He is best known for his role as Lucky Spencer in the television soap opera General Hospital (1993–1999, 2009–2011, 2015, 2024-[1]), which won him five Daytime Emmy Awards.

[5][6] Jackson was raised in Battle Ground, Washington, with his brother Richard Lee Jackson, now an actor and musician, and his sister Candice Jackson, now a lawyer, an author, and formerly served as an official in the Trump administration as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Strategic Operations and Outreach in the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) of the U.S. Department of Education, the Office's Acting Assistant Secretary from April 2017 to July 2018; and the Deputy General Counsel of the Department of Education from July 2018 to January 2021.

[2] In 1991, Jackson's family took a trip to Universal Studios Hollywood, where both Richard and Jonathan decided to pursue acting.

[2]After doing various commercials, within six months[4] Jackson won a role on the ABC Daytime soap opera General Hospital.

[19] While working at General Hospital, Jackson starred in his first feature film Camp Nowhere, as Morris "Mud" Himmel in 1994.

[23] Also during this time he starred in made-for-television films Prisoner of Zenda, Inc.[24] and The Legend of the Ruby Silver,[25] and made a guest appearance during Season 5 of the ABC sitcom Boy Meets World.

In 1999, Jackson filmed The Deep End of the Ocean shortly before leaving General Hospital, starring opposite Michelle Pfeiffer.

[27] In December 1999, Newsweek magazine reported Jackson was likely to be taking on the role of Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones.

On September 29, 2009, it was announced that Jackson would return to General Hospital on October 27 to reprise the role of Lucky Spencer.

His character is not planned to be recast or killed off, leaving the door open for Jackson to return with the show in the future.

[34] In 2012, Jackson won his fifth Daytime Emmy and second consecutive win for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series.

[4] Other band members include Jackson's brother Richard (drums), and their friend Jonathan Thatcher (bass, previously of Delirious?

)[2] The band has released several albums and their song "Feel This" became a Top 10 hit on the iTunes national Rock Charts after it was featured on the CW television drama series One Tree Hill.

[39] As well as performing as singer, guitarist & piano Jackson also wrote the song "The Morning of the Rain" featured on episodes 7 and 19 of the first season of Nashville.

[42] Jackson explained how his beliefs affected his choice of acting roles in an interview with Entertainment Weekly in 1999, "I won't get involved with a movie that's a direct slap in the face of God.

[42][46][51] In his acceptance speech for his 2012 Daytime Emmy Award, he thanked the Holy Trinity as well as the monks on Orthodox monastic enclave Mount Athos.

"[46] As of September 18, 2020, OrthoChristian.com reports that Jackson had moved to Ireland to help support a new monastery being founded by the Romanian Orthodox Metropolis of Southern and Western Europe.

He explains in the interview, "It’s the main reason I moved, I have been praying for years for an Orthodox monastery to be founded in Ireland.