Wendell Pierce Biography

Wendell Edward Pierce (born December 8, 1966) is an American actor, best known for his work in HBO dramas, including his portrayals of Detective Bunk Moreland in The Wire, trombonist Antoine Batiste in Treme and "Michael Davenport" in Waiting to Exhale.

Early life & education

Pierce was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. He was one of three sons born to a teacher and a decorated World War II veteran who worked as a maintenance engineer. His father's segregated Army unit helped U.S. Marines win the Battle of Saipan in 1944. Pierce said of his father's experience:</ref>}}

Pierce was raised in the black middle-class community of Pontchartrain Park. It was the first African-American post-war suburb. His father, along with many black veterans, bought into the neighborhood after returning home from the war. The neighborhood was wiped out during Hurricane Katrina in 2005, including Pierce's family home, which was flooded with 14 feet of water.

After first attending Benjamin Franklin High School, Pierce graduated from the New Orleans Centre for Creative Arts (along with Wynton Marsalis, Branford Marsalis, Harry Connick Jr., and Lolis Eric Elie) where he was a Presidential Scholar of the Arts. As a young actor, Pierce appeared in The Winter"?s Tale at the Tulane Shakespeare Festival. He produced and hosted "Think About It," a youth themed talk show, for the local NBC affiliate station, and also hosted a weekly jazz show on WYLD-FM RADIO called "Extensions from Congo Square."

He then attended the Juilliard School's Drama Division (Group 14: 1981-1985) where he graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts.

Career

Pierce has been in over 30 films, appeared in nearly 50 television shows and has performed in dozens of stage productions. Including his noted work on HBO dramas, The Wire and Treme, Pierce has worked with directors like Spike Lee and Taylor Hackford and starred alongside actors such as Brad Pitt, Nicolas Cage and Tom Hanks. He has also been in more commercially successful films such as The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2 in which he played "J. Jenks." He has been sought out for his voice over work on projects like NFL Network's "Top 100 Players of 2013."

For his role in "Treme," Pierce learned to play the trombone, though relies on "sound double,"? Stafford Agee, of the Rebirth Brass Band. Agee actually records the music, while Pierce shadows the sound.

Pierce's work has been critically acclaimed and recognized with several award nominations including an Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead for his portrayal of "Joe," in the film, Four, in which he plays a married, closeted gay man who steps out on his family with a young white man he met online, on the night of the Fourth of July. The film will be released on September 13, 2013, around the same time that The Michael J. Fox Show debuts on NBC, in which Pierce plays Michael J. Fox's boss, "Harris Green."

