Two Mansfield ISD middle school students have secured principal acting roles on the Emmy-winning ABC comedy “Abbott Elementary,” the district announced.
The workplace mockumentary, set in a Philadelphia public school, has also garnered Golden Globe, SAG, and NAACP Image awards since it hit the airwaves in late 2021.
Aeiress Jones, a student at Charles McKinzey Middle School, and Raymond Ware, who attends Danny Jones Middle School, both previously studied at the Fine Arts Academy at Alma Martinez Intermediate School. The two seventh-graders were friends but unaware that the other had been cast.
Jones will appear in Episode 7 and Ware in Episode 9, with both episodes set to air in December 2025.
Jones began acting at age 3 and played Nala in a Fine Arts Academy production of “The Lion King” at Martinez Intermediate.
“I was really excited to meet the actress who plays Barbara,” Aeiress said. “She was so nice, and she looked so beautiful. She told me I was a very good actress, and I was like mind-blown.”
Filming for her episode took about a week. Her mother, Tanisha Jones, called her outgoing and social.
Ware started performing in second grade through Cora Spencer Elementary School’s Thespian Club. He recently filmed a local commercial for Academy Sports and Outdoors and was cast on the ABC show after a self-recorded audition submitted on a Wednesday; he found out the next day that he had gotten the part, and he was in Los Angeles by Saturday.
“It made me proud of myself and to appreciate where I come from. When I was at Cora Spencer, I think if I hadn’t done drama club, I wouldn’t have had the courage to do as much stuff as I have,” Raymond said.
His mother, Selena Ware, praised district teachers.
“He’s been very fortunate to have awesome teachers who have encouraged him,” Selena Ware said. “They still reach out to me to check on him. It’s encouraging to see that as a parent.”