Stanley Jackson was born in St. Louis, Missouri. He received his Bachelor and Master of Music at the Conservatory of Music, University of Missouri-Kansas City. He participated in numerous Young Artist Programs including Kansas City Lyric Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Opera Theater of St. Louis and the Lyric Opera Center for American Artists. Highlights with the Lyric Opera Center for American Artists included the Prince (La Cenerentola), Normanno (Lucia di Lammermoor), Lenski (Eugene Onegin) and the premiere of Shulamit Ran’s opera Between Two Worlds. During this time, he sang in Ariadne auf Naxos, La Gioconda, Mefistofele, Idomeneo and La Bohème at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.
From 2002 to 2004, he was a member of the Nationaltheater Mannheim, and from 2004 to 2007 he was engaged at the Oper Leipzig – where he sang among others Belfiore (La finta giardiniera), Ferrando (Così fan tutte), Tamino (Die Zauberflöte), Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni), Tito (La clemenza di Tito), Iopas (Les Troyens), Lysander (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), Dr. P (The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat) and Young Sailor(Tristan und Isolde), Walther von der Vogelweide (Tannhäuser), Tebaldo (Il Capuleti e i Montecchi), Lyonel (Martha), Belmonte (Die Entführung aus dem Serail), Iopas und Hylas (Les Troyens), the Italian Tenor (Der Rosenkavalier), Nemorino (L’elisir d’amore) and Don José (The Tragedy of Carmen).

In 2008 he sang Ivanhoe (Il Templario by Otto Nicolai) at Oper Chemnitz. From this performance led to a CD recording of Il Templario.  He was invited back as Faust (Faust) in March 2009. In November 2009 he also sang Faust at Opera Zuid. In the season 2009/10 he sang, a.o. Remus in Scott Joplin’s Tremonisha at the Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris and Orphee at Staatstheater Stuttgart.  His success of Orphee  led to an ensemble engagement with Staatsoper Stuttgart for 2011/14.  His parts there included Orphee (Orphee et Euyridice), Oronte (Alcina), Il Tempo (Il trionfo del tempo et del disinganno), Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni), 1 Armored Man (Die Zauberflöte), Lenski (Eugen Onegin).  In 2011 he sang Septimius in Handel’s Theodora with Bergen Opera.   In 2014 he made his debut with the Semperopera Dresden as Oronte (Alcina) and a Concert in Yaroslavl, Russia.

He is a winner of the Metropolitan Opera Awards, the First Prize at the Liederkranz Foundation Award, the MacAllister Award and the First Prize of the Lee Schaenen Voice Competition.