Featured Testimonial About Creighton University
It sounds cliché, but my friends and I always felt like we had the opportunity to be anything we wanted to be at Creighton.
By Micah Mertes
The first role alumna Jhoné Lucas, BA’16, booked as a professional actress was in a TV series by Oscar-winning filmmaker Spike Lee, his 2019 Netflix adaptation of the movie She’s Gotta Have It. (Lucas still has the paycheck, signed by Lee himself, framed in her apartment.)
Since moving to Los Angeles near the start of the pandemic, Lucas has worked constantly, landing a recurring role in a horror franchise and a part in The CW series All American: Homecoming.
She has also stayed true to her roots as a Creighton journalism graduate, hosting, producing and co-writing the award-winning BET+ political news series The Gen Zone. Production on season two is set to begin in June. In the coming months, Lucas will also star in the Paramount+ thriller Critical Impact.
Lucas, who was born and raised in Omaha, caught the acting bug early. She first took the stage at age 6 in her grade school’s production of Goldilocks and the Three Bears.
“I loved to perform, I loved to read in class,” she said. “My dad is a preacher, and I would mimic him all the time.”
Her passion for performance reached a new level when, at 12, she auditioned for and scored a part in The Wizard of Oz at The Rose Theater. From there, the roles never stopped. Productions in Annie, The Berenstain Bears, Hairspray, High School Musical 1 and 2, at The Rose, Omaha Community Playhouse and Omaha South High School.
By the time college approached, she wanted to go to a performing arts school. She had her eye on The Juilliard School in New York, but her parents encouraged her to explore other ways to be a storyteller, and she landed on journalism.
Lucas’ mother, Darnisha Ladd, BS’00, is a fellow alumna, who majored in elementary education. Lucas’ father, Rev. Jon Lucas, Sr., a minister at New Rising Star Baptist Church at 60th and Ames, took theology classes at Creighton. And in eighth grade, Lucas joined an Upward Bound math and science program at Creighton. Becoming a Bluejay herself wasn’t a tough sell.
“Creighton has always been a part of my life,” Lucas said. “I’m so happy I chose to go there. It was just the right size for everything I wanted to do. It sounds cliché, but my friends and I always felt like we had the opportunity to be anything we wanted to be.”
She took advantage of those opportunities. She joined the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, served as a Swanson Hall Senator in the Inter-Residence Hall Government and on the Residence Hall Council, and she worked for Student Support Services.
Lucas also kindled her newfound passion for journalism, writing for The Creightonian and learning the ropes from two of the most beloved mentors in the J-school’s history: Eileen Wirth, PhD, and Carol Zuegner, BA’77, MS’22. Lucas was eventually awarded the Mildred D. Brown Scholarship, named after the trailblazing founder of The Omaha Star.
Today, when Lucas produces, writes or hosts her show The Gen Zone or other political documentary projects, she remembers one of the most valuable lessons she learned at Creighton.
“I remember all my philosophy and theology classes at Creighton, and so many days were dedicated to debating points of view with our classmates,” Lucas. “More than anywhere else, I learned at Creighton how to talk with somebody who has opposing views without insulting or belittling them, how to respect people who don’t agree with you. That’s something I take with me always.”
As Lucas continues to thrive in her acting and journalism careers, she hopes to make many return visits to Omaha and Creighton, meeting with young aspiring performers and journalists of all kinds.
Whatever path her career(s) take, most of all, she doesn’t want to lose sight of where she comes from and the ways they defined the person (and performer) she became.
“I’m proud to be from Omaha, and I’m proud to call myself a Bluejay.”
