Jeffrey Crawford "Lazlow" Jones (born September 4, 1973) is an American writer, producer, director, voice actor, and radio announcer.
Career[]
Lazlow is best known for his time as co-chair of the Rockstar Games Production Department, responsible for in-game creative audio and video content, working directly for and writing with Rockstar co-founder and Head of Creative Dan Houser.
During his career at Rockstar Games his primary responsibilities were as a director, producer and writer for the Grand Theft Auto, Red Dead Redemption, Max Payne, Bully, and Midnight Club series, as well as the voice over director for Manhunt 2, and was part of Rockstar's production team for The Warriors and L.A. Noire, the latter of which he also contributed some writing to. Lazlow also hosted his own real-life radio shows: Lazlow's Technofile, which for a time was syndicated on radio stations across the US in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and The Lazlow Show, which began airing on New York City's K-ROCK in 2005 before moving to the Opie & Anthony Channel (branded at the time as The Virus) as part of the channel's Saturday Night Virus lineup on XM Satellite Radio in 2006; in 2009, XM and Sirius Satellite Radio merged to become the single entity known as SiriusXM. Due to the merger and a resulting disagreement in regards to the show's budget, it eventually began airing from the Long Island basement studio (known amongst fans as "The Compound") of then-Opie & Anthony Show co-host Anthony Cumia. The Lazlow Show officially ran from 2005 to 2010 on a mostly irregular schedule, at times with many months passing between episodes due to Lazlow's increasingly heavy workload at Rockstar. However, there were also times when the show was on a more regular schedule, typically coinciding with the immediate downtime after the release of a new Rockstar title, with episodes airing live roughly every month or two for an indeterminate period of time until reverting back to a more flexible, random release schedule once work on a new Rockstar title entered full-swing. In 2015, five years after the show had unofficially ended, a one-off episode was broadcast as a tribute to Wayne "Big Wayne" Oliver, Lazlow's very close friend, neighbor, and co-host on the show, who had passed away of a heart attack in November of 2014. Overall, 52 episodes of The Lazlow Show were broadcast live over the course of ten years.
Grand Theft Auto series[]
Behind the scenes, Lazlow was one of the writers of the game's script, providing political and cultural satire on the radio, and writing dialogue for street NPCs. Lazlow arranged voice cameos in the Grand Theft Auto games for several key figures, many of whom are real-life friends of his, such as Reed Tucker, Wayne "Big Wayne" Oliver, Fred Armisen, Frank Chavez, Anthony Cumia, Patrice O'Neal, Bill Burr, Wil Wheaton, Gregg "Opie" Hughes, Jim Norton, Sam Roberts, Joe DeRosa, Robert Kelly, Jim Florentine, Club Soda Kenny, and Couzin Ed, who would eventually join Rockstar as a full-time employee. He even arranged voice cameos for members of the hacker magazine "2600: The Hacker Quarterly", including Emmanuel Goldstein, Bernie S., and Kevin Mitnick. In April 2020, Lazlow resigned from Rockstar Games during the COVID-19 pandemic to care for his sister and family. Exactly a year later, Lazlow joined Dan Houser's next company, Absurd Ventures.
Lazlow's Character[]
Main articles: Lazlow Jones (3D Universe) and Lazlow Jones (HD Universe)
Grand Theft Auto III was Lazlow’s first GTA game. He produced, scripted and hosted the popular Chatterbox FM radio station. He co-wrote the other radio station dialogue with Dan Houser of Rockstar Games.
After gaining great popularity for his GTA III work, Lazlow took a larger role in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. Rockstar hired Lazlow's production company, Radio Lazlow, to co-write and produce all the radio stations in GTA Vice City, as well as minor character and pedestrian dialogue. He was also the host of Vice City radio station V-Rock, referring to a comment made offhand in GTA III, that he only worked at Chatterbox FM "because [he] got kicked off the rock station".
In Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, he co-wrote and produced all of the in-game radio, as well as hosting Entertaining America on WCTR and being caller on I Say/You Say.
He also returned as host of the Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories version of the Chatterbox radio show, although this time, his role was smaller — during the setting of the game, Chatterbox is merely a single show on a station, not an entire station on its own.
Lazlow returned in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories as an intern at V-Rock, working for his real-life friend, Couzin Ed. Earlier in Lazlow's and Couzin Ed's real-life radio careers, Lazlow was the sidekick of Couzin Ed.
As Lazlow was involved in writing the radio content for all the 3D Universe games, he was able to create continuity between the games, even though they were released out of chronological order. This continuity built through the many games of the series is one of the few direct links between the 3D and the HD Universes, as the two do not otherwise share much continuity.
For example, in GTA III, Lazlow and Donald Love are said to be in charge of operating Chatterbox FM, a situation established in dialogue written for LCFR in GTA Liberty City Stories. Characters mentioned in passing might later appear in a later game (such as Crow, who is referenced in passing in GTA San Andreas, and appears on the air in GTA Liberty City Stories).
Another example of this continuity is when in Grand Theft Auto IV Lazlow is referred to on other channels as the host of the "long-defunct Chatterbox", and who is raising money for a new venture. Despite that, he still introduces himself as "Lazlow 2.0", a meta-joke about the character's reboot.
GTA Works[]
Voice Acting[]
- Grand Theft Auto III - Lazlow Jones/Pedestrians Dialogue/Taxi Driver (2001)
- Grand Theft Auto: Vice City - Lazlow Jones/Radio Commercial Voices (2002)
- Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas - Lazlow Jones (2004)
- Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories - Lazlow Jones/Rise FM Imaging Voices/Radio Commercial Voices (2005)
- Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories - Lazlow Jones/Pedestrians Dialogue/Radio Commercial Voices (2006)
- Grand Theft Auto IV - Lazlow Jones/Pedestrian Dialogue (2008)
- Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City - Lazlow Jones/Pedestrian Dialogue (2009)
- Grand Theft Auto V - Lazlow Jones (2013)
- Grand Theft Auto Online - Lazlow Jones (2018)
Motion Capture[]
- Grand Theft Auto V - Lazlow Jones (2013)
- Grand Theft Auto Online - Lazlow Jones (2018)
Video Game Credits[]
Radio Stations & Music[]
DJ Banter and Imaging Writer[]
- Grand Theft Auto III (2001)
- Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (2002)
- Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (2004)
- Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories (2005)
- Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (2006)
- Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars (Imaging only) (2009)
- Grand Theft Auto V (2013)
Radio Stations and Music Producer[]
- Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (2002)
- Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories (2005)
- Grand Theft Auto IV (2008)
Pedestrian Dialogue Director[]
- Grand Theft Auto III (2001)
- Grand Theft Auto V (2013)
Rockstar NYC Production Team[]
- Grand Theft Auto IV (2008)
- Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City (2009)
- Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars (2009)
- Grand Theft Auto V (2013)
- Grand Theft Auto Online (2013)
In-Game Media[]
- Grand Theft Auto IV - Internet and Jingles (2008)
- Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City - Internet and Jingles (2009)
- Grand Theft Auto V - TV, Radio and Cinema (2013)
- Grand Theft Auto Online - TV, Radio and Cinema (2013)
Director, Audio Content[]
- Grand Theft Auto Online (2013)