Biography
Jackson Odell was an American actor and singer who was best known for his role as Ari Caldwell on the ABC sitcom "The Goldbergs" (ABC, 2013- ). Born in Colorado, Odell's professional acting career began when he was 11 years old with small parts on shows like "Private Practice" (ABC, 2007-2013) and "I'm In the Band" (Disney XD, 2009-2011). He continued working steadily in short films over the next couple years, and by the early 2010s had branched out to film work. Odell made his feature film debut in the 2010 action film "Jefferson," and followed that role up with a part in the 2011 family comedy "Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer." With his acting career gaining steam Odell soon nabbed a small recurring role on the Emmy-winning sitcom "Modern Family" (ABC, 2009- ), as well as one-off roles on "Arrested Development" (Fox/Netflix, 2003- ) and "The Fosters" (ABC Family 2013- ). Then in 2013 Odell landed his breakout role as Ari Caldwell on the 80s-themed sitcom "The Goldbergs." He played Ari Caldwell on eight episodes of the series, from 2013 thru 2015. Odell's last credited screen acting role came in 2016 on the YouTube web series "Astrid Clover" (YouTube, 2014- ). With his screen acting work drying up, he started posting covers of famous songs on YouTube in the hopes of gaining traction as a musician. He did have some success as a musician by writing a number of original songs for the 2018 romantic drama "Forever My Girl" (2018). Sadly, Odell passed away on June 8, 2018. It had been noted in the press that he had struggled with heroin addiction and at the time of his death Odell was living in a sober living facility in Tarzana, California, a suburb of Los Angeles. He was 20 years old.
