Jas Waters, ‘This Is Us’ Writer, Dead at 39

Jas Waters, a writer on This Is Us and Kidding, has died at the age of 39, Shadow and Act reports. Waters, who also went by “JasFly,” was known for her work as a television writer, author and journalist, and worked on Season 2 of This Is Us from 2017-2018.
The This Is Us Writers Twitter account confirmed the news this evening, and did not give a cause of death.

“The entire #ThisIsUs family was devastated to learn of Jas Waters passing. In our time together, Jas left her mark on us and ALL over the show. She was a brilliant storyteller and a force of nature. We send our deepest sympathies to her loved ones. She was one of us. RIP @JasFly,” the account posted. 

Waters’ work extended far beyond her time on the NBC comedy-drama. Her television credits include writing for Comedy Central‘s Hood Adjacent with James Davis, VH1‘s The Breaks and Jim Carrey‘s Showtime comedy, Kidding. Waters also had a story credit on the film What Men Want.   
Aside from her time building stories behind the screen, Waters starred in a VH1 reality show, The Gossip Game, in 2013. The show followed the lives of seven women who all worked as media professionals in New York City. At the time, Waters was a freelance writer.

In an interview with Shadow and Act last year, Waters talked about her experience as a Black woman in the entertainment industry. “We as people of color want to see ourselves; we deserve to see ourselves,” she said. “So the fight first is to see ourselves — and that is a very rightful fight — but it’s a fight that I also fight. The shows that I create from now until the foreseeable future will probably feature people of color first, because I’m itching to tell our story. But that does not mean that you don’t have people of color working in the field, who are doing great work still telling the stories that are being told.”

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