Biography

Jeffrey Wright

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Born and raised in Washington DC, Jeffrey Wright graduated from Amherst College in 1987. Although he studied Political Science while at Amherst, Wright left the school with a love for acting. Shortly after graduating he won an acting scholarship to NYU, but dropped out after only two months to pursue acting full-time. With roles in Presumed Innocent (1990), and the Broadway production of Angels in America, (in which he won a Tony award), within a relatively short time Wright was able to show off his exceptional talent and ability on both stage and screen alike. His first major on-screen performance came in 1996 in the Julian Schnabel directed film Basquiat (1996). Wright's harrowing performance as the late painter Jean Michele Basquiat was critically acclaimed. Wright later had a continuing role in the HBO dramatic series Boardwalk Empire (2010).
- IMDb mini biography by: hconrad

Won Broadway's 1994 Tony Award as Best Actor (Featured Role - Play) for Tony Kushner's "Angels In America: Perestroika," a role he recreated in the television mini-series version, Angels in America (2003). In 2002, he was nominated for Tony's Best Actor (Play) Award for "Topdog/Underdog."
Father died when he was a year old and was raised by his mother, who was a lawyer before working at the U.S. Customs Department, and his aunt, a one-time nurse.
The only original cast member from the play Angels In America to appear in the film version Angels in America (2003).
He has played the role of James Bond's ally Felix Leiter in three films, more than any other actor.
His cousin, Brian Wright, was the boy who portrayed young Basquiat (1996) at the beginning of that film. The production team needed a child to portray Basquiat who also looked like Jeffrey Wright. Because of this, Jeffrey asked his cousin to do the job.

I do have characters who are more well known than I am, which suits me fine.
About Cement (2000) - "That was a film that Adrian Pasdar directed. He's been a good friend of mine. It's kind of a cops and criminals film, but it's hard to decipher who's who. We shot it guerrilla-style, mostly out in Long Beach, California. My character's struggling to maintain his balance in an imbalanced, criminal underground."
One of the people who made a huge impression on me early in my career and who was also kind of a master to my apprentice was a woman named Lilia Skala. She said to me "You know, Jeffrey, you're good, but you must work hard. Success will not drop out of the sky like a ripe apple. You must work!" One of the best pieces of advice anybody ever gave to me.