# Colman Domingo

Colman Jason Domingo (born November 28, 1969) is an American actor, playwright, and director. Prominent on both screen and stage since the 2010s, Domingo has received various accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award, and nominations for two Academy Awards and two Tony Awards. Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2024.
Domingo's early Broadway roles include the 2005 play Well and the 2008 musical Passing Strange. He gained acclaim for his role as Mr. Bones in the Broadway musical The Scottsboro Boys (2011), for which he was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical. He reprised the role in the 2014 West End production, receiving a nomination for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Performance in a Supporting Role in a Musical. In 2018, he wrote the book for the Broadway musical Summer: The Donna Summer Musical.
After early roles in various incarnations of the Law & Order series and as part of the main cast for The Big Gay Sketch Show, Domingo had his breakthrough playing Victor Strand in the AMC series Fear the Walking Dead (2015–2023). He gained wider acclaim for his recurring role as the recovering drug addict Ali on the HBO series Euphoria (2019–present), winning the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series in 2022.
Domingo received consecutive nominations in 2024 and 2025 for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayals of civil rights activist Bayard Rustin in the biopic Rustin and a prison inmate in the drama Sing Sing. His other notable film appearances include roles in Lincoln (2012), The Butler (2013), Selma (2014), If Beale Street Could Talk (2018), Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (2020), Zola (2021), and The Color Purple (2023).

## Early life and education

Domingo was born and raised as the third of four children in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA by his mother, Edith Bowles, and her husband in a working class household. His mother was a homemaker and also worked at a bank, while his stepfather, Clarence, sanded floors for a living. Edith died in 2006, the day after Domingo's audition for the theater musical Passing Strange. His stepfather had died a few months earlier.
Domingo's biological father was from Belize, with relatives from Guatemala. He had previously left the family when Domingo was nine years old. Domingo had a speech impediment, a lisp, as a child and was sent to speech therapy classes by his mother.
Domingo is a 1987 Overbrook High School graduate, and later attended Temple University, where he majored in journalism. Soon thereafter, he moved to San Francisco, California, where he started acting, mainly in theatre productions.
Domingo taught classes and performed lectures at the University of Texas at Austin in 2014, O'Neill National Theater Institute in 2015, and University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2016.

## Career
### 1994–2014: Early roles and professional struggles

Domingo's first on-screen acting credit is in a 1995 direct-to-video feature film called Timepiece. Domingo continued to act sporadically through the 1990s, making his television debut in the police procedural Nash Bridges in 1997. Then, he took a small role in Clint Eastwood's True Crime (1999) and acted in the independent films Desi's Looking for a New Girl (2000), Kung Phooey (2003), and the crime drama Freedomland (2006). He also took minor roles in Law & Order, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, and Law & Order: Trial by Jury. He also acted in the sketch series The Big Gay Sketch Show from 2008 to 2010.
On stage, Domingo starred as Mr. Franklin Jones, Joop, and Mr. Venus in the critically acclaimed rock musical Passing Strange, which, after a successful 2007 run at The Public Theater, opened on Broadway on February 28, 2008. He received an Obie Award in spring 2008 as part of the ensemble of Passing Strange Off-Broadway, and reprised his role in the film version of Passing Strange, directed by Spike Lee, which made its premiere at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival.
In 2010, Domingo's self-penned, one-man autobiographical play titled A Boy and His Soul premiered Off-Broadway at the Vineyard Theatre, for which he won a Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Solo Show. He was also nominated for a Drama Desk Award and a Drama League Award. From June 14 to July 18, 2014, Domingo played Billy Flynn in the Broadway revival of Chicago.
Domingo earned acclaim for his work in The Scottsboro Boys, directed by Susan Stroman on Broadway in 2010. For that performance, he was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical in May 2011. When The Scottsboro Boys opened in London, Domingo was nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Performance in a Supporting Role in a Musical in April 2014. He was also nominated for the Fred Astaire Award for Best Principal Dancer on Broadway in 2011.
Domingo also appeared in Lee's films Miracle at St. Anna (2008) and Red Hook Summer (2012). Around this time, he also booked supporting roles as Private Harold Green in Steven Spielberg's historical epic Lincoln (2012), as Lawson Bowman in 42 (2013), as Freddie Fallows in The Butler (2013), and as Ralph Abernathy in Selma (2014).
According to The New York Times, Domingo considered "quitting the acting business over the rejection" in 2014 after working as an actor for 30 years due to missing out on several television auditions, including one for a small role on Boardwalk Empire because casting directors allegedly said that his skin was too dark. Domingo described breaking down with emotions after being rejected for a role he and others felt was perfect for him and subsequently decided his talents weren't best used in acting, and he should instead pursue a business in photographing headshots. However, around this time, a friend introduced him to a manager who made some changes with Domingo to his auditioning style and put him forward for different types of roles. These changes helped Domingo to get booked for his breakout role in AMC's The Walking Dead spinoff television series, Fear the Walking Dead, which Domingo has said "gave me a new footing back in the industry, believing I had something to give."

