DANNY GLOVER (Tyrone Purvis)

Actor, producer and humanitarian Danny Glover has been a commanding presence on screen, stage and television for more than 25 years.  As an actor, his film credits range from the blockbuster Lethal Weapon franchise to smaller independent features, some of which Glover also produced.  Most recently, he completed filming the critically acclaimed feature Dreamgirls directed by Bill Condon and Poor Boy’s Game for director Clement Virgo, Shooter for director Antoine Fuqua and the highly anticipated Be Kind, Rewind for director Michel Gondry and Honeydripper for director John Sayles.

At the same time, Glover has also gained respect for his wide-reaching community activism and philanthropic efforts, with a particular emphasis on advocacy for economic justice, and access to health care and education programs in the United States and Africa.  For these efforts, Glover received a 2006 DGA Honor.  Internationally, Glover has served as a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Development Program from 1998-2004, focusing on issues of poverty, disease, and economic development in Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean, and currently serves as UNICEF Ambassador.

In 2004, Glover co-founded Louverture Films (www.louverturefilms.com) dedicated to the development and production of films of historical relevance, social purpose, commercial value and artistic integrity. The New York based company has a slate of progressive features and documentaries including the recently released Bamako, which premiered to superb reviews at the Cannes International Film Festival.

A native of San Francisco, Glover trained at the Black Actors’ Workshop of the American Conservatory Theater.  It was his Broadway debut in Fugard’s Master Harold…and the Boys, which brought him to national recognition and led director Robert Benton to cast Glover in his first leading role in 1984’s Oscar^®-nominated Best Picture Places in the Heart.  The following year, Glover starred in two more Best Picture nominees: Peter Weir’s Witness and Steven Spielberg’s The Color Purple.  In 1987, Glover partnered with Mel Gibson in the first Lethal Weapon film and went on to star in three hugely successful Lethal Weapon sequels.  Glover has also invested his talents in more personal projects, including the award-winning To Sleep With Anger, which he executive produced and for which he won an Independent Spirit Award for Best Actor; Bopha!; Manderlay; Missing in America; and the film version of Athol Fugard’s play Boesman and Lena.  On the small screen, Glover won an Image Award and a Cable ACE Award and earned an Emmy nomination for his performance in the title role of the HBO movie Mandela.  He has also received Emmy nominations for his work in the acclaimed miniseries Lonesome Dove and the telefilm Freedom Song.  As a director, he earned a Daytime Emmy nomination for Showtime’s Just a Dream. 

CHARLES S. DUTTON (Maceo)

A graduate of The Yale School of Drama, Charles S. Dutton has a career spanning theater, television and film, and is one of the few actors to earn Tony, Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for the same role. He created the lead roles in three of August Wilson’s early plays: Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Jo Turners’ Come and Gone, and The Piano Lesson. He received multiple award nominations, including the Tony for Best Actor for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and The Piano Lesson. He was also nominated for an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe for The Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation of The Piano Lesson.

Dutton starred in and executive produced the Fox comedy/drama Roc, produced by HBO, for which he received several NAACP Image Award nominations. He has numerous television credits, including the miniseries The Murder of Mary Phagan, The 60’s, Deadlock, and Aftershock. His episodic appearances include House, The Sopranos and the HBO series Oz, among others. He won Emmy’s for his guest starring roles in Without a Trace and The Practice.

He is a veteran of numerous feature films such as Q & A, Aliens 3, Menace II Society, Rudy, A Low Down Dirty Shame, Cry, Beloved Country, Nick of Time, A Time to Kill, Get on the Bus, Cookie’s Fortune (for which he received and Independent Spirit Award nomination), Gothika, and Secret Window. He just completed starring in the new John Sayles film Honeydripper.

He made his directorial debut in 1997 with the HBO movie First Time Felon. He also directed the award winning HBO miniseries The Corner, for which he received a 2001 Best Director Emmy. His feature film directorial debut was the 2004 Paramount film Against the Ropes. Most recently he directed multiple episodes of the 2006 season of the Showtime series Sleeper Cell, for which he has been nominated for a DGA award.

LISA GAY HAMILTON (Delilah)

A graduate of the Juilliard School’s drama division, Hamilton’s extensive theatre credits include Isabella in Measure for Measure at the New York Shakespeare Theatre Festival opposite Kevin Kline and Andre Braugher. She also starred as Grace in the original Broadway company of August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson.

Hamilton earned the Ovation nomination for best actress for her work as Veronica in Athol Fugard’s play, Valley Song, at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles. Mr. Fugard also directed this production.   Additionally, she earned an Obie Award, the Clarence Derwent Award and a Drama Desk nomination for the role as the play toured to the Manhattan Theatre Club and the McCarter Theatre. Recently she starred on Broadway in August Wilson’s play Gem of the Ocean.