Feature Film

Year	Title	Role	Director	Notes
1986	The Money Pit	Paramedic	Richard Benjamin
1989	Casualties of War	MacIntire	Brian De Palma	with Sean Penn and Michael J. Fox
1989	Family Business	Prosecutor	Sidney Lumet	with Sean Connery and Dustin Hoffman
1990	A Matter of Degrees	Wells Dennard	W.T. Morgan
1991	A Rage in Harlem	Louis	Bill Duke	with Forest Whitaker and Danny Glover
1992	Malcolm X	Ben Thomas	Spike Lee	with Denzel Washington
1993	Manhattan Murder Mystery	Policeman	Woody Allen
1994	It Could Happen to You	Bo Williams	Andrew Bergman	with Nicolas Cage
1995	Bye Bye Love	Hector	Sam Weisman	with Rob Reiner
1995	Hackers	Agent Dick Gill	Iain Softley	with Angelina Jolie and Jonny Lee Miller
1995	Waiting to Exhale	Michael Davenport	Forest Whitaker	with Lela Rochon
1996	Get on the Bus	Wendell	Spike Lee
1996	Sleepers	Little Caesar	Barry Levinson	with Brad Pitt, Jason Patric and Robert De Niro
1998	Bulworth	Fred	Warren Beatty	with Don Cheadle and Halle Berry
1999	The 24 Hour Woman	Roy Labelle	Nancy Savoca	with Rosie Perez, Melissa Leo and Chris Cooper
1999	Shadows of the Past (aka Abilene)	Reverend Tillis	Joe Camp III
2002	Brown Sugar	Simon	Rick Famuyiwa	with Taye Diggs and Sanaa Lathan
2003	The Fighting Temptations	Reverend Lewis	Jonathan Lynn
2004	A Hole in One	Dan	Richard Ledes	with Michelle Williams
2004	Land of Plenty	Henry	Wim Wenders	with Michelle Williams
2004	Ray	Wilbur Brassfield	Taylor Hackford	with Jamie Foxx and Kerry Washington
2006	Stay Alive	Detective Thibodeaux	William Brent Bell	with Adam Goldberg, produced by McG
2007	I Think I Love My Wife	Sean	Chris Rock	with Kerry Washington
2010	Night Catches Us	David Gordon	Tanya Hamilton	with Anthony Mackie and Kerry Washington
2010	Love Ranch	Naasih Mohammed	Taylor Hackford	with Helen Mirren and Joe Pesci
2011	The Mortician	Wendell Simms	Gareth Maxwell Roberts
2011	Horrible Bosses	Detective Hagan	Seth Gordon	with Jason Bateman, Jennifer Aniston and Kevin Spacey
2011	Foreclosure	Actor	Richard Ledes
2012	Lay the Favorite	Dave the Rave	Stephen Frears	with Bruce Willis and Catherine Zeta-Jones
2012	The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2	J. Jenks	Bill Condon	with Kristen Stewart
2013	Parker	Carlson	Taylor Hackford	with Jason Statham
2013	Mbius	Bob	ric Rochant	with Jean Dujardin and Tim Roth
2013	Four	Joe	Joshua Sanchez	Independent Spirit Award Nomination

Television

Year	Title	Role	Episode(s)	Notes
1987	Vietnam War Story	French	"The Pass"
1989	A Man Called Hawk	Derrick West	"Never My Love"	with Angela Bassett
1988-1989	The Equalizer	Dr. Wolff	""The Last Campaign", "Starfire"
1990	Capital News	Conrad White	All Episodes
1991	General Motors Playwrights Theater	Sergeant Kelly	"Avenue Z Afternoon"
1991	The 10 Million Dollar Getaway	Parnell "Stacks" Edwards		TV Movie
1991	I'll Fly Away	Charles	"Coming Home"
1992	Law & Order	Chief Ola-Gimju Nwaka	"Consultation"
1992	Unnatural Pursuits	Cabbie	"I Don't Do Cuddles"
1993	Strapped	District Attorney		TV Movie, Directed by Forest Whitaker
1995	Law & Order	Jerome Bryant	"Rage"
1995	New York News	Jesus	"The Using Game"
1996	New York Undercover	Dr. Anthony Fisher	"Bad Blood"
1996	Never Give Up: The Jimmy V Story	John Saunders		TV Movie
1996-1997	Maloney	DA Calvin Patterson	5 Episodes
1997	413 Hope	Taffy	Pilot Episode
1997	The Advocate's Devil	Justin		TV Movie
1997-1998	The Gregory Hines Show	Carl Stevenson	All Episodes
1999	The Expert	Dr. Worseley	Pilot Episode
1999	Law & Order	Mr. Wade	"Disciple"
1998-2000	The Brian Benben Show	Kevin La Rue	7 Episodes
2000	God, the Devil and Bob	Voice Only	"In the Beginning", "Date from Hell"
2000	Third Watch	Officer Conrad 'Candyman' Jones	5 Episodes
2000	City of Angels	Norbert Grimly	"Straight Flush"
2001	My Wife and Kids	Dr. Boucher	Pilot Episode
2000-2001	The Weber Show/Cursed	Wendell Simms	All Episodes	Show name change in middle of season
2002	Girlfriends	Anthony Jackson	"Childs in Charge"
2004	Judging Amy	Harry Benton	"Sins of the Father"
2004	Law & Order	Roger Porter	"Gunplay"
2004	Law & Order: Trial by Jury	Dr. Richard Link	"The Line", "Eros in the Upper Eighties"
2006	Close to Home	Sam Carter	"Prodigal Son"
2007	Life Support	Slick		TV Movie, with Queen Latifah, NAACP Image Award Win
2007	The Wire: The Chronicles	Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland	"2000: Bunk and McNulty"
2002-2008	The Wire	Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland	Entire Series	2 NAACP Image Awards Nominations
2008	Women's Murder Club	Bill Schroeder	"Father's Day"
2008	In Plain Sight	Dr. Warren McBride/Warren Morris	"It Doesn't Live Here Anymore"
2008	House of Payne	Jeffrey Lucas	"The Last Supper", "We've Come this Far by Faith: Part 2"
2007-2008	Numb3rs	William Bradford	4 Episodes
2009	Fear Itself	Wiilbur Orwell	"Something with Bite"
2009	Hawthorne	Michael Schilling	"Trust Me"
2009	Drop Dead Diva	Neal David	"Grayson's Anatomy"
2010	Tim & Eric Awesome Show	Detective	"Re-Animated"
2010-2013	Treme	Antoine Batiste	Entire Series
2013	Suits	Robert Zane	4 episodes	Recurring Role
2013-present	The Michael J. Fox Show	Harris Green	Regular cast

