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Ari Lehman

Ari Lehman occupies a distinctive corner of horror history. Born in New York City on May 2, 1965, the American actor and composer made his film debut in Sean S. Cunningham’s Manny’s Orphans before taking on the role that would remain central to his screen identity: the child Jason Voorhees in Friday the 13th. Lehman appears as Jason in Pamela Voorhees’s flashback and in Alice Hardy’s dream at the end of the film. It is a compact role, built around two key moments rather than a conventional character arc, but its place in the story gave Lehman a lasting connection to the Friday the 13th series. Footage of his performance later appeared, uncredited, in Friday the 13th Part 2 and Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter. That connection eventually carried into Lehman’s music. In 2004, he formed the punk-metal band First Jason, taking its name directly from his role as the young Voorhees. The group independently released Jason Is Watching! in 2009 and Heed My Warning in 2013, developing a horror-themed sound that made Lehman’s best-known film role part of a broader creative identity. In 2019, he also performed vocals on the acoustic version of Ice Nine Kills’ “Thank God It’s Friday,” released on The Silver Scream: Final Cut. Lehman’s work as a composer, performer and recording artist extends to independent-film soundtracks. His credits in that area include Alexia Anastasio’s all-female Salome and Vampire the Movie, which won the 2007 Rondo Award for Best Independent Feature. Across acting and music, his career has remained closely tied to genre filmmaking, turning one early horror appearance into the starting point for a continuing body of work.