Bokeem Woodbine Biography

Bokeem Woodbine (born April 13, 1973) is an American actor. He is mostly known for his role as Mike Milligan on the second season of Fargo. He will portray Herman Schultz/Shocker in Spider-Man: Homecoming. For his performance in Fargo, he won a Black Reel Award, and was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award and a Critics' Choice Television Award.

Early life and education

Bokeem Woodbine was born in Harlem, New York, on April 13, 1973. Woodbine attended the prestigious Dalton School on Manhattan's Upper East Side before transferring to the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts in the city.

Career

With the encouragement of his actress mother, Woodbine entered show biz at age 19 as a stand-in and extra in Ernest Dickerson's directorial debut, the hip-hop classic Juice (1992), starring Tupac Shakur and Omar Epps. In the following year, he made his TV acting debut in the CBS Schoolbreak Special entitled "Love Off Limits." His appearance was noticed by casting director Jaki Brown-Karman who later recommended him to Forest Whitaker for the latter's directorial effort, the HBO television movie Strapped (1993). Since then, he has worked with other major African American filmmakers such as Spike Lee, Mario Van Peebles and the Hughes Brothers in the films Crooklyn (1994), Panther (1995) and Dead Presidents (1995), respectively.

In 1996 he appeared in Tupac's music video for "I Ain't Mad at Cha" and formed a friendship with the rapper. They subsequently reunited in Vondie Curtis-Hall's directorial debut, Gridlock'd, which was released four months after Tupac's death.

Entering the new millennium, Woodbine was featured as a regular on the NBC midseason sitcom Battery Park and played Dr. Damon Bradley, who later turned out to be a serial rapist, in the short-lived CBS medical drama City of Angels, the latter of which earned him a nomination for the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. Additionally, he appeared in the Wu-Tang Clan's music videos for their songs "Protect Ya Neck", "Gravel Pit", and "Careful (Click, Click)". Woodbine went to portray prolific saxophonist David "Fathead" Newman in the Taylor Hackford-directed and Jamie Foxx-starring Oscar-winning biopic Ray (2004), about legendary rhythm and blues musician Ray Charles.

Over the next few years, Woodbine made minor appearances in both film and television. On the small screen, he could be seen in an episode of Fox's ongoing crime-drama Bones and ABC's short-lived cop drama The Evidence, as well as two episodes of Spike TV's Blade: The Series, based on Marvel Comics' character and popular film series. The next year, Woodbine appeared with his Blade: The Series co-star, Sticky Fingaz in his musical drama film A Day in the Life, starring Omar Epps and Mekhi Phifer, and two films by Jesse V. Johnson: the low-budget sci-fi/action movie The Last Sentinel (alongside Don "The Dragon" Wilson and Katee Sackhoff), and the action film The Butcher, opposite Eric Roberts. He also landed a series regular, as Leon Cooley, an inmate on death row, in the TNT crime/drama series Saving Grace, starring Academy Award-winning actress Holly Hunter in her first TV series.

In 2009 onward, Woodbine appeared in the blaxploitation film Black Dynamite and followed it up the next year with the M. Night Shyamalan-produced supernatural thriller Devil. He has also appeared as an officer on the critically acclaimed series Southland (2011). He next appeared in the 2012 remake of Total Recall and then Riddick the next year.

In December 2015, he received a Critics' Choice Television Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor in a Movie/Miniseries for his role as Mike Milligan in Fargo.

In June 2016, Woodbine was cast in the Sony Pictures and Marvel Studios film Spider-Man: Homecoming as Shocker, one of four villains, alongside Michael Keaton, Logan Marshall-Green and Michael Chernus.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1994	Crooklyn	Richard
	Jason's Lyric	Joshua Alexander
1995	Panther	Tyrone
	Dead Presidents	Staff Sgt. Cleon
1996	The Elevator	Malcolm
	Freeway	Chopper
	The Rock	Gunnery Sergeant Crisp
1997	Gridlock'd	Mud	Uncredited
1998	Caught Up	Daryl
	The Big Hit	Crunch
	Almost Heroes	Jonah
1999	Wishmaster 2: Evil Never Dies	Farralon	Direct-to-video
	Life	Can't Get Right
	The Runner	477
2000	BlackMale	Jimmy Best
2001	3000 Miles to Graceland	Franklin
	The Breed	FBI Agent Steve Grant
2002	Run for the Money	Rock	(a.k.a. Hard Cash)
2003	Detonator	Jack Forrester
	Sniper 2	U.S. Army Sniper Jake Cole	Direct to video
2004	Ray	Fathead Newman
2005	The Circle	Cop
	Edmond	Prisoner
2006	Blood of a Champion	Shadow	Direct-to-video
	18 Fingers of Death!	Billy Buff	Direct-to-video
	Confessions	Miles Adams
2007	The Last Sentinel	Anchilles
2008	The Poker House	Duval
	The Fifth Commandment	Miles Templeton
2009	Black Dynamite	Black Hand Jack
	A Day in the Life	Bam Bam
	The Butcher	Chinatown Pete
	Three Bullets	Bo	Short film
2010	Caught on Tape	Tyrone
	Devil	Guard
2011	Little Murder	Lipp
2012	Total Recall	Harry
2013	The Host	Nate	Cameo
	Riddick	Moss
	1982	Scoop
2014	Jarhead 2: Field of Fire	Corporal Danny Kettner
2015	AWOL72	Myron	Co-Producer
2017	Spider-Man: Homecoming	Herman Schultz / Shocker	Post-production
	Billionaire Boys Club		Post-production

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1993	CBS Schoolbreak Special	Steve Newberg	Episode: "Love Off Limits"
	Strapped	Diquan Mitchell	TV movie
1995	The X-Files	Sammom Roque	Episode: "The List"
1997	New York Undercover	Mobster	Episode: "No Place Like Hell"
1999	The Sopranos	Massive Genius	Episode: "A Hit Is a Hit"
2000	Sacrifice	Agent Gottfried	TV movie
	Battery Park	Detective Derek Finley	6 episodes
	Soul Food	Detective Conrad	Episode: "Bad Luck"
	City of Angels	Dr. Damon Bradley	4 episodes
2002	R.U.S./H.		TV movie
2003	Fastlane	Super G.	Episode: "Overkill"
	Jasper, Texas	Khalid X	TV movie
2004	Why Blitt?		TV movie
	CSI: Miami	Byron Middlebrook / B-Slick	Episode: "Pro Per"
2005	Bones	Randall Hall	Episode: "The Man in the Wall"
2006	The Evidence	Chaz Roberts	Episode: "Stringers"
	Blade: The Series	Steppin' Razor	2 episodes
2007	Shark	Willy Tarver	Episode: "The Wrath of Khan"
	Law & Order: Criminal Intent	Gordon 'G-Man' Thomas	Episode: "Flipped"
2007-2010	Saving Grace	Leon Cooley	28 episodes
2011-2012	Southland	Officer Jones	5 episodes
2015	Battle Creek	Devin	Episode: "Old Wounds"
	Chicago P.D.	Derek Keyes	Episode: "Life Is Fluid"
	Life in Pieces	Officer Wood	Episode: "Sleepy Email Brunch Tree"
	Fargo	Mike Milligan	10 episodes Black Reel Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Television Miniseries or Movie Nominated - Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Movie/Miniseries Nominated - Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or a Movie
2016	Drunk History	George Washington	Episode: "Hamilton"

Video games

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2013	PAYDAY 2	"The Elephant"