Actor earns philosophy PhD on his way to major movie and television roles

Luka Jones runs his hand through a wild mop of hair that perfectly complements his frazzled beard, then pulls his baseball cap back down on his head. In a charmingly boyish voice, the 49-year-old actor, comedian and USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences alumnus starts dropping names — but they’re not showbiz figures.

“James Higginbotham. I liked him a lot,” Jones says. “Then Scott [Soames] took over. It was such a big deal that USC had hired him from Princeton.”

Higginbotham directed USC Dornsife’s School of Philosophy from 2000 to 2007 and was succeeded by Distinguished Professor of Philosophy Soames, who led the school for 15 years.

Jones also calls out Janet Levin, now Professor Emerita of Philosophy, and Professor of Philosophy James Van Cleve.

All played important roles — particularly dissertation advisor Van Cleve — as Jones pursued his PhD in philosophy. “They cared a lot about teaching, about training grad students,” he recalls. “They were all wonderful; so supportive.”

Aspiring actor leans into philosophy

Jones was born Luka Yovetich in a Chicago suburb to advertising executive Gene Yovetich and Diana Wallace Yovetich. He and his younger sister, Wallace, grew up there until Jones was about 10, approximately a year before their father’s death in a whitewater rafting accident. (The tragedy inspired the 1994 television movie White Mile, starring Alan Alda.)

In 1997, fresh from earning a degree in communications at the University of Kansas, Jones moved to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career. Like most Hollywood hopefuls, he struggled to break into the industry.

“I was enjoying the few things I did, but it wasn’t moving forward,” he says. “It’s always really hard to bust in and get a good agent or manager and start getting into real jobs.”

The slow progress and downtime didn’t sit well with him. “I was just going crazy, and I decided I had to do something with my time.”

Despite feeling he “didn’t have the best relationship with the academic aspect of school,” he enrolled in a philosophy master’s degree program at California State University, Los Angeles — and loved it.

“Once I took a class or two, I was like, ‘Oh yeah, this is for me.’”

After completing his master’s degree, Jones was accepted by several philosophy PhD programs and chose USC Dornsife’s School of Philosophy, where he enrolled in 2005.  His dissertation focused on “Merely Verbal Disputes in Philosophy.”

He calls the experience one of the best of his life. “You get to pick a subject and really bore into it. There are all these smart people you can bounce stuff off of, and they’re more than happy to tear it apart — which is what you want — until they can’t tear it apart anymore. It’s fun!”

To pursue philosophy or act, that is the question

As his studies advanced and his acting didn’t, Jones began to consider a career in academia. “The lifestyle of a philosophy professor, the teaching and research, seemed  like something I’d be happy with,” he says, while acknowledging that “getting a philosophy job at a university can be just as hard as getting an acting job.”

Still, he felt confident knowing USC Dornsife’s School of Philosophy is among the most successful at placing PhDs in academia.

As fortune would have it, though, Jones’ acting career began to heat up as he neared his degree completion. He had been performing some stand-up and improv comedy at Los Angeles’ Upright Citizen’s Brigade and other venues in between studies. Someone noticed, and he landed a role on NBC’s Best Friends Forever. Though the show only aired a handful of episodes, Jones’ acting career was suddenly on firmer ground.

Soon after, he joined the cast of Up All Night with Christina Applegate, Maya Rudolph and Will Arnett, then landed a big-screen role in Spike Jonze’s sci-fi romantic dramedy Her. Most of his performance in the movie ended up on the cutting-room floor — an outcome that might call for a stoic outlook — but he counts the experience as one of his favorites. “I learned early to keep my expectations in check,” he says.

Since then, he’s had guest spots in several TV shows as well as major roles in TBS’ People of Earth and Hulu’s Shrill with Aidy Bryant of Saturday Night Live fame.

Philosophy and acting — different and the same

Jones doesn’t claim his philosophy training directly guides his performances, but he notes commonalities between the two. Take the subject of his dissertation, for example: so-called “merely verbal disputes,” arguments that arise purely from differences in word meaning. At USC Dornsife, Jones explored whether certain classic philosophical disagreements are substantive or just semantic. On stage and screen, these sorts of misunderstandings can be highly entertaining. Think of Lou Costello’s hilarious consternation as Bud Abbott declares, “Who’s on first” in the duo’s classic comedy routine — all stemming from a simple difference in word usage.

Jones draws a tongue-in-cheek comparison between philosophers and a certain cinematic superhero. “Some of them are unbelievably smart,” he says. “They can hold ideas in their minds, kind of like a hologram, and turn them around to see connections between different parts”— similar to how the comic book hero Tony Stark uses technology to analyze a problem. “Yeah, if you do philosophy, you become like Iron Man,” Jones quips.

Advice for aspiring philosophers

Looking back on his time at USC Dornsife, Jones has nothing but good things to say. His fondness for the program, his former classmates and the faculty is clear. “There are really, really good people at USC.”

While he doesn’t necessarily recommend philosophy as a path to acting, he has simple advice for any student considering the subject: “If you want to study philosophy, you should really love it. And you should pursue it at the highest level you can.”

A sage approach to any pursuit.