Sterling K. Brown

Sterling Kelby Brown (born April 5, 1976) is an American actor. He has received numerous accolades including three Primetime Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe Award as well as a nomination for an Academy Award. He was included in Time's list of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2018.

Brown portrayed Christopher Darden in the FX limited series The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story (2016) earning the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie. For his role as Randall Pearson in the NBC drama series This Is Us (20162022) he earned the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series in 2017. He has also starred in the Amazon Prime Video comedy series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (2019) and the Hulu thriller series Paradise (2025).

For his role in American Fiction (2023), he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Brown had leading roles in films such as Hotel Artemis (2019), Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul. (2022), and Biosphere (2023); supporting roles in Marshall (2017), Black Panther (2018), and Waves (2019); and voice roles such as The Angry Birds Movie 2 and Frozen 2.

Early life and education Brown was born in St. Louis, Missouri, to Sterling Brown His father died when he was 10 years old.

Brown grew up in Olivette, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis. He attended the private Mary Institute and St. Louis Country Day School.

He graduated from Stanford University in 1998 with an acting degree. He had initially majored in economics with a focus on business, planning on going into investment banking, but after finding his internship at the Federal Reserve to be a crashing bore and falling in love with acting as a freshman, he switched his major and career trajectory. He completed his Masters at New York University Tisch School of the Arts, where he graduated with an MFA.

Career 2002–2015: Early career After college, Brown performed a series of roles in regional theater. In the theater, Brown was cast in the 2002 production of Bertolt Brecht's The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui starring Al Pacino, Paul Giamatti, Steve Buscemi, John Goodman and Jacqueline McKenzie at the National Actors Theater. That same year he played the sea captain Antonio in The Public Theater's revival of the William Shakespeare play Twelfth Night at the Delacorte Theatre. He acted alongside Zach Braff, Julia Stiles, David Harbour, Natalie Gold, Oliver Platt, and Christopher Lloyd.

He has also appeared on numerous television shows, including ER, NYPD Blue, and Third Watch. He was a regular in the comedy Starved, and has also appeared in numerous films, including Brown Sugar (2002) with Taye Diggs, Stay (2005) with Ewan McGregor, and Trust the Man (2005) with David Duchovny and Julianne Moore. He had a recurring role on the television series Supernatural, as vampire hunter Gordon Walker.

In 2006, he played Macduff in The Public Theater's production of William Shakespeare's Macbeth at the Anspacher Theater. Brown acted opposite Liev Schreiber and Jennifer Ehle. From 2007 to 2013, he played Dr. Roland Burton on the Lifetime drama series Army Wives. In 2009, he acted in the Tarell Alvin McCraney play The Brother/Sister Plays at The Public Theater. The production had two parts and was directed by Robert O'Hara featuring performances from Andre Holland and Brian Tyree Henry.

During this time, he guest starred in Eli Stone (2008), Medium (2010), The Good Wife (2011), and Masters of Sex (2014). He took the role as Detective Cal Beecher on Person of Interest from 2012 to 2013. In 2014, he starred as Hero in Suzan-Lori Parks's Odyssey-inspired play Father Comes Home From the Wars (Parts 1, 2, & 3) at New York's Public Theater.

2016–2022: Breakthrough and This is Us In 2016, he starred in the FX miniseries The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story as Christopher Darden, for which he won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie at the 68th Primetime Emmy Awards. From 2016 to 2022, Brown had a starring role in the television series This Is Us, for which he won his second Primetime Emmy Award. In 2018, it made him the first African-American actor to win a Golden Globe in the Best Actor in a Television Drama category, and the first to win a Screen Actors Guild Award in the Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series category. He also won, with the rest of the cast, the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series.

During this time, he had high-profile supporting roles in several feature films. Brown portrayed Joseph Spell in the historical drama Marshall (2017), N'Jobu in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film Black Panther, and Ronald Williams in the A24 independent film Waves (2019). In June 2018, Brown gave the commencement address at his alma mater Stanford University. He appeared as a guest star in the NYPD sitcom Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and earned critical acclaim for his role as Philip Davidson, a dentist under investigation for murdering his business partner. He was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series in 2018 for this performance. The following year he had a recurring role in the third season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel in 2019. He portrayed Reggie, the manager of the fictional singer Shy Baldwin (Leroy McClain). For his performance he received a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series nomination. In August 2019, he was announced at D23 Expo and on Twitter as the voice of Lieutenant Destin Mattias in Frozen 2.

