Brian Stokes Mitchell
Brian Stokes Mitchell (born October 31, 1957) is an American actor and singer. A powerful baritone, he has been one of the central leading men of the Broadway theater since the 1990s. He won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical in 2000 for his performance in "Kiss Me, Kate". Early life. Mitchell was born in Seattle, Washington, the youngest of four children of George Mitchell, an electronics engineer, and his wife Lillian (née Stokes), a school administrator. Mitchell grew up at various U.S. military bases overseas, where his father was a civilian engineer for  the U.S. Navy. As a young boy, he lived in San Diego, California, where he began acting in school musicals. He did not attend college, having begun performing professionally while a student at Patrick Henry High School, although he did have private teachers in both acting and voice in his teen years. He has said that he studied film scoring, orchestration, and conducting through UCLA. Prior to "Ragtime", he was known professionally as Brian Mitchell. Career. Stage. Mitchell first performed on Broadway in the musical "Mail" in 1988, with music by Michael Rupert and lyrics by Jerry Cocker, winning the  Theatre World award. His Broadway credits include an all-black revival of George and Ira Gershwin's "Oh, Kay!" (1990), "Jelly's Last Jam" (1992) based on the works of jazz artist Jelly Roll Morton, and Kander and Ebb's "Kiss of the Spider Woman" (1993). He originated the role of Coalhouse Walker Jr, in the musical "Ragtime", which opened on Broadway in January 1998. He received a 1998 Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in a Musical. He appeared in the 1999 revival of Cole Porter's "Kiss Me, Kate" as Fred Graham / Petruchio, winning the Tony Award for  Best Actor in a Musical. He appeared on Broadway in "King Hedley II" in 2001 (Tony Award nomination) and "Man of La Mancha" in 2002 (Tony Award nomination). He appeared in the New York City Center Encores! staged concert productions of Jule Styne's "Do Re Mi" (1999), Bob Merrill's "Carnival!" (2002), "Kismet" (2006), and "The Band Wagon" in 2014. He played the title role in the 2002 Kennedy Center production of "Sweeney Todd", part of the Stephen Sondheim celebration. On June 9, 2005, Mitchell appeared in a concert version of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical "South Pacific" at  Carnegie Hall. He starred as Emile, alongside Reba McEntire as Nellie Forbush and Alec Baldwin as Luther Billis. The production was taped and telecast by PBS in 2006. Of his performance, Ben Brantley wrote in "The New York Times", "As for Mr. Mitchell, his place in the pantheon of romantic musical leads is now guaranteed." Playbill Records released his debut solo CD, "Brian Stokes Mitchell" on June 6, 2006. Mitchell has also performed in a Christmas concert with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir later released as a CD and DVD entitled "Ring Christmas Bells". His second solo CD, "Simply Broadway", was  released October 30, 2012, by CD Baby. Mitchell returned to Broadway to star with Patti LuPone in the musical version of the Pedro Almodóvar film "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown", which opened at the Belasco Theatre in November 2010. A new musical titled "Shuffle Along, or, the Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed", based on the making of "Shuffle Along" opened on Broadway on March 14, 2016 in previews, officially on April 21 at the Music Box Theatre. Mitchell played "F.E. Miller", with Audra McDonald as "Lottie Gee", Billy Porter, Joshua Henry  and Brandon Victor Dixon. Television and film. Mitchell has a number of television and film credits, including the role of John Dolan in "" (1979), and a seven-year stint as Dr. Justin 'Jackpot' Jackson on "Trapper John, M.D." from 1979 to 1986. Mitchell made several appearances as a celebrity panelist on episodes of "$25,000 Pyramid" and "$100,000 Pyramid" in the 1980s, and was considered one of the game's better celebrity players, helping a contestant win the $100,000 grand prize on the latter show in February 1986. Mitchell also participated as a celebrity panelist in four weeks ' worth of episodes of "The Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour", a short-lived NBC game show that ran from 1983-1984. He played recurring roles as Hilary Banks' news anchor fiancé Trevor Newsworthy/Collins on "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" and on "Frasier" as Dr. Frasier Crane's upstairs neighbor and nemesis Cam Winston. He supplied the singing voice of Jethro in the animated feature "The Prince of Egypt" (1998). He guest starred in March 2010 in "Ugly Betty" as Wilhelmina Slater's ex-boyfriend, Don. He appeared on the 57th episode of "Glee", titled "Heart" in 2012, and  the 58th, titled "On My Way," as one of Rachel's dads (LeRoy) along with Jeff Goldblum. He also played a recurring role on the USA Network series "Mr. Robot" as Scott Knowles, CTO of E Corp. The series began in June 2015 and ended in December 2019. He has also done voice-overs for animation including "Animaniacs", "Capitol Critters", "Tiny Toon Adventures", "A Pup Named Scooby-Doo", "The Further Adventures of SuperTed", "Kid 'n Play", "New Kids on the Block", "Scooby-Doo! and the Reluctant Werewolf", "Gravedale High", "Potsworth & Co.", "Captain Planet and the Planeteers", "The Tom and Jerry  Kids Show", "Yo Yogi!", "Fantastic Max", "Pound Puppies", "The Addams Family", "California Raisins", "The Angry Beavers", "James Bond Jr.", "", "Paddington Bear", "Pinky and the Brain", "Defenders of Dynatron City", "The Hot Rod Dogs and Cool Car Cats", "Droopy, Master Detective", "Denver, the Last Dinosaur", "Mighty Max", "Don Coyote & Sancho Panda", "Vampirina", and the two "Flintstones" animated movies "Hollyrock-a-Bye Baby" and "I Yabba-Dabba Do!". Mitchell plays Nicholas Prophet in "", a scripted podcast serial. Personal life. He has been married to actress Allyson Tucker since 1994 and has a son, Ellington. Awards and nominations. Sources: "Playbill" "BroadwayWorld" Brian Stokes