JD McCrary
American actor and singer

JayDon Howard McCrary (born July 18, 2007), known mononymously as JayDon (formerly as JD McCrary) is an American singer-songwriter, actor and dancer. He starred in The Lion King (2019) as the voice of young Simba, played Kenny Payne in The Paynes, and also appeared in the 2019 film Little. In 2025, he signed with Usher and L.A. Reid's record label Mega, as a joint venture with Gamma.
Career
2015–2019: Career beginnings and acting
McCrary began his acting career in 2015 at age 8 on K.C. Undercover, where he appeared on two episodes. In December 2016, he made a guest appearance on Childish Gambino's song "Terrified". He then had live performances on Little Big Shots singing The Jackson 5's "I Want You Back", The Ellen Show singing "Who's Lovin' You", and the 60th Annual Grammy Awards to support Childish Gambino's "Terrified". In December 2017, he sang the national anthem before a Los Angeles Clippers game after a viral singing display a few weeks prior. In 2017, he later appeared on I'm Dying Up Here and Teachers as minor roles.
On January 14, 2018, he released his first official single called "Inviting All of You". On August 13, 2018, it was announced that JD McCrary became the youngest artist to sign with Disney Music Group's Hollywood Records, as he released the music video to his second single "My Name" on August 28.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “JD McCrary” is american actor and singer. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through McCrary, American and actor, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “american actor and singer” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q50345202. VIAF identifies the subject as 9407156565710123500007. The Library of Congress control number is no2019113744. 2 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2007, 2019, 2025 and 2015.
A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “JD McCrary” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.