Series

Doug Jones: Of Monsters and Men

This fall, IU Cinema is thrilled to welcome Indiana’s own Doug Jones.

While famous for working under prosthetics in iconic feature film roles, Doug Jones is also a versatile character actor who has performed as "himself" in guest star roles on shows like Arrow, The Flash, Teen Wolf, Z-Nation, The Neighbors, Criminal Minds, C.S.I., and NBC's horror anthology Fear Itself. A veteran of over 100 commercials, Doug was Mac Tonight, the moon-headed piano player in the long-running 1990s McDonald's campaign. He also starred as the lead villain in “Hush,” an Emmy-winning episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, long considered a fan favorite. Doug was also a semi-regular guest judge on the hit SyFy Net reality series Face Off.

In 2005, he played the title role of Pan (as well as the nightmare character known as The Pale Man) in Guillermo del Toro's Oscar-winning Spanish-language fantasy/horror feature Pan's Labyrinth. But it was his sensitive and elegant performance as Abe Sapien in del Toro's 2004 box-office hit Hellboy that brought Doug's unique work to a wider audience. He went on to voice that same character for the Emmy-nominated Cartoon Network animations Hellboy: Sword of Storms and Hellboy: Blood and Iron. In 2007, Doug's title role performance in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer was hailed by fans and critics alike. 2008 saw Doug reprise his starring role (as well as two other characters) in Hellboy II: The Golden Army, once more under the direction of del Toro. He also starred in Gainsbourg, a stylized biopic of the famous French poet/singer/composer Serge Gainsbourg, in which he plays Gainsbourg's dark alter ego. The film has won three Cesar Awards (the French equivalent of the Oscars). Doug has had prominent creature roles in Crimson Peak, The Watch, The Bye Bye Man, Legion, Hocus Pocus, and many others. In 2022, Hocus Pocus 2 revived his iconic Billy Butcherson character.

Doug was a series regular on three seasons of TNT’s Spielberg-produced sci-fi series Falling Skies and recurred on Guillermo del Toro’s FX series The Strain. He played the romantic lead role of the “Amphibian Man” opposite Sally Hawkins in del Toro’s The Shape of Water, the most nominated film of the 2018 Oscars as well as the winner for Best Picture. He recently starred as “Saru” in five seasons of the Paramount+ series Star Trek: Discovery, a role for which he won the 2019 Saturn Award. He was also a fan favorite as “The Baron” on six seasons of the FX cult hit What We Do in the Shadows. Additionally, Doug was the recipient of the Make-up Artists and Hair Stylists Guild’s very first “Chair” award in 2022.