Where is Ronald Gladden now? Jury Duty’s first star hints at Company Retreat cameo
Ronald Gladden was the "hero" of Jury Duty
Jury Duty introduced Ronald Gladden to the world – and, three years later, fans are convinced he’s going to make a surprise cameo in season 2’s Company Retreat.
In 2023, we watched as Gladden walked into a Los Angeles court, none the wiser to the audacious hoax being staged all around him. The whole thing was fake, from the trial to the judge (and even James Marsden, who was playing himself).
After 17 days of chaotic, hilarious deliberations, Gladden learned the truth. And, out of the 2,500 people who applied to appear in a documentary, they couldn’t have picked a better person. As the judge told him, “We’ve decided that you, Ronald Gladden, are a hero.”
So, with the second season pivoting to a ‘Company Retreat’ with a new star, Anthony Norman, where is Ronald Gladden now?
How did Ronald Gladden react to Jury Duty?
At the end of Jury Duty, Gladden was awarded $100,000. But, more importantly, it thrust him into the spotlight and paved the way for him to have a much different career than he ever imagined.
“My life completely changed overnight, I don’t even like using this word, but apparently I’m famous now and I can’t grasp that concept yet. It’s still a weird feeling,” he told Amazon.
Initially, Gladden felt paranoid that he was still being filmed, like Jim Carrey in The Truman Show. As he told SiriusXM, Marsden called him to insist there weren’t any cameras on him and helped him “work through those feelings”.
He also felt a little embarrassed when he watched the show. “I’d never been on camera before… it was just weird seeing myself on TV,” he told IHeartRadio.
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“It took me a while to process it. Months and months down the road, things would just randomly hit me. I’d be doing laundry or washing the dishes or something, and I’d be just like, ‘Oh, wow, was that fake?'”
Is he still friends with James Marsden?
Yes! Ronald Gladden and James Marsden have stayed in touch since the end of Jury Duty, and he’s remained friends with the wider cast and crew, too.
Talking to People, Marsden explained how it was “really important” to him that Gladden wasn’t abandoned after the show.
“It was really important to me, I was like, ‘I can’t end this and then go, ‘Hey bud, that was fun, see ya.’ If we’re really celebrating the guy, then we’ve got to stay pals. And he’s such a pure-hearted human being – I’d want to be friends with him anyway.”
In a later interview with Gold Derby, Gladden said his favourite takeaway from the experience was the relationships.
“To know I genuinely met these people… maybe they changed a location or the name, but they told me real stories about themselves, their pasts, their upbringings. I connected with these people, that was probably the best part,” he said.
Will Ronald Gladden be in Jury Duty season 2?
It’s still unclear if Ronald Gladden will make an appearance in Jury Duty: Company Retreat. That said, the star has dropped a subtle hint that we’ll get a cameo.
Going off the trailer, the second season will have a completely new cast, set away from a courtroom at a work trip in California. So, don’t expect to see Marsden or anyone else from the first season.
But… could Gladden show up? When he shared the first teaser for the new season on Instagram, one user commented: “You better be on this!”
Gladden replied with two emojis: one of a man with his hands up, and another smirking.
There are several possibilities. It’d be a risk, but Gladden could play someone who appears at the retreat somewhere along the way – or, more ambitiously, a fictional version of himself. It’s more likely that he’d appear at the end to meet Anthony after he finds out the truth – but we’ll soon see!
Where is Ronald Gladden now?
Gladden quit his job in the wake of Jury Duty’s enormous success. Now, he’s a TV personality.
If you take a look at his IMDb page, he’s been busy. Since Jury Duty, he’s appeared on Celebrity Family Feud and Dish It Out, as well as several talk shows.
He recently returned to Cameo in support of One Simple Wish, a charity founded to “raise awareness and empower everyone to restore hope and happiness to kids and young adults impacted by foster care and crisis throughout the United States,” according to its website.
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Gladden has also worked with Swash, Elf Cosmetics, and Ryan Reynolds’ Mint Mobile (they even appeared in an ad together).
He has a girlfriend: Angelina Celeste, an actress and improv comedian. They have a Corgi together, and his name is Meatball.
As for the second season, he wrote on Instagram: “Before anyone tries to get information out of me, just know that I kept Jury Duty a secret for 14 months, even from my family, so you just gotta wait.”
Read more: How to watch Jury Duty: Company Retreat – is it still free?
