Biography
Carson Grant, an American actor and artist from the USA, has pursued his artistic passions throughout his life.
In 1970, Grant studied method acting with Lee Strasberg in New York City. By 1972, he joined the acting unions Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, and Actors Equity Association, and was represented by Myrna Jacobi at the William Morris Agency. In 1998, upon the invitation of Italian director Edoardo Amati to play the lead role of Frank Falcone in "Master Shot," Grant returned to film acting.
Born Carson Ferri and raised in a middle-class family in Rhode Island to mother Leila Natalie Sweet and father Joseph Anchise Agostino Ferri, he has created characters and stories through drawings, paintings, films, and stage performances. His first acting experience was at age six at the Touissett Point Coggeshall Community Center in Warren, RI. Inspired by The Mickey Mouse Club, at age 10 he and a friend produced children's theater shows in his family's garage attic, directing and acting in productions for neighborhood children. During grammar school, he designed seasonal showcase displays and painted murals.
At 12, recommended by his art teacher, Grant attended Saturday figure drawing and painting classes at the Rhode Island School of Design. As a young artist, he received the Rhode Island Scholastic Gold Key Art Award.
By 14, influenced by The Rascals, The Doors, The Rolling Stones, and The Beatles, Grant began his baritone singing career, forming the band The Younger Breed with four musicians. They performed at college dances and events throughout New England, including the Battle of the Bands sponsored by RI-WPRO radio.
In the 1970s, after graduating from Saint Raphael Academy and completing one semester in the Fine Arts Program at the University of Rhode Island, Grant moved to New York City in 1970 to study acting with Lee Strasberg and voice with Wally Harper.
Following his casting in the famous U.N.C.F. commercial campaign "A Mind is a Terrible Thing to Waste," he joined SAG, AFTRA, and AEA, and by 1972 was represented by William Morris Agency under the stage name Carson Grant. He began his film career with small roles in classics such as "Man on a Swing," "The Front," and "Death Wish." In his twenties, he portrayed Thomas Jefferson in the WNET 13 Bicentennial series The Last Ballot and performed various stage roles with the New York City Opera Company.
Grant also painted large oil canvases and created art installations within the East Village, Manhattan 1970s Art Movement, participating in Colab, Charas PS64 - El Bohio, ABC No Rio, and numerous group shows in alternative spaces across the boroughs. His living sand sculpture installation "Coney Island Bathing Beauties" was recognized by Leo Castelli at "The Coney Island Art Show 1980," and his triptych "In Life Turmoil" featured in the "Times Square Show" 1980 organized by Collaborative Projects Inc. (Colab). Known for his cobalt blue graffiti tag of a pine tree coastline with his initials CFG, he painted a 100-foot mural titled "Open your Irises" on the Lower East Side's Con Edison plant wall, protesting pollution from the energy plant. Inspired by Robert Rauschenberg's socially conscious art, Grant's solo exhibition "Nature-Nuclear" at the 1979 Jack Morris Gallery featured a large climb-in sculpture titled "Scarred Mother Earth Uterus," depicting post-nuclear environmental damage and urging consideration of alternative energy.
During this period, he co-founded the Westside Arts Coalition with Upper West Side artists at Symphony Space to promote exhibition spaces and affordable studios. In 1981, during a march to Lincoln Center protesting President Reagan's arts budget cuts, Grant's photographs were featured on the Westsider Newspaper front page. That year, he also founded the nonprofit Environmental Artists United (EAU), which merged art and environmental conservation in educational exhibitions and received grants from America the Beautiful Fund and the Avon Foundation. Grant exhibited extensively in alternative New York City art spaces during the 1970s and 1980s.
He earned a BA with summa cum laude honors in Psychology and Art from Hunter College (CUNY), serving as Psi Chi president in 1979.
In the 1980s, Ferri-Grant earned a Master of Arts with summa cum laude honors in Socio-Drama from the University of Connecticut. He pursued postgraduate studies in community affairs and organizational fundraising at Columbia University and presented research at the 1985 Drama Therapy Association Convention at Georgetown University.
Throughout the 1990s, Grant worked in computer graphics and video editing while continuing his visual arts career until director Edoardo Amati cast him as lead Frank Falcone in "Master Shot" (1998), revitalizing his acting career.
