Jeffrey Wright

Jeffrey Wright (born December 7, 1965) is an American actor. He has received numerous accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award, a Tony Award, and a Golden Globe Award, in addition to a nomination for an Academy Award. Wright began his career in theater where he gained prominence for his role in the Broadway production of Tony Kushner's Angels in America (1993), for which he won a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play. He reprised his role in the acclaimed 2003 HBO miniseries adaptation, earning the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie.
His first starring film role was as Jean-Michel Basquiat in Basquiat (1996). His other notable films include Syriana (2005), Lady in the Water (2006), Cadillac Records (2008), The Ides of March (2011), and Rustin (2023). He also acted in the Wes Anderson films The French Dispatch (2021) and Asteroid City (2023), and has played Peoples Hernandez in Shaft (2000), Felix Leiter in the James Bond films Casino Royale (2006), Quantum of Solace (2008), and No Time to Die (2021), Beetee Latier in The Hunger Games films, and Jim Gordon in The Batman (2022). He received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in American Fiction (2023).
Wright earned acclaim for his role as Valentin Narcisse in the HBO series Boardwalk Empire (2013–2014) and robot programmer Bernard Lowe in the HBO series Westworld (2016–2022), the latter of which earned him three Primetime Emmy Award nominations. He also appeared as Isaac Dixon in the video game The Last of Us Part II (2020) and the Watcher in the Marvel Studios animated series What If...? (2021–2024) and I Am Groot (2022–2023).
Wright was born on December 7, 1965, in Washington, D.C.. His mother is a customs lawyer and his father died when Jeffrey was a child.
He graduated from St. Albans School and attended Amherst College, receiving a bachelor's degree in political science, planning to attend law school, but chose instead to study acting. After attending the MFA acting program at the New York University Tisch School of the Arts for two months in 1988, he left to appear in Les Blancs at Arena Stage before transferring with it to the Huntington Theatre Company and deciding to be an actor full-time.
Wright began appearing off-Broadway in New York City and Washington, D.C. In 1990, he appeared in his first major film as an attorney in Alan J. Pakula's legal drama Presumed Innocent. In 1991, he joined John Houseman's national touring repertory company The Acting Company in productions of A Midsummer Night's Dream and Athol Fugard's Blood Knot. In 1993 and 1994, he appeared as Norman "Belize" Arriaga in Tony Kushner's award-winning play Angels in America. His portrayal of a gay nurse forced to take care of Roy Cohn as he dies of AIDS won him the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play. He also had small roles in the films Jumpin' at the Boneyard (1992), Faithful (1996), and Critical Care (1997).
He guest-starred in George Lucas's The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles as a fictionalized Sidney Bechet and Homicide: Life on the Street in the early to late 1990s. In 1996, Wright starred in his first leading film role, portraying painter Jean-Michel Basquiat in the film Basquiat, to critical acclaim. Critic Roger Ebert praised Wright as "[giving] a performance of almost mystical opacity". For his performance, he earned a Independent Spirit Award for Best Debut Performance nomination. Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, he appeared in roles in such films as Woody Allen's satirical comedy Celebrity (1998), and Ang Lee's western Ride with the Devil (1999).
In 2000, he starred in three films, Shaft, Hamlet, and Crime and Punishment in Suburbia. He also starred in Clark Johnson's HBO television film Boycott (2001) as Martin Luther King Jr., for which he received an AFI Award. He starred opposite Carmen Ejogo and Terrence Howard. The following year, he portrayed Howard Bingham in Michael Mann's biographical sports drama Ali (2001). The film also starred Will Smith, Jamie Foxx, and Jon Voight. The following year, he returned to Broadway playing Lincoln in the Suzan-Lori Parks play Topdog/Underdog (2002). He starred opposite Mos Def who played Booth. Wright for his performance earned a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play nomination. In 2003, he reprised his role as Norman "Belize" Arriaga in HBO's award-winning adaptation of Angels in America, garnering him an Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie and a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film.
In 2004, he appeared in Jonathan Demme's remake of The Manchurian Candidate, starring Meryl Streep and Denzel Washington. In February 2005, Wright returned to HBO Films in Lackawanna Blues. In 2005, he played Washington attorney Bennett Holiday in Syriana and Bill Murray's eccentric Ethiopian neighbor Winston in Broken Flowers, the latter of which earned Wright a Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male nomination. That same year, he also starred in the play This Is How It Goes and appeared as one of the tenants in M. Night Shyamalan's psychological thriller Lady in the Water (2006). In 2006, he appeared as Felix Leiter in the James Bond film Casino Royale. He reprised the role in Quantum of Solace and No Time to Die. In 2007, Wright starred in the alien invasion suspense thriller The Invasion. In 2008, he portrayed Colin Powell in Oliver Stone's biographical drama film W. He portrayed Muddy Waters in Cadillac Records, a biopic, loosely based on the rise and fall of Chess Records.
