Jesse Williams has talked about his parents in interviews and on stage for over a decade — here’s what’s actually confirmed, and where the trail runs out.
When Jesse Williams stepped up to accept the Humanitarian Award at the 2016 BET Awards, he opened by thanking the two people in his life who rarely get any spotlight of their own: his parents. It’s one of the only moments where his father, Reginald Williams, has been part of a public event connected to his son’s career — and it’s the reason so many people search for his name at all.
Reginald Williams has never given an interview, never posted publicly, and has no media presence of his own. Almost everything known about him comes secondhand, from things Jesse Williams has said about his upbringing over the years. That’s a thin but real record — and it’s worth separating from the much larger pile of online write-ups that have filled in the gaps with invented detail.
What’s Actually Confirmed
- Jesse Williams was born August 5, 1981, in Chicago, to Johanna Chase, a professional potter, and Reginald Williams.
- Jesse has said his father is African American, from Georgia; his mother has Swedish and Polish ancestry.
- After Jesse graduated high school (Moses Brown School, 1998), his father began teaching history in northern Maine, while his mother continued working in pottery.
- Jesse has two younger brothers, both of whom work in visual arts.
- At the 2016 BET Awards, Jesse opened his acceptance speech by thanking his parents and his then-wife, Aryn Drake-Lee, for their support.
The BET Awards Moment
This is the appearance most people are thinking of. In June 2016, Jesse Williams received BET’s Humanitarian Award for his activism work, including his role with the Advancement Project and his BET documentary Stay Woke. Multiple outlets covering the speech — CNN, NPR, Billboard, E! News, and the New York Times among them — reported that he began by thanking his parents and his wife before launching into the speech on race and policing that made headlines for weeks afterward.
It’s worth being precise here, since this is where a lot of the confusion online starts: the “wife” Jesse thanked that night was his own wife at the time, Aryn Drake-Lee (they married in 2012 and divorced in 2020) — not a wife of Reginald’s. None of the contemporary reporting on the speech names or describes Reginald’s wife, or confirms that Johanna Chase was seen or photographed with him at the event. Coverage says his parents were thanked; it doesn’t go further than that.
Where the Public Record Stops
A large number of celebrity sites now carry detailed “biographies” of Reginald Williams — claiming he attended Harvard, worked in a factory before teaching, has Seminole ancestry, was once a school principal, appeared at the BET Awards, and more. None of these claims trace back to an interview, a news article, or any primary source. They appear to have originated on one site and been reworded and repeated across dozens of others, with each version adding a bit more specific-sounding detail. Because Reginald Williams has kept his life private and has not spoken publicly, there’s no way to verify any of it, and it shouldn’t be reported as fact.
What can honestly be said is limited: he’s a history teacher, he’s Jesse’s father, and Jesse has credited him — often in the same breath as his mother — with shaping the values behind his activism. Beyond that, reliable public information runs out.
Quick Facts
| Known as | Father of actor and activist Jesse Williams |
|---|---|
| Profession | History teacher (taught in northern Maine after Jesse’s high school graduation) |
| Background | African American, from Georgia (per Jesse Williams’s own account) |
| Spouse/partner | Johanna Chase, professional potter |
| Public appearances | None confirmed independently; thanked by name/relation at the 2016 BET Awards |
Sources
- Wikipedia, “Jesse Williams (actor)” — citing Daily Press (2010) and Global Grind (2012) interviews
- New York Times, “How Jesse Williams Stole BET Awards With Speech on Racism” (June 27, 2016)
- CNN, NPR, Billboard, and E! News coverage of the 2016 BET Awards speech
