# Erik Dellums

Erik Todd Dellums is an American actor and narrator. He is known for playing the drug kingpin Luther Mahoney for two seasons on Homicide: Life on the Street. He also voiced the roles as the radio DJ Three Dog in the 2008 video game Fallout 3; Prince Arcann, Thexan, and Oggo in Knights of the Fallen Empire, the 2015 expansion to Star Wars: The Old Republic; and Aaravos in the animated Netflix series The Dragon Prince.

## Early life and education

Erik Dellums was born in the San Francisco Bay Area in California and later moved to Washington, D.C. He is the son of Leola Roscoe, a lawyer, and Ron Dellums, the former U.S. representative from California and mayor of Oakland. His sister Piper Dellums is an author.
He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in political science from Brown University in 1986.

## Career

Dellums had minor appearances in several Spike Lee films early in his career, such as She's Gotta Have It (1986) and Do the Right Thing (1989). He was portrayed (as a child) by Travis Kyle Davis in a Disney Channel Original Movie entitled The Color of Friendship (2000), which was based on what happened when his family hosted a foreign exchange student from South Africa during the Apartheid era; Dellums had a cameo role as himself. He provided the voice of the character Koh the Face Stealer in the animated Nickelodeon series Avatar: The Last Airbender, as well as the narration for Key Constitutional Concepts, a documentary produced in 2006 by the Annenberg Foundation.
Dellums has had parts in television police dramas such as New York Undercover, Homicide: Life on the Street (in which he played drug kingpin Luther Mahoney), and The Wire (in which he played a medical examiner). He also played a doctor in one episode of Homeland. Dellums provided voice acting for the 2008 video game Fallout 3 as Three Dog. He provided the voice of Nazir, a character in the video game The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Dellums narrates the Travel Channel series Mysterious Journeys, as well as the documentary television series How the Universe Works and NASA's Unexplained Files on the Science Channel. Dellums narrates the Science series The Planets – hosted by former astronaut Mike Massimino – which premiered in 2017 and was retitled The Planets and Beyond for its second season in 2018.
Dellums also reprised the role of Three Dog in the YouTube lore series by ShoddyCast, and he also performs the voice for Prince/Emperor Arcann in the game Star Wars: The Old Republic expansion Knights of the Fallen Empire and its sequel expansions Knights of the Eternal Throne and Onslaught. He's also the voice provider of the character Aaravos in the Netflix series The Dragon Prince.
Dellums' political and social writings on his personal blog gained notice in 2011, and his criticisms of the presidency of Barack Obama earned him guest appearances on Fox News.

## Filmography
### Film

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1986 | She's Gotta Have It | Dog #3 | |
| 1986 | Good to Go | Bam-Bam | |
| 1988 | School Daze | Gammite Slim Daddy | |
| 1989 | Do the Right Thing | Customer in Pizzeria | Uncredited |
| 1991 | The Doors | Hairdresser at the Sullivan Show | |
| 1997 | Joe Joe Angel & the Dead Guy | The Man | |
| 1998 | Dr. Dolittle | Jeremy | |
| 2000 | BlackMale | Victor | |
| 2003 | Brother Outsider | Voice of Bayard Rustin | |
| 2005 | Bellclair Times | Devin | |
| 2005 | Camp D.O.A. | Watcher | |
| 2008 | Patsy | Harry | |
| 2022 | Almost Human: Rise of the Apes | Narrator | |

### Television

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1996–1998 | Homicide: Life on the Street | Luther Mahoney | 6 episodes |
| 1998 | New York Undercover | Mohammad | Episode: "Change, Change, Change" |
| 1998 | Walker, Texas Ranger | David 'Lucifer' Thompson | Episode: "The Children of Halloween" |
| 1999 | JAG | Charlie Lynch | Episode: "Goodbyes" |
| 2000 | NYPD Blue | Inez / Harold Carmichael | Episode: "A Hole in Juan" |
| 2000 | The Color of Friendship | Oliver | Television film |
| 2001 | Boycott | Bayard Rustin | Television film |
| 2002–2004 | The Wire | Dr. Randall Frazier | 6 episodes |
| 2005 | Jonny Zero | Antoine Negasi | Episode: "Diamonds & Guns" |
| 2005 | Avatar: The Last Airbender | Koh | 2 episodes |
| 2012 | Narrow Escapes of WWII | Narrator | 4 episodes |
| 2012–2021 | How the Universe Works | Narrator | 14 episodes |
| 2013 | Golden Boy | Pablo Vega | Episode: "Next Question" |
| 2013 | Homeland | Doctor Graham | Episode: "Tower of David" |
| 2014–2017 | NASA's Unexplained Files | Narrator | 39 episodes |
| 2015 | Amnesia | Sargent Johnson | Episode: "Awakening" |
| 2017 | Great American Eclipse | Narrator | Television film |
| 2017–2018 | The Planet | Narrator | 9 episodes |
| 2017–2018 | The Planets and Beyond | Narrator | 17 episodes |
| 2018–2024 | The Dragon Prince | Aaravos | 26 episodes |

### Video games

| Year | Title | Role |
| 2008 | Fallout 3 | Three Dog |
| 2009 | League of Legends | Nasus |
| 2011 | The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim | Nazir |
| 2015 | Star Wars: The Old Republic: Knights of the Fallen Empire | Various voices |
| 2015 | Star Wars: The Old Republic: Knights of the Eternal Throne | Various voices |
| 2017 | The Elder Scrolls: Legends | Tyr |
| 2017 | Star Wars: The Old Republic: Onslaught | Various voices |
| 2022 | Star Wars: The Old Republic: Legacy of the Sith | |