Jrome's Bio
JROME ANDRE
The Real Story
Soul. Story. Survival.
Jrome Andre’s story did not begin under Broadway lights or in a recording studio. It began in St. Louis, Missouri, where a young Jerome Andre Shavers grew up surrounded by music while confronting challenges that would shape both the man and the artist he would become.
As a child, Jrome struggled with dyslexia and speech difficulties. Finding his voice did not come easily. But music did. Gospel, blues, soul, R&B, jazz, funk, country, and rock & roll became part of the soundtrack of his life long before he understood that one day those influences would become part of his own musical identity.
By the age of 15, Jrome had begun running away from home. He was searching for something he could not yet fully define—a place to belong, a sense of possibility, and a life beyond the circumstances surrounding him.
Before he could begin that new life, however, Jrome faced an experience that would profoundly affect him. While still in St. Louis, he was accused of a crime he did not commit. He was incarcerated and ultimately exonerated.
It could have defined his life.
It didn’t.
The Community That Saved His Life
Jrome eventually made his way to New York City, and there he discovered something that changed the direction of his life forever: the show business community.
As Jrome says:
“The show business community saved my life.”
The theatre became much more than a place to perform. It gave him community, mentors, discipline, purpose, and a place where he could finally belong.
The boy who once struggled with speech began discovering the power of his own voice.
Jrome studied acting at the Stella Adler Academy and trained vocally with Vivian Reed, Gregory Hopkins, and Vincent D. Stringer. Along the way, he encountered artists, directors, teachers, and mentors who recognized his potential and encouraged him to develop his gifts.
What began as a means of survival became a career.
From Survival to the Stage
Jrome went on to build an extensive life in the theatre.
He portrayed James “Thunder” Early in Dreamgirls and performed as both Hud and Ronnie in Hair, singing the show’s iconic opening number “Aquarius” as Ronnie.
His theatrical work also includes Robert in The Exonerated, Miss Roj in The Colored Museum, Ken & Andre in Ain’t Misbehavin’ alongside jazz legend Dee Dee Bridgewater, Evilness in Ugly Is a Hard Pill, and Narrator in The Great Gospel Divas.
He toured nationally as Cookie in Shelly Garrett’s I’m Doing the Right Thing with the Wrong Man and worked with Tony Award-winning director and choreographer George Faison in What Lovers Do.
One of the defining moments of Jrome’s theatrical career came at the National Black Theatre, where his portrayal of Satan in Satan Never Sleeps earned him the AUDELCO Award for Leading Performer in a Musical.
Years later, that relationship came full circle when, in 2021, Jrome co-hosted the AUDELCO Awards with Phyllis Yvonne Stickney.
Today, Jrome is a member of SAG-AFTRA and Actors’ Equity Association (AEA).
Television, Touring and the World Stage
Jrome’s career expanded beyond the theatre.
He became an original member of The Late Show Gospel Choir on The Late Show with David Letterman, bringing his voice to national television.
His work also reached international audiences when he appeared on Swedish television’s En kväll i New York (SVT, 2016), filmed in New York City, where he performed with Swedish artist Andreas Lundstedt.
Throughout his career, Jrome has shared the stage with artists including Stephanie Mills, Tramaine Hawkins, Johnny Brown, Mable Lee, Dee Dee Bridgewater, and Chuck Berry.
He toured internationally with acclaimed soul singer Bettye LaVette and performed with legendary drummer Bernard “Pretty” Purdie, longtime drummer and musical director for Aretha Franklin.
September 11, 2001
Then came another day that would forever become part of Jrome’s life story.
On September 11, 2001, Jrome survived the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.
For someone whose life had already required extraordinary resilience, September 11 became another reminder of how suddenly life can change—and how precious the opportunity is to continue living, creating, loving, and performing.
Jrome survived.
And once again, he continued.
The Recording Artist
Music has always remained at the center of Jrome Andre’s life.
As a recording artist, he has refused to be confined to a single genre. His voice and musical influences cross soul, R&B, jazz, blues, gospel, rock, dance, standards, and country.
His recordings include the EPs Evolution and Walls and Lovers Lullabies, which features his interpretations of the classics “Loving You” and “The Makings of You.”
His catalog also includes “Superwoman” and “I Can’t Make You Love Me,” both produced by Eric Smith and Jon Lenox Evans, as well as “Let It Fall,” produced by Lou Reach, “Love Hangover,” and “Walk On By.”
Another important chapter in Jrome’s recording career arrived with “Possessed,” written by Jrome Andre and Basir Shawn Walker. Originally released through 4th Quarter, the recording became an international underground dance hit and was later reissued through Label Worx Limited, introducing another side of Jrome’s musical identity to audiences around the world.
Jrome is also featured on Strafe & The Hard Soul Meditation’s “Don’t Wanna Be Broken.” Strafe is the artist behind the influential dance classic “Set It Off.”
In 2026, Jrome released “Still,” produced by Jon Lenox Evans. The single reached #5 on Muzilog Muzik Radio’s Emerging 25 chart, continuing the evolution of Jrome’s recording career.
And he is not finished.
Jrome is currently recording his forthcoming Country Soul Project, bringing together rock, soul, gospel, and R&B influences. The project reflects an artist who has spent a lifetime absorbing different styles of music and who refuses to allow his voice—or his story—to be confined to a single category.
Still Here. Still Creating.
Awards and credits tell one part of Jrome Andre’s story.
But they cannot tell all of it.
His story is also about a boy in St. Louis who struggled with dyslexia and speech. A teenager who began running away from home by 15. A young man who was accused of a crime he did not commit, incarcerated, and ultimately exonerated.
It is about an artist who found a new life in New York and says without hesitation:
“The show business community saved my life.”
It is the story of a man who later survived the September 11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and continued moving forward.
Through it all, there has been music.
There has been theatre.
There has been community.
And there has been the determination to keep going.
The young man who once struggled to find his voice ultimately made that voice his life’s work—on theatrical stages, on television, in recording studios, and before audiences around the world.
His journey is not simply a story about surviving what happened to him.
It is about what he chose to do with the life that remained.
He performed.
He recorded.
He created.
He kept going.
And he is still creating the next chapter.
Jrome Andre
Actor • Vocalist • Recording Artist
SAG-AFTRA • Actors’ Equity Association