From 2019 to 2020, he narrated the Disney+ documentary series One Day at Disney. He portrayed Leo McGarry, replacing the late John Spencer in the HBO Max special A West Wing Special to Benefit When We All Vote (2020). Brown took a recurring voice role as Michael Angelo in the Netflix animated comedy series Big Mouth (2020). He continued playing voice roles in Hulu's animated science fiction series Solar Opposites and Apple TV+'s animated children's series Interrupting Chicken. In 2022, he starred in and produced the mockumentary comedy Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul. acting opposite Regina Hall. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, receiving positive reviews. Justin Chang of NPR wrote, "Brown and Hall give wonderfully complex performances as a disgraced Christian power couple trying to salvage what remains of their spiritual empire."

2023–present: Rise to prominence In 2023, he acted alongside Mark Duplass in the science fiction comedy film Biosphere (2023), which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. That same year he played Randle P. McMurphy with Laura Benanti as Nurse Ratched for a reading for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. He gained critical acclaim for his supporting role in the satirical comedy American Fiction (2023) directed by Cord Jefferson starring Jeffrey Wright. Peter Debruge of Variety described Brown as a "scene-stealer" playing the protagonist's gay brother, a plastic surgeon. For his performance, he received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor at the 96th Academy Awards. Wright was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for American Fiction, and the nomination of Brown and Wright was the first time a Black lead actor and a Black supporting actor from the same film were both nominated for Academy Awards. In 2024, Brown joined the film Double Booked which will be directed by Adam Scott. He also took a supporting role in the Netflix science-fiction drama Atlas with Jennifer Lopez and Simu Liu.

Personal life Brown met actress Ryan Michelle Bathe as a college freshman at Stanford. but held a large ceremony in June 2007.

Acting credits

Film Year Title Role Director Notes 2002 Brown Sugar Co-Worker Rick Famuyiwa 2005 Trust the Man Rand Bart Freundlich Stay Frederick / Devon Marc Forster 2008 Righteous Kill IA Detective Rogers Jon Avnet 2011 Our Idiot Brother Officer Omar Coleman Jesse Peretz 2013 The Suspect The Other Suspect Stuart Connelly 2015 Mojave Detective Fletcher William Monahan Uncredited2016 Whiskey Tango Foxtrot Sergeant Hurd Glenn Ficarra & John Requa Spaceman Rodney Scott Brett Rapkin Split Shaw M. Night Shyamalan Deleted scenes 2017 Marshall Joseph Spell Reginald Hudlin 2018 Black Panther N'Jobu Ryan Coogler Hotel Artemis Sherman / Waikiki Drew Pearce The Predator Agent Will Traeger Shane Black 2019 The Angry Birds Movie 2 Garry Thurop Van Orman Voice Waves Ronald Williams Trey Edward Shults Frozen 2 Lieutenant Destin Mattias Chris Buck & Jennifer Lee Voice 2025 Washington Black Medwin Harris Main role, also executive producer

Theater Year Show Role Playwright Theater Ref. 2002 Twelfth Night Antonio William Shakespeare Public Theater Delacorte Theater The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui Goodwill Bertolt Brecht National Actor's Theatre 2006 Macbeth Macduff William Shakespeare Public Theater Delacorte Theater 2009 The Brother/Sister Plays Part 1 & 2 Shango / Shua Tarell Alvin McCraney Public Theater Anspacher Theater 2014 Father Comes Home From the Wars (Parts 1, 2, & 3) Hero/Ulysses Suzan-Lori Parks

Music videos Year Artist Title Role Ref. 2019 The Lonely Island (feat. Sia) "Oakland Nights" Sia

Awards and nominations Brown has won 24 awards from 91 nominations.

In 2016, Brown earned his first Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie for his breakout portrayal of attorney Christopher Darden in The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story. Brown also won a Critics' Choice TV Award, along with Golden Globe Award, Screen Actors Guild Award, and NAACP Image Award nominations.

In 2023, Brown delivered the commencement speech for the graduating class at Washington University in St. Louis and received an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from the university.