.
- Typecasting: He himself says he's normally pigeonholed "as an aggressor" or The Bully. Even his softer roles still tend to be the Jerk with a Heart of Gold.
- Vacation Episode: Both the videos for "Slow Down" and "Give Me Time" were filmed in Spain, with plenty of Scenery Porn to let you know it.
- Written by Cast Member: He co-wrote The Nutters, and wrote Poisoned Minds, Blood on the Bark, Trouble and Silence - all of which he stars in.
