As of 2018, Chris Jones is the chief critic and Sunday Culture Columnist at the Chicago Tribune as well as the director of the Eugene O’Neil Theatre Center’s National Critics Institute. He also serves as a weekly theatre critic on CBS-2 Chicago’s morning news.

A native of Manchester, England, Chris Jones graduated from the University of Hull in 1984, with a Bachelor’s degree in Drama and English. He pursued advanced degrees in Theatre at the Ohio State University, graduating with a Master’s degree in 1986, and a Doctorate in 1989. For much of the 1980s, he contributed film reviews, interviews and reports for WCBE-FM in Columbus, Ohio, and also served as the longtime film critic for the Columbus Alive newspaper. Jones served for many years as the touring theater critic for Variety and Daily Variety, publishing several hundred theater reviews with a particular emphasis on pre-Broadway tryouts. His arts criticism appeared often in the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, the Washington Post, American Theatre magazine and numerous other newspapers and magazines. In addition to being an arts critic, Jones spent 10 years teaching at Northern Illinois University, where he served as both an associate professor and as assistant chair of the School of Theatre and Dance. He chaired the American Theatre Critics Association committee that annually recommends a theater to receive the Tony Award for outstanding regional theater. He also served on the editorial board for the Best Plays annually and has twice served on the drama committee of the Pulitzer Prizes. In 2014, Jones was named Director of the O'Neill Theater Center's National Critics Institute.