Biography
Clinton Cowart has emerged as one of the most noticeable up-and-coming actors in Savannah, Georgia, developing an acting portfolio in stage, screen, dramatic, and comical roles. Cowart was born on November 17, 1970, in Savannah, Georgia, to a musician, pool builder, and NASCAR driver, Delma Cowart, and bank teller, Dale Brown. Clinton and his older sister, Denise Cowart, were in and out of clinics and hospitals during the early years of their childhood. The long bouts of isolation in the various clinics and hospitals during Cowart's early years gave him an innate attraction toward large crowds and an aversion to anti-social environments. Conceived from a family of musicians and dancers, Cowart began singing in chorus all the way from elementary and middle school through high school and college. Like his grandfather (Clinton "Red" Cowart), Cowart picked up the violin as his instrument of preference but later decided on the bass guitar. Although, unlike his mother, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather, he just did not belong in the musical world. The stage is where Clinton felt alive and in his element.
Born to die (he lived to triumph against all odds), he emerged into a world of bleak possibilities, only to gradually overcome insurmountable odds. He was born with pre-existing conditions (being handicap), which included a rare genetic abnormality, multiple sclerosis, cirrhosis of the liver, a cleft palate, and partial paralysis. However, through sheer determination, he has overcome every obstacle, including healing from the partial paralysis and eventually learning to walk. In addition to dealing with his handicap on a daily basis, Cowart also won a decade-long battle against the local board of education, allowing him to participate in a normal classroom instead of a class where both mentally and physically handicapped students received the same education-it consisted mostly of color sheets and counting from one to ten. In order to achieve this, Cowart learned how to read and master other scholastic subjects at a competent skill level in only three months-a test which the board expected him to fail as their wish on him was for him not to attend public school. Although a few years behind his peers in school, Cowart succeeded in his struggle and went on to graduate from high school.
Cowart started in Elementary school as a dramatic arts student and quickly immersed himself in singing and dancing as soon as he gained the ability to walk. His first theatre experience was in 1980 in a role as Little Boy Blue in "Babes in Toyland." In 1981, Cowart was an extra on the set of the CBS movie, "When The Circus Came To Town" starring Elizabeth Montgomery. Cowart displayed his versatility in 1981 when he performed as Nanki-Po in Gilbert and Sullivan's comedic musical, "The Mikado." He surprised audiences as Nanki-Po with his second soprano singing range. A decade later, in 1991, Cowart returned to the theatre as Carl Lloyd in "Agatha Christie Made Me Do It." The Chatham County Board of Education applauded his theatre performances and awarded him the 1991 William C. Harris Scholarship for a graduating senior with handicaps.
After establishing a name for himself in the theatre, Cowart walked away from acting in 1991 to pursue a liberal arts education at Armstrong State University focusing on musical performance and composition. In 1998, Cowart severed his ties with the arts to delve into the world of technology where he obtained a computer degree from Georgia Southern University. The nature of the technology world proved to be too isolated for Cowart; he found himself craving more human interaction and the field of human resource management caught his attention in this regard. It was in the field of HR that Cowart felt his knowledge of employment law combined with his unique life experiences providing him with an edge in becoming a positive force for change in the workforce environment. In 2010, Cowart received his master's degree in Human Resource Management from Webster University. As time passed, Cowart realized that he craved more than just human interaction; the stage and camera whose siren song he kept experiencing was what he longed for.
After a self-imposed exile for more than two decades, Cowart returned to the stage in 2015 as not one, but two characters, Gabe and Arthur, in The Shoestring Theatre Company's rendition of "The Stupidest Angel." A short while after this performance, Cowart was approached to play a small cameo as a cult follower in the 2016 short titled "Celestial." That same year, Cowart joined The Richmond Hill Community Theatre's production of "Robin Hood" as Arthur-a-Bland. Subsequently, he appeared in several scenes as an extra in episodes 4 and 5 of season 2 on the television show, "Underground." He then took on the 2016 role of a comedic character, Judge I. L. Hangum, in the play, "Fairy Tale Courtroom." Cowart had audiences rolling on the floor with laughter as the frat boy, Beau, in the 2017 short, "Not It" and in awe as devilish and manipulative Dorian Flare in the 2017 web episode, "Abandon All Hope" season 1 from the web series "They All Have Stories." After that, he played Kenneth in the 2017 short student television pilot "Patience." In May of that year, Cowart played an over-the-top Inspector Fuller in the play, "The Murder Mystery at the Murder Mystery" and was interviewed for a short web documentary, "Actor's Life." Due to his outgoing presence, Cowart was hand-picked to play Mr. Pool for the short film "Crushess." Finally, after taking on good guy and comedic roles, Cowart decided to try out a role in horror in the short film, "Bloody Thoughts." Cowart is still active in the theatre as well as on television and in film.
