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Derrick L. McMillon's first acting performance occurred when he was in the 5th grade school play as Uncle Remus in Disney's "Songs of the South", singing the show-stopping and extremely popular song Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah. Coming full circle many years later, Derrick can now be heard in Disney's blockbuster film "Mufasa: The Lion King" as the voice of Mosi, the banishment Baboon Leader.
Derrick's career began in Florida where he was born and raised with his father who was a postman, his mother who was a special education teacher, and his 5 siblings, 4 sisters and 1 brother. After high school, higher education and football called. He graduated with his Associate Arts Degree from Seminole Community College, which helped him get a shot at walking onto the University of Central Florida's football team. Successful on making the team, he spent 2 years playing football there in the positions of Cornerback and Free Safety. His head still in the clouds about a football career, a friend's mom suggested he try commercials because of his natural comedic timing and ability to make people laugh.
After a stint in Orlando, Florida doing a string of commercials and TV spots, a break came his way. While waiting tables at Planet Hollywood Orlando, Hollywood had come to town. A fellow server was in charge of putting together extras for a big budget film called "Rosewood". She had become friends with the Stunt Coordinator, who was looking for a tough Black stunt guy, who could deliver dialogue as well. She approached Derrick at work, knowing he was a dialogue actor with a football background, and asked if he was interested in auditioning for this film. Excited about this rare opportunity, he drove after his shift to Gainesville, Florida in the middle of the night. There he auditioned directly for well-known director John Singleton on set and booked that role. Everything went so well on set that Derrick considered this as his invitation that Hollywood was knocking on his door. With a few appearances in television shows and in movies that were shot locally in Florida under his belt, it was time for Derrick to go west to Los Angeles.
Fresh off the boat from Florida, Hollywood was in fact knocking as Derrick started landing roles in several projects and became a working actor. As the roles continued to grow, so did his career. With a now established film and television career in Los Angeles for over 25 years, Derrick has worked on such prominent television series as "NCIS", "Young Sheldon", and "Justified", and in projects with such well-known actors as Julie Roberts, William Shatner, Kathy Bates, Kiefer Sutherland, Mark Harmon, LL Cool J, Beyoncé, Jon Voight, Candace Bergan, James Spader, and Cuba Gooding Jr.
Still working as an actor after a brief stuntman career, Derrick never forgot his first love of doing voices, which was awakened again after the recent resurgence in his voiceover career with his role in Disney's "Mufasa: The Lion King" as the voice of Mosi, which was offered to him after working for a few years with director Barry Jenkins in the voice creation process. Derrick spent countless hours mimicking voices and workshopping original voices under Barry's careful direction, so he could hear them and see how they would fit in the movie. It was an incredibly collaborative environment and experience for Derrick, with the surprise gift of him being offered to voice the role of Mosi for this phenomenal film.
