Erik Jensen (actor)

Erik Jensen is an American actor and playwright.

Early life

Jensen was born and raised in Minnesota. He graduated from Apple Valley High School in 1988, and earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in acting from Carnegie Mellon University.

Career

An actor, writer, and producer, Jensen has had roles in TV, film, and stage, most notably as legendary Thurman Munson of the New York Yankees in The Bronx Is Burning. He portrayed Dr. Stephen Edwards on "The Walking Dead", and appeared alongside Aasif Mandvi in the Pulitzer Prize-winning production of Ayad Akhtars Disgraced at Lincoln Center.

In spring 2015, Erik portrayed gonzo rock critic Lester Bangs in "How to Be a Rock Critic" (co-written with Jessica Blank) at Center Theater Group in Los Angeles.

Erik co-wrote the critically acclaimed play The Exonerated with his wife, Jessica Blank. It ran in Off Broadway in New York City for nearly two years.The play is based on interviews they conducted with more than 40 exonerated death row inmates. In 2002, it was staged at The Actors' Gang Theater. It was nominated for five Ovation Awards and three NAACP Awards, winning the Ovation for Best World Premiere Play. Bob Balaban's production of The Exonerated ran for more than 600 performances off-Broadway and toured nationally.

Ajay Naidu

Ajay Kalahastri Naidu (born February 12, 1972) is an American actor. He is of Indian origin.

Early life and education

Naidu, an Indian American, was born in Evanston, Illinois. His parents came from India to the United States in 1964. He attended Evanston Township High School. He trained with the American Repertory Theater's Institute for Advanced Theater Training at Harvard University.

Career

Naidu's first professional acting job was the film Touch and Go (released in 1986) which he won from an open call. He starred in the TV movie, Lady Blue (1985) as Paquito. This was followed by an ABC Afterschool Special episode, "No Greater Gift" (1985), where he played Nick Santana, a 12-year-old boy with a terminal illness. Naidu then appeared in the MacGyver TV series' first season episode, "To Be a Man" in 1986.

Other film credits when younger include Where the River Runs Black (1986) and Vice Versa (1988). Between 1988 and 1995 he worked extensively in classical theatre.

Naidu returned to film acting in SubUrbia in 1996.

William Sadler (actor)

William Thomas Sadler (born April 13, 1950) is an American film and television actor. His television and motion picture roles have included Lewis Burwell "Chesty" Puller in The Pacific, Luther Sloan in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Sheriff Jim Valenti in Roswell, convict Heywood in The Shawshank Redemption, and the Grim Reaper in Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey, a role for which he won the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor, and his role as the villainous Colonel Stuart opposite Bruce Willis in Die Hard 2. He played the character of President of the United States, Matthew Ellis, in Iron Man 3 and in Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and recurs as Steve McGarrett's murdered father in the latter-day 2000's remake of Hawaii Five-O. In 2015, Sadler had an appearance in the TV series Z Nation.

Early life

Sadler was born in Buffalo, New York, the son of Jane and William Sadler. He is of mostly Scottish descent, with smaller amounts of English and German ancestry. From an early age, he took to performing in front of an audience. Playing a variety of stringed instruments, Sadler found hometown success during his high school years at Orchard Park High School. He took on the persona as Banjo Bill Sadler, a banjo-playing singer who cracked jokes while playing. Both students and teachers enjoyed his performances, which led Sadler to audition for the senior play under English teacher Dan Larkin's persuasion. He won the role, which led him to want to be an actor. After graduating from high school, he enrolled in SUNY Geneseo. Following that, he spent two years at Cornell University where he earned his Master's degree in Acting with a minor in Speech Communications. He is a certified speech teacher and practised in accents.

Shamika Cotton

Shamika Cotton is an American actress from Cincinnati, Ohio. She is perhaps best known to television viewers as Michael Lee's drug-addicted mother Raylene Lee in the acclaimed HBO series The Wire.

Career

Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, Shamika Cotton graduated from Cincinnati's competitive School for the Creative and Performing Arts . In 2006, Cotton appeared on the "I Wanna Be A Soap Star" reality series to good reviews, and her performances from the show were also highlighted on Entertainment Tonight.

In November, 2007, Cotton launched a weekly videocast on YouTube entitled the “Shamika Chronicles”, a series that follows her life and offers a realistic look at the daily life and work of an aspiring actress.

References

External links

Whoopi Goldberg

Caryn Elaine Johnson (born November 13, 1955), better known by her stage name Whoopi Goldberg (/ˈhwʊpi/), is an American actress, comedian, and television host. She has been nominated for 13 Emmy Awards for her work in television, and is one of the few entertainers who has won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Award. She was the second black woman in the history of the Academy Awards to win an acting Oscar.

Her breakthrough role was playing Celie, a mistreated black woman in the Deep South in the period drama film The Color Purple (1985), for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress. Goldberg played Oda Mae Brown, an eccentric psychic helping a slain man (Patrick Swayze) save his lover (Demi Moore), in the romantic fantasy film Ghost (1990), for which she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She was co-producer of the television game show Hollywood Squares from 1998 to 2002. She has been the moderator of the daytime television talk show The View since 2007.