Jeff Dale Branson (born March 10 1977 in St. Louis, Missouri) is an American actor.

Career

Branson originated the role of Jonathan Lavery on the ABC soap opera All My Children on June 15, 2004. Although he was off the air from mid-April until August 2005 while his character was believed dead in an explosion, Branson remained on contract the entire time. Since that time, it has also been revealed that the source of Jonathan's past violent and psychotic behavior was a combination of mis-prescribed anti-psychotic drugs and a malignant brain tumor, which has recently been removed. As a result, Jonathan's personality became child-like and highly emotional, until he later regained his adult mind and faculties as the result of a severe seizure during the week of June 12, 2006. As part of ABC's Fan February events in 2007, Branson switched places with a fan who is a tattoo artist in DeKalb, Illinois. Branson last aired on All My Children on December 18, 2007.

Branson's work prior to All My Children included a 2000 guest spot on NBC's Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. He had a small part that year in the film Shaft. In 2002, he was in the film Wolves of Wall Street. In 2003, he played the role of a younger Alan Spaulding on the CBS soap opera Guiding Light.

He can be seen in the film Four Lane Highway as the character of Andy, and appears in the Ishai Setton movie The Big Bad Swim, filmed during his 2005 AMC hiatus, as the character Noah.

He has recently been added to the cast of Guiding Light in the role of Shayne Lewis.

Awards and honors

In 2005, Branson received a Daytime Emmy Award nomination in the category of Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for his work on All My Children as Jonathan.