Stage

Pierce has been in numerous stage productions. He was lauded for his performance as Holt Fay in Queenie at the John F. Kennedy Center. He has performed on Broadway in staged productions of The Piano Lesson, Serious Money and The Boys of Winter. He has performed off Broadway in The Cherry Orchard (for which he was nominated for a VIV Award for Lead Actor, Waiting for Godot (which was set on a New Orleans rooftop post-Hurricane Katrina, and Broke-ology, performed at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.

Other performances include Cymbeline (at The Public Theater), The Good Times Are Killing Me, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Tis Pity She's a Whore and Ms. Ever's Boys performed at the ACT Theatre.

Pierce is also a theater producer, having produced the Broadway show, Clybourne Park. The show was nominated for four Tony Awards. It went on to win the Tony Award for Best Play in 2012.

Radio

In 2009, Pierce became the host of the nationally syndicated, Peabody Award-winning radio program, Jazz at Lincoln Center, which features live recordings from Jazz at Lincoln Center's House of Swing.

Business & Philanthropy

Pierce considers himself a "true capitalist" and a "classic entrepreneur." In 2013, Fast Company named Pierce one of the "100 Most Creative People in Business."

Pontchartrain Park Community Development Corp.

Pierce started the non-profit, Pontchartrain Park Community Development Corp., to build new affordable solar and geothermal homes in the area for families displaced by Hurricane Katrina.

Sterling Farms

Inspired in part by Michelle Obama"?s initiative to bring more supermarkets to "food deserts"? - where residents lack easy access to fresh produce - Pierce, along with 2 partners (childhood friend, Troy Henry, and James Hatchett), started a chain of grocery stores, Sterling Farms, in the Ninth Ward of New Orleans in 2012. Sterling Farms also has a convenience store division called "Sterling Express." The stores are named after Sterling Henry, his business partner's father who ran a pharmacy for about 40 years at the Lower 9th Ward. Sterling Farms opened its first store, a 30,000-square-foot supermarket, in Marreo, LA.

Personal life

Pierce is "tri-coastal," splitting his time between L.A., New York and New Orleans. New Orleans locals nicknamed him "Saint Wendell." His favorite sports team is the New Orleans Saints.

Pierce is politically active. He attended the 2012 Democratic National Convention, was one of President Barack Obama's top campaign fundraisers in 2012 (along with Harvey Weinstein and Eva Longoria), and once escorted Gwen Ifil to a White House State Dinner.

When first cast in The Wire, Pierce and his cast mates doubted the show would be a hit: </ref>}}