Biography

LaVar Veale is a versatile actor with more than 20 years experience across genres -- independent feature films and shorts, television shows, commercials and theatre.

Most recently, LaVar appeared as Vice Principal Jawaan Rogers in the feature film Drowning with Camille Guaty and Lou Diamond Phillips. Other recent credits include independent films Rainbow Door, Desolation Road and Policing, which opened the 2020 NAACP Image Awards Ceremony, short films Glossolalia, Joan's Song and The Quiet Shore and feature films Book of Ruth, Margarita Man and Double Dagger. Recent TV work includes a co-starring role in Murder Made Me Famous and TV commercials for Academy Sports, RBFCU, Matel, Del Monte and VIA Metro Transit. He can also be seen in commercial modeling work for H-E-B and DirecTV.

LaVar has worked alongside noteworthy actors such as Danny Trejo in The Boys of Ghost Town and Margarita Man, Mexican star Sandra Echeverría in Double Dagger and with Marycarmen Lopez in Book of Ruth, which premiered at the 2014 Marfa Film Festival.

Though football was his first passion, LaVar is not upset about a freak accident while playing around with his brother in the kitchen that required a trip to the ER and forced him to sit out more than a year of football. He credits that initially unwelcome downtime with his introduction to his true love: acting. He was cast in a Nickelodeon short series. LaVar did also make his way back to the field and played football for the TCU Horned Frogs as a starting free safety and punt returner, while starring in stage productions -- not the standard modus operandi for college athletes, nor a likely outcome after what could have been a sports career-ending injury. A man of true grit, he views every experience as an opportunity to learn and evolve.

Though naturally gregarious and upbeat, LaVar is seeking darker roles in which he is able to embody more troubled, complex characters whose motives are questionable. He welcomes a challenge.

LaVar studied acting for theatre, television and film at TCU (BFA Theatre-TV), has trained with multiple acting coaches, including Diane Christiansen, Nelson Parks and Molli Benson, as well as Richard Allen at TCU. He is forever learning the nuance of the craft by studying incomparable greats, such as Denzel Washington, Gary Oldman, Samuel L. Jackson, Guy Pearce, Johnny Depp and Idris Elba, to name a few.
- IMDb mini biography by: Kristin Campbell