### 2015–2018: Rise to prominence with Fear the Walking Dead

On Fear the Walking Dead, Domingo portrayed the character of Victor Strand; his first appearance was in the fifth episode of the first season, titled "Cobalt". In December of that year, it was announced that Domingo was promoted to series regular for the second season of the series. IndieWire called him "easily the most vivid character in the sometimes gray apocalypse" of the series.
In 2016, Domingo appeared in various television series, with roles such as Dr. Russell Daniels in The Knick, Father Frankin Lucifer, and Dr. Evers in Louis C.K.'s Horace and Pete. That year, he also starred as Hark Turner in Nate Parker's The Birth of a Nation, which was based on the story of Nat Turner, an enslaved man who led a slave rebellion in Southampton County, Virginia in 1831. Of his experience shooting The Birth of a Nation, Domingo said:
   I've played a Union soldier in Lincoln, head of the White House butler staff in The Butler, and even marched with Selma, but the idea of playing a slave who was going to be a part of this rebellion... I was living in so much darkness for the first couple weeks and I had to really work it out. We were shooting on plantations, and you feel that emotional trauma. It's in the soil; it's in the air.
In 2017, Domingo joined the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as a member of the Actors' Branch, and played a dragonfly in an episode of the fourth season of the Netflix animated series BoJack Horseman.
In 2018, Domingo joined the Directors Guild of America as a director on season four of Fear The Walking Dead. He became the first ever actor from the series to helm an episode within The Walking Dead franchise. He ultimately directed 3 episodes of Fear The Walking Dead (episode 12 of season four, "Weak"; episode three of season five, "Humbug's Gulch"; and episode three of season six, "Alaska"). That year, he also wrote the book for the Broadway musical Summer: The Donna Summer Musical, and appeared in Barry Jenkins' If Beale Street Could Talk, a film adaptation of the James Baldwin 1974 novel of the same name. In the latter, his on-screen wife was played by Regina King, who received the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. He also collaborated with Sam Levinson for the first time with a supporting role in Assassination Nation (2018).

### 2019–present: Career breakthrough and expansion

Levinson cast Domingo in the recurring role of Ali, a recovering drug addict, in the HBO drama series Euphoria (2019–present). Domingo attracted considerable attention for his performance in Euphoria, eventually winning the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series in 2022 for his work in the second season of the series.
In 2020, Domingo signed a first-look deal with AMC Networks. That year, he also received acclaim for his supporting role as Cutler in the Netflix adaptation of August Wilson's play Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, alongside Viola Davis and Chadwick Boseman. The following year, he received further notice for his role as X, a ruthless pimp, in the crime film Zola, which was directed by Janicza Bravo for A24. For his role as X, he received a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male. That year, he also served as an executive producer on Scott Aharoni and Dennis Latos' short film Leylak, which premiered at that year's Tribeca Festival and qualified for the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film.
In 2023, Domingo starred as civil rights activist Bayard Rustin in the Netflix biopic Rustin, which was directed by George C. Wolfe. Upon the announcement of his being cast in the lead role, the Bayard Rustin Center for Social Justice voiced their approval directly to Domingo, espousing that "Your powerful voice helps amplify Bayard Rustin, Godfather of Intersectionality, Planned the March, Brought non-violence to the Movement, Inspired the Freedom Riders, Lost to history because of who he loved, Who he was. Angelic Troublemakers unite!"
For his performance in Rustin, Domingo received nominations for the Academy Award, BAFTA Award, Golden Globe Award, and Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actor. His Academy Award nomination for Rustin made him the first Afro-Latino to receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor, as well as the second openly gay man, after Ian McKellen—and the first American openly gay man—to receive an Academy Award nomination for playing a gay character.
He received positive notice for his performance as Mister in the second film adaptation of The Colour Purple novel and musical, and along with the ensemble cast, he received a nomination for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture for the film. That year, he also voiced the DC Comics superhero Batman in the Spotify scripted podcast The Riddler: Secrets in the Dark. The following year, he reprised the role in the second season of Batman Unburied, succeeding Winston Duke in the part.
Domingo portrayed John "Divine G" Whitfield in the prison drama Sing Sing, which premiered at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival, and which was picked up by A24 for theatrical distribution the following year to critical acclaim. Domingo received nominations for the Academy Award, BAFTA Award, Golden Globe Award, and Screen Actors Guild Award for his performance in Sing Sing. In 2025, Domingo voiced Norman Osborn in the Marvel Studios animated series Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, and has expressed interest in playing the character in live-action in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

### Upcoming projects

In January 2024, it was announced that Domingo was cast to play Joe Jackson in the musical biopic Michael (2025) about the life of singer Michael Jackson. It was also announced Domingo is set to direct and star in the leading role of an untitled Nat King Cole biopic from a script he co-wrote. In September 2024, it was reported that Domingo is slated to appear in Steven Spielberg's next film project, along side Emily Blunt, Josh O'Connor, Eve Hewson, Wyatt Russell, and Colin Firth.

## Personal life

From 2009 to 2017, Domingo lived in the federally subsidized artists' building Manhattan Plaza.
Domingo is gay. He met his husband, Raúl Domingo, in 2005. They married in 2014.