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Jeffrey Wright
Born	December 7, 1965 (1965-12-07) (age 42) Washington D.C., U.S.
Occupation	actor
Spouse(s)	Carmen Ejogo (2000-present)
Awards Emmy Awards Best Supporting Actor - Miniseries/Movie 2004 Angels in America Golden Globe Awards Best Supporting Actor - Miniseries 2004 Angels in America Tony Awards Best Featured Actor in a Play 1994 Angels in America: Perestroika

Jeffrey Wright (born December 7, 1965) is a Tony Award-, Emmy Award-, and Golden Globe Award-winning American film and stage actor.

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Early life 1.2 Career 1.3 Personal life 2 Filmography 3 Awards 4 References 5 External links

Wright was born in Washington, D.C. to a mother who worked as a customs lawyer.^[1] He graduated from St. Albans School (Washington, D.C.) and attended Amherst College, receiving a bachelor's degree in political science and planning to continue on to law school; however, he decided to study acting instead. After receiving an acting scholarship from New York University and attending the school for two months, he decided to leave and become a full time actor.

He began appearing off-Broadway in New York City and Washington, D.C., and in 1990 appeared in his first major film as an attorney in Presumed Innocent, which starred Harrison Ford. In 1991, Wright joined John Houseman's national touring repertory company The Acting Company with productions of A Midsummer Night's Dream and Athol Fugard's Blood Knot. Wright continued with his stage performances and in 1994 was cast as Norman 'Belize' Arriaga in Tony Kushner's award-winning play Angels in America. His portrayal of a gay nurse forced to take care of a homophobic Roy Cohn as he lay dying from AIDS won him the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play.

In 1996, Wright had another breakthrough performance on the big screen, portraying painter Jean-Michel Basquiat in the film Basquiat. The film depicts the real-life tribulations of a young artist who gained tremendous success in the white-dominated New York art scene until he died of heroin overdose at the age of 27. Wright's performance was again critically acclaimed and the movie gave him the chance to work alongside veterans such as Gary Oldman, Willem Dafoe, Dennis Hopper and Christopher Walken.

Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s Wright gave memorable performances in both leading and supporting roles. His more mentionable roles were in movies such as Woody Allen's Celebrity (1998), Shaft (2000), and Boycott (2001), where he gave another critically acclaimed performance as Martin Luther King, Jr. and was awarded the AFI Award for his portrayal. In 2003 Wright reprised his role as Norman 'Belize' Arriaga in HBO's award-winning adaptation of Angels in America starring alongside screen veterans Al Pacino, Emma Thompson and Meryl Streep and directed by Mike Nichols. His performance garnered him an Emmy award as well as a Golden Globe award for Best Supporting Actor in a Miniseries. In 2004, he appeared in Jonathan Demme's remake of The Manchurian Candidate opposite Denzel Washington, Meryl Streep, and Liev Schreiber. In February 2005, Wright returned to HBO Films in his friend George C. Wolfe's directorial debut, Lackawanna Blues, which starred many notable African-American actors. He also guest starred on The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles and Homicide: Life on the Street.

His most notable film role was as the Washington attorney Bennett Holiday in Stephen Gaghan's Syriana (2005), where he was the co-lead along with George Clooney and Matt Damon. The same year he played Bill Murray's eccentric Ethiopian neighbor Winston in Jim Jarmusch's existential road movie, Broken Flowers.

In 2005, he starred in the play This Is How It Goes, along side Ben Stiller and Amanda Peet. In 2006, Wright appeared as one of the tenants in Lady in the Water and as Felix Leiter in the 21st James Bond movie Casino Royale. This makes him the first African-American man to play the character in an official Bond film (Bernie Casey played Leiter in the unofficial Never Say Never Again).

Wright married Carmen Ejogo in August 2000. They have a young son named Elijah and live in Brooklyn, New York. In 2004, Wright received an honorary degree from his alma mater Amherst College.

• Bond 22 (2008)
• The Invasion (2007)
• Casino Royale (2006)
• Lady in the Water (2006)
• Broken Flowers (2005)
• Lackawanna Blues (2005)
• Syriana (2005)
• The Topdog Diaries (2004)
• The Manchurian Candidate (2004)
• Angels in America (2003)
• Eye See You (2002)
• Ali (2001)
• Crime and Punishment in Suburbia (2000)
• Shaft (2000)
• Hamlet (2000)
• Meschugge (2000)
• Ride With the Devil (1999)
• Cement (1999)
• Too Tired To Die (1998)
• Celebrity (1998)
• Critical Care (1997)
• Too Tired to Die (1997)
• Basquiat (1996)
• Faithful (1996)
• Jumpin at the Boneyard (1992)
• Presumed Innocent (1990)

• American Film Institute, (2001), Best Male Actor in a Television Movie or Mini-Series: Boycott (Winner)
• Golden Globe, (2003), Best Supporting Actor (TV): Angels in America (Winner)
• Independent Spirit Award, (1996), Best Debut Performance: Basquiat (Nominated)
• Toronto Film Critics Association, (2000), Best Supporting Actor: Shaft (Winner)

• Jeffrey Wright at the Internet Movie Database

• Jeffrey Wright Web Site
• Jeffrey Wright at IBDB
• HBO cast page for Angels in America

Awards
Preceded by Stephen Spinella for Angels in America: Millennium Approaches	Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play 1994 for Angels in America: Perestroika	Succeeded by John Glover for Love! Valour! Compassion!
Preceded by Ben Gazzara for Hysterical Blindness	Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor - Miniseries or a Movie 2004 for Angels in America	Succeeded by Paul Newman for Empire Falls
Preceded by Donald Sutherland for Path to War	Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or Motion Picture Made of Television 2004 for Angels in America	Succeeded by William Shatner for Boston Legal