In 2010, Wright played Jacques Cornet in the world premiere run of A Free Man of Color at the Vivian Beaumont Theater of the Lincoln Center for Performing Arts in New York City. In 2011, he acted in three films: Source Code with Jake Gyllenhaal, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close starring Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock, and The Ides of March starring George Clooney. Wright played Beetee in The Hunger Games film series, starting with The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, released in November 2013. He landed the role of Dr. Valentin Narcisse in season 4 of Boardwalk Empire, starting in the fall of 2013. In 2015, he voiced Poppa Henry in the Pixar animated film The Good Dinosaur.
He portrayed Charles Ogletree in the HBO film Confirmation (2016), and Bernard Lowe in HBO's Westworld, the latter of which earned him three Primetime Emmy Award nominations. In March 2017, Wright appeared in a commercial for Dell Technologies. In 2018, Wright acted in six feature films including the legal drama Monster, the drama The Public, the action comedy Game Night and the crime drama Age Out. He starred in the HBO film O.G. which was filmed entirely in the Pendleton Correctional Facility. Also, in 2018, he acted in the Netflix action thriller Hold the Dark which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.
In 2018, Wright produced the HBO documentary We Are Not Done Yet, which gives voice to war veterans who, through a USO-sponsored arts workshop at Walter Reed National Military Hospital, discover the power and healing of shared experience to unite and find resilience in the face of post-traumatic stress. That same year, Wright starred in HBO's O.G., a film about a man confronting his past crime and preparing to leave prison after decades behind bars. The film was directed by Madeleine Sackler, and was filmed entirely in Pendleton Correctional Facility near Indianapolis, Indiana. The film was shot in a working prison and many prisoners and staff were recruited as actors for the film, including Wright's co-star, Theotus Carter, who plays Beecher, a younger prisoner that Louis, (Wright's character) takes under his wing, which threatens Louis' release date. During shooting, Wright was sometimes mistaken for a prisoner by other real prisoners and guards. The film debuted on HBO on February 25, 2019. Nick Paumgarten of The New Yorker said, "The performances are exceptionally strong, both by the free-to-leave professional actors (especially Jeffrey Wright, who plays Louis, the 'O.G.' of the title, an older inmate on the verge of release) and by the incarcerated neophytes." Ben Kenigsberg of The New York Times said, "Jeffrey Wright gives a rich, imposing performance as the former 'mayor' of Pendleton Correctional Facility."
In 2019, he acted in the Steven Soderbergh directed Netflix comedy-drama The Laundromat starring Meryl Streep, Antonio Banderas, and Gary Oldman. He also acted in John Crowley's drama The Goldfinch starring Nicole Kidman, Sarah Paulson, and Finn Wolfhard. Wright starred in the video game The Last of Us Part II as Isaac, the leader of the Washington Liberation Front. The game was released on June 19, 2020. Wright voices the Watcher in the Disney+ animated series What If...? (2021), which is set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).
In 2021, Wright portrayed food writer Roebuck Wright in the film The French Dispatch by Wes Anderson. He reunited with Anderson portraying General Gibson in the 2023 film Asteroid City.
He portrayed Adam Clayton Powell Jr. in the Netflix biographical drama film Rustin and played fictional author Thelonious "Monk" Ellison in the satirical comedy-drama American Fiction both released in 2023. The latter earned him a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy nomination and an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. Sterling K. Brown was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for American Fiction, and the nomination of Wright and Brown was the first time a black lead actor and a black supporting actor from the same film were both nominated for Academy Awards.
Wright starred in The Agency for Paramount+.
Wright married actress Carmen Ejogo in August 2000. They have a son named Elijah and a daughter named Juno and lived in Brooklyn, New York City. They have since divorced.
He is a fan of the Washington Commanders.
In 2004, Wright received an honorary degree from his alma mater Amherst College.
Wright was the chairman and co-founder of the now-defunct Taia, LLC and Taia Peace Foundation and Vice Chairman of Taia Lion Resources, Inc, a gold-exploration company which sought to create a sustainable and conflict-free gold mining operation in Sierra Leone.