Ferguson was born in Dallas, Texas. In 1989, Jay was plucked from obscurity to play Ponyboy Curtis in the television adaptation of S. E. Hinton's novel The Outsiders. Over the last 22 years, he has appeared in television and film. His notable television roles include Taylor Newton in four seasons of the CBS sitcom Evening Shade, Dr. Todd Hooper on Judging Amy, Rich Connelly in the 2005 NBC television series Surface, Agent Warren Russell on the Showtime series Sleeper Cell and most recently Stan Rizzo on the AMC series Mad Men. His film roles include Billy in Higher Learning, Elmer Conway in The Killer Inside Me, and Keith Clayton in The Lucky One, released in the spring of 2012.