Coco Jones

Grammy-winning singer/actress Coco Jones has evolved from making teen-oriented dance-pop to vulnerable, intimate R&B. She emerged in her teens as a Disney Channel regular while forging a parallel career as a recording artist. She starred on the network's So Random! in 2011 and 2012 before releasing an EP of effervescent dance-pop, Made Of, in 2013. Jones had embraced a more mature contemporary R&B sound by her fourth EP, 2019's H.D.W.Y. She made her Def Jam label debut with the What I Didn't Tell You EP in 2022, the same year she debuted as Hilary Banks on Bel-Air, a reboot of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. What I Didn't Tell You spawned the Top 20 R&B/hip-hop hit "ICU," which won Best R&B Performance at the 66th Annual Grammy Awards. She continued releasing singles such as 2024's "Sweep It Up."

Born in Columbia, South Carolina, and raised in Lebanon, Tennessee, Jones is the daughter of former NFL defensive lineman Mike Jones and studio singer Javonda Jones. Having sung from a young age, she released a self-produced album in 2010 that caught the attention of Disney, which featured her on the Radio Disney music competition show NBT (Next Big Thing). From 2011 to 2012, she portrayed the character Coco Blue on the Disney Channel series So Random! Jones then starred in the 2012 Disney Channel movie Let It Shine and was featured on the accompanying soundtrack. Two of her duets with co-star Tyler James Williams, "Guardian Angel" and "Me and You," made Top 40 appearances on Billboard's Rap Digital Song Sales chart.

Newly signed to Hollywood Records, Jones released the Made Of EP in early 2013. It reached number ten on Billboard's Heatseekers Albums chart. A featured spot on teen rapper MattyB's single "Flyin High" followed in early 2014, around the time Jones was dropped by her label. She released the single "Peppermint" independently that August, and in mid-2015, she landed on the Billboard R&B Digital Song Sales chart with an appearance on Nia Sioux's "Slay." Back onscreen, she co-starred in the family film Grandma's House (2016) and music-themed comedy-drama Flock of Four (2017) before delivering her third EP, November 2017's Let Me Check It. A recurring role on the teen drama series Five Points followed in 2018 and 2019. Her fourth EP, the self-released H.D.W.Y., arrived in September 2019.

Jones continued to find work in Hollywood, appearing in films like 2020's Vampires vs. the Bronx and White Elephant, and in 2022 she was cast on Peacock's Bel-Air, a reimagining of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, as sister Hilary. That year, she also signed to Def Jam, which released her EP What I Didn't Tell You in November. A deluxe edition arrived two months later. She received five nominations at the 66th Annual Grammy Awards, including Best New Artist, Best R&B Album, and Best R&B Performance, the last of which she won for "ICU." In 2024, she released the singles "Here We Go (Uh Oh)," "Almost There," and "Sweep It Up." ~ Marcy Donelson & Matt Collar