Who plays jake from state farm

For the 2020 Super Bowl, State Farm Insurance rebooted one of its most successful TV commercials: "Jake from State Farm." The original spot shows a wife catching her husband on the phone in the middle of the night, talking to their insurance agent. The star of the original TV commercial was a real State Farm employee, per Medium. In the 2020 reboot commercial, they replaced the employee, so whatever happened to the original "Jake from State Farm?"

The Jake 2020 commercial has been a huge hit for the insurance company, with hottie actor Kevin Miles playing Jake. The reboot commercial went viral, spawning new situations for Jake. Miles has co-starred in commercials with Patrick Mahomes, Aaron Rodgers, Paul Rudd, and even Drake. Twitter went wild over the 2021 State Farm Super Bowl commercial featuring Drake as the stand-in for "Jake from State Farm."

So, why did the insurance company replace Jake? If you're worried about what happened to the original "Jake from State Farm," keep scrolling to find out more.

Jake Stone, an actual State Farm Insurance agent, played "Jake from State Farm" in the 2011 commercial, per Medium. To nab the role, Stone, who was just 26 at the time, responded to a casting call for employees.

In the State Farm Insurance 2020 reboot commercial, the husband and wife bicker about the phone call, but there's a new Jake on the other end of the phone. Jake 2.0 asks his co-worker, "Hey, do they ever ask you what you're wearing?" Then, viewers see Stone, the original Jake, pop up and answer, "Uh, yeah." The genius move to include Stone shows the company didn't forget the original Jake.

In a 2014 interview with The Pantagraph, it was revealed that Stone had quit his part-time job as an agent two years prior "to become a seasonal employee for the town of Normal while keeping his bartending job." In the interview, the original Jake revealed that his life didn't change much after he starred in the popular commercial, revealing that aside from the occasional fan photo and request to say, "Uh, khakis," he's still "putting on his khakis, one leg at a time."

That being said, the commercial is still undoubtedly a cultural phenomenon. 

The original "Jake from State Farm" helped make the insurance company TV campaign into a cultural phenomenon, so why did the company replace Jake Stone? It turns out that the new Jake needed to be more of an actor and spokesperson for the company. 

State Farm Assistant VP of Marketing Patti Morris talked to Muse about why the company switched to a new Jake. Morris told the outlet that Stone "did great at delivering his famous line, 'Uh ... khakis.' However, this expanded role is very demanding, and is best filled by a professional actor."

When the company re-upped the "Jake from State Farm" ad campaign in 2020, the idea was to have the new Jake take a more active role. Morris told Muse that in the new campaign, "Consumers will see Jake in culturally relevant moments, being his usual helpful self... tapping into things that are contextually relevant with our audiences."

Plus, since the original Jake is no longer an insurance company employee, it makes perfect sense that State Farm would replace him with an actor.

Kevin Miles, the new "Jake from State Farm," has a story that could only happen in Hollywood. According to Forbes, Miles went from sleeping in his car when he first moved to Los Angeles to become a star in commercials, working with Drake!

Miles won't have to sleep in his car anymore because now he is a celebrity. Variety reported that "Jake from State Farm" has more star power than some well-known celebrities. According to Marketing Arm research, via Variety, "more people are aware of Jake than they are of Katie Couric or Hilary Swank." Variety reported that the Celebrity DBI database shows the State Farm character has a high positivity rate, which means "more than 80% of people who are aware of him find him appealing — putting him on par with Leslie Jones, Tyler Perry, and David Schwimmer."

But Miles is taking his celebrity profile in stride. Before his role as "Jake," Miles had appeared in SWAT and Criminal Minds; and he did ads for Hyundai, Slim Jim, and Pepsi.

Getting into the "Jake from State Farm" character is not hard. Miles told Variety, "I think of the times that I have been there, either in hard times or in happy times, the feeling I get when I'm around my loved ones."

Actor

View agent, publicist, legal on IMDbPro

He appears as "Jake from State Farm" in the iconic television commercials.

Jake from State Farm

5' 11½" (1.82 m)


Chris Saunders

While last Sunday's Super Bowl game was perhaps not as thrilling as many had hoped, the commercials are always a crowd pleaser. One memorable commercial came from State Farm Insurance, as "Jake From State Farm" humorously finds out that his behind-the-scenes stand-in is none other than music sensation Drake. Super Bowl Sunday marked the one year anniversary of the world being introduced to this "Jake from State Farm" actual persona we’ve all come to know today and the very real man behind that red shirt and khakis is definitely embracing the moment.

