LaKeith Stanfield

LaKeith Lee Stanfield was born in San Bernardino, California, on August 12, 1991,^[1][2] and grew up in Riverside and Victorville.^[3] His mother's name is Karen.^[4] He has said that he "grew up very poor in a fractured family that was dysfunctional on both sides".^[5] He decided to become an actor when he was 14 after joining his high school's drama club. He attended the John Casablancas Modeling and Career Center in Los Angeles,^[5] where he was signed by an agency and began auditioning for commercials.^[3]

Stanfield's first acting role was in the short film Short Term 12, Destin Daniel Cretton's thesis project at San Diego State University, which won the Jury Award for U.S. Short Filmmaking at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival.^[5] A year later, he appeared in the short film Gimme Grace (2010). While continuing to keep his dreams of acting alive,^[6] he went on to work a number of different jobs such as roofing and gardening, and jobs at AT&T and a legal marijuana dispensary, before he was contacted by Cretton to reappear in a feature-length adaptation of Short Term 12. It was his first feature film role.^[7] During production, Stanfield practiced method acting, distancing himself from the other cast members like his character.^[3] He was the only actor to appear in both the short and feature versions.^[8] The film won the Grand Jury Prize for Best Narrative Feature at the 2013 South by Southwest film festival, and Stanfield was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male.^[7]

In 2014, Stanfield co-starred in The Purge: Anarchy^[7] and Selma, in the latter playing civil rights activist Jimmie Lee Jackson. In 2015, he appeared in the films Memoria^[5] and Miles Ahead.^[9] He also starred in the fantasy horror thriller film King Ripple by filmmaker Luke Jaden,^[10] and appeared in the music video for the Run the Jewels song "Close Your Eyes (And Count to Fuck)".^[11] In 2015, he portrayed rapper Snoop Dogg in the biopic Straight Outta Compton.^[12] In 2017, he played L in Adam Wingard's adaptation of the popular Japanese fantasy-thriller manga series Death Note, for Netflix. Also that year, he starred in the music video for the song "Cold Little Heart" by English singer Michael Kiwanuka,^[13] and appeared in the critically acclaimed horror film Get Out.^[14] In 2018, he starred as Cassius "Cash" Green in the critically acclaimed dark comedy film Sorry to Bother You.^[15][16]

In 2019, Stanfield starred as Nate Davis in the Netflix romantic comedy film Someone Great. In the same year, he played Lieutenant Elliot in the mystery film Knives Out.^[17] He had starring roles in the films The Photograph (2020) and Judas and the Black Messiah (2021). His portrayal of FBI informant William O'Neal in the latter was critically acclaimed and garnered him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.^[18][19]

Stanfield performs under the stage name Htiekal (his first name backwards) and is working on his debut album, titled Self Control.^[20] He is a member of the band Moors, with Hrishikesh Hirway of Song Exploder.^[7][21] Stanfield signed to Def Jam in 2025.^[22]

Stanfield lives in Los Angeles.^[23] Stanfield has a daughter born in 2017 with actress Xosha Roquemore,^[4][24] and a second daughter born in 2022 with artist Tylor Hurd.^[25][26] In December 2022, Stanfield and model Kasmere Trice announced their engagement and by July 2023, they had privately married and had their first child together.^[27]