In loving memory. The This Is Us cast and celebrities such as John Mayer and Amber Riley paid tribute to the late writer Jas Waters, who died at the age of 39.
The This Is Us writers’ Twitter account confirmed Waters’ death on Wednesday, June 10. The Los Angeles County coroner confirmed to Us Weekly on Thursday, June 11, that her death was ruled a suicide by hanging.
“The entire #ThisIsUs family was devastated to learn of Jas Waters passing,” the statement read. “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 Illinois native began her career as an entertainment journalist and blogger, writing a column for Vibe that started in 2012. She later costarred in the VH1 reality series The Gossip Game under the name JasFly in 2013.
Waters previously worked on the Comedy Central series Hood Adjacent With James Davis and the VH1 show The Breaks. She joined the This Is Us writers room in 2017 where she eventually penned 18 episodes of the hit NBC series.
Waters was also on the writing teams for the Showtime series Kidding and the 2019 film What Men Want. The former reporter detailed how she overcame the obstacles in her life to have a successful career in a 2018 interview with Shadow and Act.
“I’m very audacious. This was always the plan for my life, even before I knew it,” she said at the time. “A billion things had to conspire together for me to get here. Listen, I was raised in an old folks’ home. I never had a traditional life; I never had a safe, cookie-cutter, predictable, affirming life.”
Waters added, “From the moment I got here, the rules didn’t apply to me. If the basic rules of raising a kid didn’t apply to me, then nothing else really applies to me. So I just had to figure it out. There were several times in my life that I found to be very confining. But as I look back on it, it was very freeing.”
Scroll down to read celebrities’ touching tributes to Waters.
If you or someone you know is in emotional distress or considering suicide, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).