In his 20’s, after working as a farmer, factory worker, and a carney, Jeff Kober followed a woman to L.A., started a rock band (The Walking Wounded) with Jerry Giddens and, within two years, found himself without a girlfriend and without a band. A chance visit to an acting class showed him a way to channel the darkness of his life.
His first appearance on television was a non-billed role in the 1980s series V (1984). Kober went on to regular roles in the highly acclaimed Vietnamese War drama (1988) and the short-lived, but now-cult horror series Kindred: The Embraced (1996). Recent recurring roles include The Walking Dead, Sons of Anarchy, Shameless, New Girl and NCIS: Los Angeles. Kober has guested on many television series, including Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999), CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2000), ER (1994), 24 (2001), The Closer (2005) and Criminal Minds (2005).
Kober has recently completed work on the series, “Big Dogs,” produced by Choice Films/Summer Crockett-Moore and Tony Glazer, created by Adam Dunn.
Filming also has recently been completed on the film, “Exposure,” for which Jeff wrote the screenplay and shooting tintypes for an original screenplay he wrote, “Exposure,” starring Leslie Hope and directed by Jerry Ciccoritti.
Kober’s film work includes Out of Bounds (1986), in which he played the first of his signature nefarious characters – “Roy Gaddis”, a small-time drug dealer with murderous inclinations. Also The First Power(1990), Tank Girl (1995) (a comedic turn), Defining Maggie (2002), World Without Waves(2004), and The Hills Have Eyes 2 (2007), among others. Most recently he has appeared in Clint Eastwood’s Sully (2016) and Beauty Mark (2017), which has won a number of awards at various film festivals, and will be seen in the soon to be released My Abandonment, directed by Debra Granik, and Block Island, directed by Tony Glazer.
Short films include the recently concluded Unspeakable, directed by Milena Govich, the Academy Award-winning Session Man (1991) and Lucid (2006), another film that has garnered a number of awards.
He has done extensive stage work, most recently in John Pollono’s “Rules of Seconds” at Los Angeles Theatre Center, “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance” at the Rubicon Theatre, “Where the Great Ones Run” at Rogue Machine, as “The Father” in Jenny Sullivan’s autobiographical work “J For J” and “Defying Gravity” and “The Rainmaker”, all at the Rubicon Theatre.
Kober was responsible for the paintings attributed to his character “Daedalus” on Kindred: The Embraced (1996) and is the c/o author of “Art That Pays: The Emerging Artist’s Guide to Making a Living” along with Adele Slaughter.
Kober is married to Adele Slaughter and is the father of one son, Henry, and step-father of Alexander Woolverton.
