Rashida Jones’s Ann Perkins gave Parks and Recreation a reassuring presence amid Pawnee’s wonderfully unreasonable personalities.
Her work since then has become harder to capture in a single role. Jones has continued acting while writing screenplays, producing series and directing documentary work. In 2026, her credits include the film In the Blink of an Eye and the screenplay for The Invite, co-written with Will McCormack.
She also starred in Sunny and the Black Mirror episode “Common People.” For viewers wondering what happened after Ann, those projects reveal a career that has moved into darker stories and substantial work behind the camera.
Ann Perkins was one part of a broader comedy career
Jones left the regular cast of Parks and Recreation during its sixth season in 2014, alongside Rob Lowe. Contemporary reporting from Us Weekly confirmed the departure of Ann Perkins and Chris Traeger.
By that point, she had already co-written and starred in Celeste & Jesse Forever. The 2012 film paired her with Andy Samberg in a story about a separated couple whose continuing closeness complicates their attempts to move on.
In a Salon interview about the film, Jones discussed a character who had to confront the consequences of her own choices. Celeste gave her a central role with more room for contradiction than the reliable friend audiences often associated with her.
That writing credit matters to the story of what followed. Jones was already helping create her own material before leaving the sitcom’s regular ensemble.
Her later work also included Angie Tribeca, maintaining a connection to comedy while other projects took her toward drama and documentary.
Quincy brought a personal story behind the camera
Jones co-directed Quincy with Alan Hicks, making a documentary about her father, music producer Quincy Jones. Released on Netflix in 2018, it combined archival material with interviews tracing his long career.
The film won best music film at the 2019 Grammy Awards. The Recording Academy’s account identifies Jones, Hicks and producer Paula DuPré Pesmen among the recipients.
For Jones, the project joined family history with filmmaking. The subject was both a major cultural figure and someone whose life she knew from a daughter’s perspective.
Her acceptance speech emphasized his “enormous heart and unwavering faith in humanity.” That focus helps explain the film’s personal dimension alongside its account of professional achievement.
The Grammy was recognition for directing work, an important distinction for someone still frequently introduced through an acting role.
Sunny placed grief inside a technological mystery
Jones starred in and executive produced Sunny, which premiered on Apple TV+ in July 2024. She played Suzie, an American living in Kyoto whose husband and son disappear in a mysterious plane crash.
Apple’s description introduces a domestic robot that becomes part of Suzie’s attempt to understand what happened. Katie Robbins created the series, with Lucy Tcherniak directing.
The premise gave Jones a lead role built around uncertainty and loss, with dark comedy woven through it. It asked for a different emotional register from the reassuring presence viewers remembered in Parks and Recreation.
In a 2024 TIME interview, Jones discussed bringing her own experiences of grief to the work. The interview also noted her producing credits on Claws and The Other Black Girl.
Sunny ended after one season. Screen Daily reported its cancellation in November 2024, so it should be treated as a completed chapter rather than a continuing series.
Black Mirror gave her another unsettling lead
In the 2025 Black Mirror episode “Common People,” Jones played Amanda opposite Chris O’Dowd as her husband, Mike. Their ordinary life is disrupted when a medical emergency draws them into a technology company’s subscription system.
Netflix’s discussion of the episode identifies Tracee Ellis Ross as Gaynor, the representative offering a seemingly miraculous solution.
The setup turns a familiar consumer experience into an intimate nightmare. Jones’s performance has to keep Amanda recognizable as a person while the surrounding system increasingly controls the couple’s choices.
Her work received a Golden Globe nomination, as Netflix noted in its January 2026 update. That recognition points to the dramatic range she has developed alongside her comedy work.
In the Blink of an Eye added a 2026 film
Jones appears alongside Kate McKinnon and Daveed Diggs in In the Blink of an Eye. Directed by Andrew Stanton and written by Colby Day, the film brings together three stories across thousands of years.
Searchlight lists its Hulu release as February 27, 2026. Its central concerns include connection, hope and the continuity of life across very different circumstances.
The film belongs to Jones’s acting résumé, unlike projects where her principal contribution is writing or producing. Keeping those responsibilities distinct makes her recent workload easier to understand.
Someone watching only for another long-running sitcom character could miss both this film and the shorter dramatic work that preceded it.
The Invite continued her screenwriting partnership
Jones and Will McCormack wrote The Invite, directed by Olivia Wilde. A24’s official credits list Wilde, Seth Rogen, Penélope Cruz and Edward Norton as the principal cast.
The film follows a troubled couple whose dinner with their neighbors becomes increasingly unpredictable. It opened theatrically in June 2026, and Warner Bros. Discovery announced an October 23 HBO Max streaming debut.
Here, Jones’s work is in the screenplay, not an on-screen character. Like Tina Fey’s combination of performing and writing, her career includes contributions audiences may encounter without immediately seeing her face.
That is the clearest answer to where Rashida Jones has been. She has kept acting while helping shape films and series from other positions, with 2026 releases offering evidence of both sides of her working life.