Actor Kevin Miles is from the South Side of Chicago. As a young boy, he loved sports and says he was proudly raised during the Michael Jordan era. The 30-year-old realized his dream for acting at the age of nine, after his father noticed his son's admiration for what he was watching on television. "You’re watching all these shows on TV of these people doing all these cool things and you want to be them. And as an actor, you can be anything," Miles says of what he recalls his father saying to him. Soon after, Miles began to pursue acting in elementary school, including a production of Romeo and Juliet. "I was a bigger kid, I was like 240 [pounds]," Miles says of his childhood. "So, I got to play 'Lord Capulet.' It was my first time on-stage and I just remember feeling like I was Marlon Brando in The Godfather up there. The reaction was great and I saw endless opportunities to be an actor."

Miles went on to study Theatre at the Chicago Academy for the Arts and then onto St. Louis to continue to strengthen his craft at Webster University’s Conservatory of Theatre Arts. He graduated with a BFA in acting and from there, focused on finding quality work, initially unsure of which city he would find the most luck in. "I was confused whether I wanted to go to LA or New York or I should stay in Chicago, my hometown, and save up money and build some credits there," Miles continues. "The thing that I wanted was just to come to LA. So, I got that one-way ticket. My mom came with me and helped me get this old used Mustang and she left the next day. I didn’t have an apartment. I came with two bags and a pillow."

Tyler Shields

The aspiring actor at the time remembers sleeping in his car for a week, before finding a room to live in that he says was far too expensive for his nearly non-existent income. "I was food running for awhile and that was hard because to get all these Theatre degrees and every week food running in your graduation suit. It was so daunting." A couple of Miles's friends began recommending that he get on casting networks to get more noticed and so, he began submitting "obsessively" for acting opportunities, big and small. "It was definitely hard. I kept going. It was brick-by-brick and making sure I put my best foot forward and go for it."

As his luck and determination would ultimately have it, Miles soon began booking commercials before he even had an agent. Then, the television commercial role of "Jake from State Farm" came to his attention. "They asked people to wear a red polo and khakis and I didn’t even see that for the wardrobe, so I showed up in a white shirt, gray blazer, black distressed jeans and Jordans. I did the audition and then when I did the callback, you show up to the callback in the same thing [you wore before] and I’m seeing a hundred people wearing red polos and khakis and I’m like Man, did I miss something? I pull my phone out and Crap!"

According to Miles, the audition process was narrowed down to about ten people, where focus groups would then watch the auditions and callbacks and vote on their favorite candidate. "In the focus groups, I always tested as number one except for maybe one [group]. The CMO of State Farm Rand [Harbert], he’s a great dude but he let me know I was not looking for you. I was definitely looking for the original 'Jake.' It was my wife that saw your callback sheet and said 'That’s your Jake' immediately."

Fast forward more than a year later, Miles has regularly filmed commercials alongside sports superstars like Patrick Mahomes and Aaron Rodgers and now Drake, who Miles says is one of his all-time favorite artists. "I want to respect them and honor their time," Miles says of working with these notable men. "For the cut moments [between filming], I’m like giddy as a fan but then I want to lock in and focus. It was just cool to be able to feel like I was with these legends of their craft that will be known forever. It feels like I can hang! I’m just excited to be able to do that with them early on. I’m so blessed and honored and humbled that they even gave me that opportunity to be around those guys and see how they work, how they think."

Miles has noticed his own notoriety growing and people noticing him while out in public. "They never say Kevin, which is okay (laughs). They’ll say 'Jake.' Even on-set, they just say ‘Hey Jake!' and I just answer. It definitely started with the mask a little bit. I’d walk my dog and people would be like Hey, you’re 'Jake from State Farm.' They could still tell! One time I was at the store and I had my glasses on with a hat, deep incognito mode. Someone was just like Man, your voice is just so recognizable. That felt cool and weird.”

Beyond his projects with State Farm, Miles is also focused on building his acting career even further and hopes that his commercial performances will help him in his next pursuits in film and television. When responding to if he has any worry that people will only be able to be see him ahead as "Jake from State Farm," Miles says, "It’s more of a stepping stone in my eyes than something that is going to cage me in. A 'spokes-influencer' is what we call it in our [State Farm] meetings. It’s okay if they know my real name is Kevin. 'Flo' (from the Progressive PGR commercials) is named Stephanie Courtney. These are actors playing these roles and that’s okay."

Miles says he wants to one day follow in the footsteps of trailblazing actors like Sidney Poitier and Denzel Washington. Much of his passion for being successful in acting comes from Miles wanting to make his parents proud. "My parents are foster kids and they had a rough life and I want to make them feel like royalty for the first time in their life." As for his future being "Jake from State Farm," he hopes to continue this role alongside other acting projects for many years to come. When speaking about his relationship with State Farm, Miles says, "They’re actually really, really good people which makes it feel like it's a real good experience being with them. I’ve definitely told them that the dream would be to win a couple Oscars and still be 'Jake' for a little bit, if I’m not too old to do it. I want to do it as long as I can."

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