- Born
- Height5′ 11″ (1.80 m)
- 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
- SpouseCarmen Ejogo(October 18, 2001 - 2014) (divorced, 2 children)
- ChildrenJuno Wright
- Deep, smooth voice
- Often plays intelligent characters
- 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.
- 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."
- The only original cast member from the play Angels In America to appear in the film version Angels in America (2003).
- In 2006, he became the first African American to play Felix Leiter in an official James Bond film (Casino Royale (2006). Bernie Casey played Leiter in the unofficial Never Say Never Again (1983).
- He has played the role of James Bond's ally Felix Leiter in three films, more than any other actor.
- 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.
- Westworld (2016) - $250,000 /episode (Season 3)
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