Wendell Pierce

Wendell Edward Pierce (born December 8, 1962) is an American actor and businessman. Having trained at Juilliard School, Pierce rose to prominence as a character actor of stage and screen. He first gained recognition portraying Detective Bunk Moreland in the HBO drama series The Wire from 2002 to 2008.

Pierce's other notable television roles include the trombonist Antoine Batiste in Treme (2010–2013), James Greer in Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan (2018–2023), the attorney Robert Zane in Suits (2013–2019), and Clarence Thomas in Confirmation (2016). He earned Independent Spirit Awards nominations for his film roles in Four (2012) and Burning Cane (2019), on which he also served as a producer. Other notable film roles include Malcolm X (1992), Waiting to Exhale (1995), Ray (2004), Selma (2014), The Gift (2015), and Clemency (2019).

Pierce made his Broadway debut in John Pielmeier's 1985 play The Boys of Winter, followed by Caryl Churchill's Serious Money in 1988. As a theatrical producer, he earned a Tony Award for Best Play nomination for August Wilson's Radio Golf (2007), then won for Bruce Norris's Clybourne Park (2012). He performed the lead role of Willy Loman in the revival of Death of a Salesman on the West End in London in 2019 and on Broadway in New York in 2022, for which he earned Laurence Olivier Award and Tony Award nominations.

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

My father fought in World War II, loved this country when this country wasn't loving him back. My father fought in Saipan, came back, was awarded medals and were denied them by a white officer who said, "no, not you, not your unit." There was nothing that this country was doing for him or to him that would make him love this country. And in spite of all of that, he gave us a love for country because of the values that we are aspiring to as a nation.

Pierce was raised in the black middle-class community of Pontchartrain Park, the first African-American postwar suburb. His father, along with many other black veterans, moved there after returning from the war. The neighborhood was wiped out during Hurricane Katrina in 2005, including Pierce's family home, which was flooded by 14 feet (4.3 m) of water.

Pierce graduated in 1981 from both Benjamin Franklin High School and the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (most NOCCA students attend traditional secondary school in the mornings and the arts school in the afternoons). In 1981, he was named a Presidential Scholar of the Arts. As a young actor, he 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.

Pierce then attended the Juilliard School's Drama Division from 1981 to 1985, graduating as a member of Group 14 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts. In May 2023, Pierce received an honorary doctorate from the Juilliard School.