Zoe Lister Jones

Early life and education

Lister-Jones was born in Brooklyn, New York. Her mother is the New York-based, Canadian-born video artist Ardele Lister, and her father is the American photographer and media artist Bill Jones. Her mother was born to a Jewish family, and her father converted to Judaism. In 2000 she graduated from Edward R Murrow High School in Brooklyn. She graduated with honors from the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University and studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London. Lister-Jones performed with a rock band.

Career

Her debut solo CD was entitled Skip the Kiss. Kyle Forester, who composed the score for Breaking Upwards, arranged the music for Skip the Kiss. She is a member of The Ladybug Transistor.

Lister-Jones' New York City theater credits include Seminar, The Little Dog Laughed and The New Group's The Accomplices. Her screen credits include the political thriller State of Play, Salt, The Other Guys, The Marconi Bros., Day Zero, as well as quirky independent films such as Armless, Arranged, and Palladio. On television she has appeared in Law & Order, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Law & Order: SVU, Law & Order: Trial by Jury, on HBO's Bored to Death, as Kim on Adult Swim's Delocated, as Lily in the cast of the NBC sitcom Whitney, as Kate in Friends with Better Lives, as Councilwoman Fawn Moscato in New Girl, as Jen in Life in Pieces and as Carolyn Hart in the HBO film Confirmation.

In 2004, Lister-Jones wrote and performed the one-woman, ten-character show Co-dependence is a Four Letter Word at New York City's Performance Space 122 (P.S.122).

In 2009, Lister-Jones co-starred, co-produced (with Daryl Wein), and co-wrote (with Peter Duchan and Daryl Wein) the independent feature Breaking Upwards, which explores a young New York couple who, battling codependency, strategize their own break up. The film was shot in New York on a budget of $15,000, and was featured in New York Times article as an example of sweat equity in the independent-film industry. Lister-Jones also wrote the lyrics and performed many of the tracks of the original motion picture sound track. Breaking Upwards premiered at the SXSW Film Festival in March, 2009.

Lister-Jones starred with Sam Rosen in Brady Kiernan's romantic drama Stuck Between Stations (2011) alongside Josh Hartnett and Michael Imperioli. Stuck Between Stations premiered as an official selection of the Viewpoints section at the SVA Theater at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival in New York City, New York, U.S.A.

Lister-Jones starred in the independent feature film Lola Versus (2012), her second project co-written with director Daryl Wein. Distributed by Fox Searchlight Pictures, Lola Versus opened in theaters Summer 2012. It stars Greta Gerwig, Zoe Lister-Jones, Bill Pullman, Hamish Linklater, Debra Winger, Joel Kinnaman and Ebon Moss-Bachrach. Lola Versus premiered at New York's Tribeca Film Festival in April 2012.

Lister-Jones and Daryl Wein co-wrote Consumed (2015), their third feature-length collaboration directed by Wein. The political thriller, which focuses on the world of genetically modified organisms, began filming in May 2014 in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois with Shatterglass Studios. It stars Lister-Jones, Kunal Nayyar (The Big Bang Theory), Taylor Kinney (Chicago Fire), Victor Garber (Argo), Danny Glover (Lethal Weapon), Griffin Dunne (Dallas Buyers Club), Anthony Edwards (ER) and Beth Grant (No Country for Old Men). Consumed premiered at the Los Angeles Film Festival on June 15, 2015.

In 2017 Lister-Jones made her directorial debut with her indie film Band Aid, starring Lister-Jones, Adam Pally, Fred Armisen, Hannah Simone, Colin Hanks, Brooklyn Decker, Majandra Delfino, Jesse Williams, Susie Essman, Ravi Patel, Jamie Chung, Chris D’Elia, Retta, and Jerry O’Connell. The film features lyrics for original songs written by Lister-Jones and composed by Kyle Forester (Breaking Upwards).