Biography
Jeffrey Wright
Table of Contents
About Jeffrey Wright
Jeffrey Wright is a professional Hollywood actor popular for his supporting roles in various hit action movies like Quantum of Solace, Casino Royale, The Hunger Games, etc. He is mostly known for his character as Tony in the TV series called Angels in America.
| Quick Info | |
|---|---|
| Full Name | Jeffrey Wright |
| Date of Birth | December 7, 1965 |
| Birth Place | Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| Parent(s) | Barbara Evon and James Charles Wright |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Spouse(s) | Carmen Ejogo (m. 2000; div. 2014) |
| Net worth | US $8 million |
Early life
Wright was born on 7th December of 1965 in the capital city of the United States, Washington, D.C. Thus, he belongs to American nationality. He was born to Barbara Evon and James Charles Wright. His brother died when he was a child, and we can say that he grew up in a healthy family. His mother used to work as a lawyer. He studied at St. Albans School for his schooling, which was located in his city. As for his university, he graduated from Amherst College in Massachusetts in 2004 with a political science degree.
Initially, he was planning to join the law school after graduation but ended up joining drama school. He studied for two months at New York University, after which he dropped out to focus on becoming an actor full-time.
Career
Film:
Jeffrey Wright has played numerous small roles and multiple supporting character roles in the movie. He has also achieved multiple awards and nominations for his supporting roles.
He made his acting career debut in 1990, where he appeared as the Prosecuting Attorney in a legal drama film called Presumed Innocent. Then he played other small roles in the movie Jumpin’ at the Boneyard in 1992, Faithful in 1996, Critical Care in 1997. In 1996, he played the lead role in the biographical film called Basquiat, where he portrayed the character of Jean-Michel Basquiat. For his performance in the movie, he earned the Independent Spirit Awards for Best Debut Performance nomination.
During the year 1998, he appeared in many films, namely Too Tired to Die, Celebrity, Meschugge, Blossoms, and Veils as a small and supporting character. In 1999, he starred in the film Cement as Ninny and Rode with the Devil as Daniel Holt. In the following years, Wright appeared in Hamlet, Crime, and Punishment in Suburbia, Shaft, Ali, D-Tox, of which he earned an award for the movie Shaft. In 2006, he played the character of Felix Leitner in the James Bond film called Casino Royale alongside Eva Green and Caterina Murino and later appeared once again as the same character in the series in 2008.
Jeffrey Wright also made his producing debut from the movie Blackout in 2007. He also voiced in an animated film called Ernest &n Celestine as the Grizzly Judge, and he received the nomination for voicing in another animated series called The Good Dinosaur in 2015.
His upcoming movies will be released in 2022, where he will be portraying the character of James Gordon in The Batman, and another film, No Time to Die, will be released in 2021.
Television:
Jeffrey Wright made his breakthrough from the HBO miniseries called Angels in America in 2003, where he played several small roles appearing in 6 episodes. He received countless nominations and awards for his outstanding performance in the series. He also received an award for the TV film Boycott, where he starred in the character of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr in 2001. In 2005, he received another promising role in Lackawanna Blues, where he portrayed Mr. Paul’s.
In 2016, he landed the leading role in the science fiction series called Westworld as Bernard Lowe. The series is still running as of 2020. Besides that, he has played other countless TV series, namely Sesame Street, Confirmation, House, The Venture Brothers, etc.
Video Games:
In 2020, Wright voiced for the character named Isaac Dixon in an action-adventure game called The Last of Us Part II.
Awards & nominations
Wright received his first award called Tony Awards for Best Featured Actor in a Play for his performance in the Angels in America: Perestroika in 1994. He won his second award in 2000 for the movie Shaft, in which he won the Toronto Film Critics Association Awards for Best Supporting Performance, Male.
Jeffrey Wright was nominated with AFI Awards for AFI Actor of the Year – Male – Movie or Mini-Series and successfully won the award for his performance in the movie Boycott. He has achieved a total of 10 awards of which he received 4 Black Reel Awards between 2004 and 2016. He won the awards for Television: Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Angels in America, Best Supporting Actor- Television for the movie Lackawanna Blues and received the Best Supporting Actor award and Best Ensemble award for the film Cadillac Records.
Jeffrey Wright also won the Golden Globe Awards for Best Supporting Actor- Series, Miniseries, or Television Film from the film Angels in America in 2004 and Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie the same year. In 2005, his performance in the movie Broken Flowers earned him the San Diego Film Critics Society Awards for Best Supporting Actor.
In 2007, he was awarded Career Achievement Award at Chicago International Film Festival. Apart from that, he has achieved numerous nominations, proving how good of an actor he is.
Personal life
Jeffrey Wright is currently single and divorced. He was committed to Carmen Ejojo, an English actress, in 2000, and had two children, namely Elijah (son) and Juno (daughter). The family lived in Brooklyn in New York City, but they got divorced in early 2014 and parted their ways.
Wright also opened a company for gold exploration in Sierra Leone of West Africa in 2011, but the company seems to be bankrupted and unsuccessful according to the news.
Jeffrey Wright is active on Instagram and Twitter. He has over 93.1 thousand followers on Instagram and over 287 thousand followers on Twitter. He seems to be enjoying his life to the fullest right now. To learn more about his daily life and thoughts, we can follow him with @jfreewright in both accounts.
Physical statistics
Jeffrey Wright has a height of 5 feet and 10 inches and body weight around 83 kg. He possesses a slim and healthy body. He has black skin complexion with black hair color and dark brown eye. He usually keeps his straight hair short.
He belongs to Afro-American ethnicity, and his sexual orientation is straight.
Net worth
Jeffrey Wright has a net worth of 8 million dollars. He earns his millions from the hit movies and TV series he plays on.
