What You Should Know About Beyond the Gates’ Jen Jacob

According to one of her Instagram posts, Jen Jacob wants you to get your mimosas ready for the debut of Beyond the Gates in early 2025. The actress is transitioning from guest star stints and recurring roles to being one of the OG leads of this exciting new adventure.

The Early Days

Jen Jacob is from Bucks County, Pennsylvania. According to the Mindset Artistry podcast, the veteran actress has wanted to be on stage or in front of the camera basically since birth. In fact, she participated in as many theater programs as she could while growing up.

She did “high school and standard theater programs and regional theater and community theater and camp theater and all of those things,” she explained to Amanda DeBraux and Janel Koloski.” Next, she earned her B.F.A. in Acting from New York University’s prestigious Tisch School of the Arts.

READ THIS: Here’s what you should know about BTG’s Clifton Davis.

Her Acting Life

Since graduating, Jacob has starred in stage, film, and TV projects. She recently appeared in The Union, a Netflix movie starring Halle Berry and Mark Wahlberg.

And she has guested on several shows that film in New York, including CBS’s Bull and Blue Bloods, NBC’s New Amsterdam, HBO’s Girls, and a show that’s part of Dick Wolf’s massive Law & Order franchise. On Law & Order: Organized Crime, she had a recurring role alongside Christopher Meloni and Denis Leary. For four episodes, she played Leary’s wife, Bridget Donnelly.

READ THIS: What you should know about BTG’s Arielle Prepetit.

Music, Love, and Weddings

In 2018, Jacob married singer and songwriter Jesse Ruben. Before they even got hitched, Ruben wrote a song about their wedding and everything it would entail. The music video for the song features photos, videos, and images from when they got married.

From One-Woman Show to Soap Opera Ensemble

In early 2024, Jacob starred in one of the biggest challenges a theater actor can face: being the star of a one-woman show. “I took on this project to sort of prove to myself that I had the courage to do a one-person play,” she told The Times Square Chronicles.

And now she’s taking on another acting challenge. She’s joined the cast of CBS’s Beyond the Gates as Ashley Morgan, Naomi Hamilton Hawthorne’s (Arielle Prepetit) best friend. Ashley is a single mom who’s not afraid to roll up her sleeves.

READ THIS: What you should know about BTG’s Mike Manning.

Ashley’s character description also reveals that she is a nurse at Washington D.C.’s Garland Memorial Hospital. Ashley is positive, resourceful, and independent. She can be serious but is also fun-loving with a smile that lights up a room.

Jacob couldn’t be more excited to join the BTG team. She already says that her character “has my whole heart.” The actress’s husband joined in on the excitement by making his own post. In his message to the Instagram world, he said, “When Jen got the call that she had booked this, I cried happy tears for the first time since our wedding day. To witness the moment she achieved something she has wanted since the time she could walk, to finally see all of her hard work and grit finally pay off, to be reminded that good things DO happen to good people who deserve it. And to know that this is just the beginning for her. I could not be more excited for her, and could not be more proud of her.”

Is Nurse Ashley Morgan always going to be a positive force? We’ll find out when Beyond The Gates premieres on CBS on February 24, 2025, at 2 pm ET / 1 pm CT.