In the 2000s, one of Grant's most challenging roles was portraying Howard Hughes at ages 40 and 60, depicting his struggles with paranoia and drug-induced states in the unreleased film "HH." He played dual-lead roles in Robert Munoz's feature "Dear J," and sang as Tom Albright in the unreleased musical film "Summer Dayz," directed by the Passero brothers.
Grant portrayed The Preacher in "The House is Burning," which premiered at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival alongside Wim Wenders' "Chambre 666," winning Best Picture at both the Woodstock and Hoboken Film Festivals in 2006.
For his role as Mr. O'Brien in the short film "God Bless America" (director Rodrigo Diaz McVeigh), Grant won Best Actor at the Guild of Italian American Actors Film Festival 2007, recognized for his positive portrayal of Italian American culture.
As Joaquin in "The West Side," Grant and the cast won Best Web Drama at the inaugural Webby Awards in 2007, directed by Ryan Billborrow-Koo and Zachary Liebman.
Grant served as elected vice president of the Guild of Italian American Actors (GIAA) from 2008 to 2023 and as the GIAA’s vice president delegate to the Department for Professional Employees (DPE) through the Associated Actors and Artistes of America (4As).
Beginning in 2009, Carson Ferri-Grant was featured in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in American Art, and Who’s Who in the World.
In 2010, he won Best Ensemble with the cast for his role as Abramo Mangene in the feature film and web series pilot "Gelber and Manning in Pictures," directed by James Lester, at the New York Television Competition. That same year, he earned Best Supporting Actor for his role as Murray Bailey in "Sneakers & Soul," directed by Jonathan Zelenak, at the Sunscreen Film Festival.
In 2013, Grant performed alongside B.D. Wong, Eisa Davis, Olympia Dukakis, Megan Weston, and Robert Osborne in composer Laura Kaminsky’s multidisciplinary event "November 21, 1963: The Day Before" at Symphony Space, NYC—a theater Grant helped preserve through the Westside Arts Coalition. The New York Times’ Steven Smith praised the event in a review commemorating the 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination.
In 2015, Grant, then Vice President of GIAA, was elected Vice President of the International Board of the Associated Actors and Artistes of America, the Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO.
That year, he was honored to portray Jesus being taken down from the cross in Bernardo Siciliano’s painting exhibited at Aicon Gallery, NYC. He also sang and performed as Utnapishtim in "Gilgamesh, the Musical," directed by Peter Petkovsek and composed by Ian Wehrle at the Connelly Theater, NYC.
In 2017, Grant won Best Actor for his role as Professor John Allen in "One Penny" at the Philadelphia Independent Film Festival’s Film Forum Selections. He appeared as "Yogi Namaste" in Emblem Health’s 2017 campaign.
As a real estate agent with Halstead Property, NYC, Grant received the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY) Deal of the Year 2017 award, honoring his ethics, integrity, and commitment to Fair Housing and the Americans with Disabilities Act.
In 2019, Grant relocated to Los Angeles and signed with CESD-LA.
In 2020, he was cast as Francisco Santos in the film "Amazon Queen." Developing a friendship and partnership with director Marlin Darrah, Grant contributed as Producer and Executive Producer. Throughout 2021, "Amazon Queen" won numerous film festival awards.
In 2021, Grant won Best Lead Actor at the Rome International Film Festival for his portrayal of Francisco Santos in "Amazon Queen."
That year, as Vice President of GIAA, Grant spoke at the DPE Arts, Entertainment, and Media Unions’ Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Policy Agenda Press Conference, emphasizing the arts as a crossroads where all societies meet, invoking the preamble of the U.S. Constitution, "We the People."
Also in 2021, he performed as Ivan the Ghost in "Hollywood Ghost Stories," composed by Joelle Sahar with lyrics by Marilyn Haese, at the New Musical in North Hollywood.
From 2022 through 2026, Carson Ferri-Grant’s painting series has been exhibited at the LA Art Show from 2023 to 2026 at the LA Convention Center. His artwork is featured on Artsy.net under his name.
To date, Carson Grant has created over 400 theater and film characters.
