Wendell Pierce

Wendell Edward Pierce (born December 8, 1962) is an American actor and businessman. Having trained at Juilliard School, Pierce rose to prominence as a character actor of stage and screen. He first gained recognition portraying Detective Bunk Moreland in the HBO drama series The Wire from 2002 to 2008.

Pierce's other notable television roles include the trombonist Antoine Batiste in Treme (2010–2013), James Greer in Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan (2018–2023), the attorney Robert Zane in Suits (2013–2019), and Clarence Thomas in Confirmation (2016). He earned Independent Spirit Awards nominations for his film roles in Four (2012) and Burning Cane (2019), on which he also served as a producer. Other notable film roles include Malcolm X (1992), Waiting to Exhale (1995), Ray (2004), Selma (2014), The Gift (2015), and Clemency (2019).

Pierce made his Broadway debut in John Pielmeier's 1985 play The Boys of Winter, followed by Caryl Churchill's Serious Money in 1988. As a theatrical producer, he earned a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Play for August Wilson's Radio Golf (2007), then won for Bruce Norris's Clybourne Park (2012). He performed the lead role of Willy Loman in the revival of Death of a Salesman on the West End in London in 2019 and on Broadway in New York in 2022, for which he earned nominations for the Laurence Olivier Award and Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Play.

Wendell Pierce was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, one of three sons of a teacher and a decorated World War II veteran who worked as a maintenance engineer. His father's segregated Army unit helped Marines win the Battle of Saipan in 1944. Pierce has said of his father's experience: My father fought in World War II, loved this country when this country wasn't loving him back. My father fought in Saipan, came back, was awarded medals and were denied them by a white officer who said, "no, not you, not your unit." There was nothing that this country was doing for him or to him that would make him love this country. And in spite of all of that, he gave us a love for country because of the values that we are aspiring to as a nation.Pierce was raised in the black middle-class community of Pontchartrain Park, the first African-American postwar suburb. His father, along with many other black veterans, moved there after returning from the war. The neighborhood was wiped out during Hurricane Katrina in 2005, including Pierce's family home, which was flooded by 14 feet (4.3 m) of water.

Pierce graduated in 1981 from both Benjamin Franklin High School and the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (most NOCCA students attend traditional secondary school in the mornings and the arts school in the afternoons). In 1981, he was named a Presidential Scholar of the Arts. As a young actor, he appeared in The Winter's Tale at the Tulane Shakespeare Festival. He produced and hosted Think About It, a youth-themed talk show, for the local NBC affiliate station, and also hosted a weekly jazz show on WYLD-FM Radio called Extensions from Congo Square.

Pierce then attended the Juilliard School's Drama Division from 1981 to 1985, graduating as a member of Group 14 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts. In May 2023, Pierce received an honorary doctorate from the Juilliard School.

Pierce made his television debut on the HBO anthology series Vietnam War Story in the third episode, "The Pass", along with Ching Valdes-Aran, Tony Becker, and Merritt Butrick. His second television role was Dr. Wolff in two episodes of The Equalizer (1988, 1989).

Pierce worked on the HBO dramas The Wire and Treme. When first cast in The Wire, he and his castmates doubted the show would be a hit: "I remember the first time we all sat around and watched the pilot. We all turned to each other and said, 'Man, I don't think this shit is going anywhere.'" For his role in Treme, Pierce learned to play trombone, though he relied on "sound double" Stafford Agee of the Rebirth Brass Band. Agee played off-camera for Pierce, syncing his trombone with Pierce's motions for authenticity.

In 2012, he played J. Jenks in The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2.

Pierce was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead for his portrayal of Joe, a married and closeted gay man who steps out on his family with a young white man he met online, in Four. The film was released in September 2013, around the same time that The Michael J. Fox Show debuted on NBC, in which Pierce played Michael J. Fox's character's boss. The show was canceled five months later.

Pierce wrote and published a book in 2015, The Wind in the Reeds: A Storm, A Play, and the City That Would Not Be Broken on his experiences with the Beckett play Waiting for Godot, and the flooding of New Orleans in 2005.

Pierce considers himself a "true capitalist" and a "classic entrepreneur".

In 2013, Fast Company named Pierce one of the "100 Most Creative People in Business".

Pierce started the nonprofit Pontchartrain Park Community Development Corp. to build new affordable solar and geothermal homes in the area for families displaced by Hurricane Katrina.

In 2012, inspired in part by Michelle Obama's initiative to bring more supermarkets to food deserts where residents lack easy access to fresh produce, Pierce, along with partners Troy Henry and James Hatchett, started Sterling Farms, a chain of grocery stores in the Ninth Ward of New Orleans. The chain closed 13 months later. Sterling Farms also had a convenience store division, Sterling Express. The stores were named after Sterling Henry, Troy Henry's father, who ran a pharmacy for about 40 years in the Lower Ninth Ward.

Pierce describes himself as "tri-coastal", splitting his time among Los Angeles, New York City, and New Orleans. He is a New Orleans Saints supporter, and locals have nicknamed him "Saints Wendell". He is also an avid supporter of St. Patrick's Athletic FC. He is Catholic.

Pierce was a vocal supporter of Hillary Clinton and was on the board of Alliance for a Healthier Generation, a campaign created by the Clinton Foundation. He attended the 2012 Democratic National Convention, was one of President Barack Obama's top campaign fundraisers in 2012, and once escorted Gwen Ifill to a White House state dinner. Pierce announced the ceremonial delegate casting for Louisiana at the 2024 Democratic National Convention.