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Wren T. Brown, a versatile actor known for his rich, melodious voice, is a fourth-generation Angeleno and theatrical artist. Proudly marking his fourth decade as an actor, producer, and director, Brown hails from Los Angeles and comes from a lineage of talented performers. His father is jazz trumpeter Troy Brown Jr., his paternal grandmother Bertha McElroy was a dancer at New York City's Cotton Club, and his paternal grandfather Troy Brown Sr. was the fifth Black actor in the Screen Actors Guild. On his mother's side, his grandmother Ruth Givens was a torch singer and dancer at Los Angeles' Cotton Club and appeared in films, while his maternal grandfather Lee Young Sr. was the first Black staff musician at Columbia Pictures in 1946 and served as drummer and musical director for Nat King Cole. His great-grandfather, Willis Handy Young, was a multi-instrumentalist, teacher, and Vaudeville troupe owner at the dawn of the 20th century with The New Orleans Strutters.
Brown’s film credits include Beyond the Lights, Waiting to Exhale, Heart and Souls, Under Siege 2: Dark Territory, The Dinner, Hollywood Shuffle, Biker Boyz, The Importance of Being Earnest, Midnight Clear, and David Mamet's Edmond. On television, he co-starred as Whoopi Goldberg’s brother and comic foil in NBC’s Whoopi, was a regular on Flipper: The New Adventures and CBS’s Bless This House, and guest-starred or had recurring roles on The West Wing, The Practice, Touched by an Angel, Frasier, Seinfeld, Charmed, Star Trek: Voyager, Eli Stone, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Women’s Murder Club, Everybody Hates Chris, The Game, Half & Half, and starred opposite John Larroquette in Hallmark’s McBride: Tune in for Murder. More recently, Brown appeared in the award-winning Amazon series Transparent, Dear White People, Being Mary Jane, Grey’s Anatomy (recurring), and voiced Virgil Simpson, Homer’s Black ancestor on The Simpsons. Upcoming projects include the film Remember Me: The Mahalia Jackson Story and reprising his role as Ambassador Rechik, the Moclan leader, in Seth MacFarlane’s Hulu sci-fi hit The Orville: New Horizons.
His theatre work includes a Drama-Logue Award-winning performance in Shakespeare’s As You Like It, On Borrowed Time, Burning Hope, an NAACP Image Award-nominated role in Jeffrey’s Plan, and The Public Theatre’s The Gospel at Colonus at the Delacorte in September 2018.
Brown has appeared in over 100 commercials and numerous voice-over and spoken-word projects. Notably, Grammy-winning pianist Billy Childs selected him to recite Langston Hughes’ classic poem "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" on Childs’ Grammy-nominated album I’ve Known Rivers. He has narrated The History Channel’s U.S.S. Constellation: Battling For Freedom, The Learning Channel’s Scene of the Crime, and E! True Hollywood Story on Diana Ross. Brown has voiced Disney’s Br’er Rabbit for various projects and currently narrates Laurence Fishburne’s 1940s Chicago podcast Bronzeville.
Making his directorial debut, Brown directed over 35 actors in Inspired By... The Bible Experience, which won the 2007 Audie Award for Audiobook of the Year, also narrating the book of Matthew. In April 2018, he directed August Wilson’s Fences at Lone Tree Arts Center in Colorado, marking his theatre directing debut. In 1999, he produced the critically acclaimed feature Boesman & Lena starring Danny Glover and Angela Bassett, followed by Dianne Reeves’ concert film In the Moment: Live in Concert. He has produced various short films for emerging directors. In 2019, Brown directed Lady Day at The Emerson Bar & Grill at Long Beach’s International City Theatre, then staged it at Ebony Repertory Theatre in 2020, Solvang Festival Theater in California, and freeFall Theatre in St. Petersburg, Florida in 2021. He also directed two productions of Blues in the Night in 2021.
In 2007, Brown founded Ebony Repertory Theatre (ERT), Los Angeles’ first African-American professional Equity theatre company, where he serves as producing artistic director. Under his leadership, ERT has produced Ovation Award- and NAACP Theatre Award-winning productions including Two Trains Running, Crowns, A Raisin In the Sun, Fraternity, Robeson, and The Gospel at Colonus, which the Los Angeles Times praised as "theater at its most healing, electrifying and transcendent" and called for attendance. The company’s hit musical Five Guys Named Moe was described by the Los Angeles Times as "...one of the more entertaining experiences available to humanity...". Brown also leads a six-week entertainment industry seminar through the ERT Performance Lab titled Purpose, Passion & Possibility, and is an active cultural and motivational speaker.
He has served on the boards of Antioch University Los Angeles, the Screen Actors Guild, Friends of Washington Preparatory High School, Complexions Contemporary Ballet, and Charles R. Drew University.