Hamilton’s film credits include Clint Eastwood’s True Crime, the independents Palookaville, Drunks, The Sum of All Fears, as Ophelia in director Campbell Scott’s film of Hamlet, and the Jonathan Demme films Beloved and The Truth About Charlie, where she stars opposite Mark Wahlberg and Thandie Newton, and Nine Lives directed by Rodrigo Garcia. She will be seen in the upcoming release The Tourist directed by Marcel Lengenegger, opposite Hugh Jackman and Ewan MacGregor.

Hamilton starred in Showtime’s A House Divided opposite Sam Waterston, a production that received rave notices and many accolades.  She is well known for her regular role on the Emmy Award winning David Kelley drama, The Practice, on ABC, for which she also directed an episode. Hamilton’s documentary Beah: A Black Woman Speaks, which she directed and co-produced with Jonathan Demme,  premiered on HBO and went on to win Best Documentary at the AFI Awards and a Peabody Award, and was nominated for Best Documentary by the Emmy committee and an Image Award. 

MARY STEENBURGEN (Amanda Winship)

Mary Steenburgen won an Academy Award for her role in Melvin and Howard.  She will soon be seen in Nobel Son, starring opposite Alan Rickman and Bill Pullman, and Numb, starring Matthew Perry.  Both films will have their premiere at the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival.  Steenburgen starred for two seasons on the Emmy nominated CBS series, Joan of Arcadia.  In February 2006 she was seen in the David Mamet directed play Boston Marriage at The Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles.

In 2005, she co-starred in the independent feature Marilyn Hotchkiss' Ballroom Dancing and Charm School, which had its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival.  In 2003 she was seen in the CBS television film It Must Be Love co-starring her husband, Ted Danson.  Steenburgen co-starred in New Line Cinema's Elf, alongside Will Farrell and James Caan.  Prior to Honeydripper, she has appeared in two films for director John Sayles, Sunshine State, and Casa De Los Baby.  In 2001 she appeared alongside Kevin Kline in Irwin Winkler's Life as a House, which had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.  She has constantly redefined herself through challenging roles in films such as Philadelphia, Parenthood and What's Eating Gilbert Grape.

In addition to her professional work, Steenburgen has devoted a great deal of time to causes close to her heart.  In 1989 she and fellow actress, Alfre Woodard founded Artists for a Free South Africa, and in 1996 Mary and Ted were presented with Liberty Hill Foundation's prestigious Upton Sinclair Award for their work in human rights and environmental causes.

Steenburgen is a native of Little Rock, Arkansas, the daughter of a railroad conductor and a public high school secretary.  She began her career at the age of nineteen in New York.  She currently lives in Los Angeles, California with her husband.  They are the parents of four children, Kate, Lilly, Charlie and Kat. 

STACY KEACH (Sheriff Pugh)

John Huston once said of Stacy Keach that “Stacy is not a star.  He is a constellation. The audience will come to see whatever character he portrays.”

Versatility embodies the essence of Stacy Keach’s career.  As an actor he has expressed his talent in the theatre, in film and television, and the range of his roles is remarkable.

Probably best known around the world for his portrayal of the hard-boiled detective, Mike Hammer, Keach is also well-known among younger generations for his portrayal of the irascible, hilarious Dad, Ken Titus, in the Fox sitcom, Titus, and more recently as Warden Henry Pope in the hit series, Prison Break.   Following his triumphant recent title role performance in King Lear for the prestigious Goodman Theatre in Chicago, Keach joined the starring cast of John Sayles’ film, Honeydripper.

He began his film career in the late 1960’s with The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter. Among the many films that followed were The New Centurions with George C. Scott; Doc with Faye Dunaway; Fat City; directed by John Huston, and The Longriders, which he co-produced and co-wrote with his brother, James, directed by Walter Hill.  On the lighter side, Keach appeared in Cheech and Chong’s Up in Smoke, and the sequel, Nice Dreams, Robert Altman’s Brewster McCloud, and Judge Roy Bean with Paul Newman.

As a director, his production of Arthur Miller’s Incident at Vichy for PBS, was, according to Mr. Miller in his autobiography, Timebends, “the most expressive production of that play he had seen.”  He won a Cine Golden Eagle Award for his work on the dramatic documentary, The Repeater, in which he starred and also wrote and directed.

But it is perhaps the live theatre where Keach shines brightest.  He began his professional career with the New York Shakespeare Festival in 1964, doubling as Marcellus and the Player King in a production of Hamlet directed by Joseph Papp and which featured Julie Harris as Ophelia.  He rose to prominence in 1967 in the off-broadway political satire, MacBird, where the title role was a cross between Lyndon Johnson and Macbeth and for which he received the first of his three Obie awards.

Stacy Keach also believes strongly in ‘giving back’ and has been the Honorary Chair for the Cleft Palate Foundation for the past twenty-five years.  He is also the national spokesman for the World Craniofacial organization.  He has served on the Artist’s Committee for the Kennedy Center Honors for two decades, is on the board of directors for Genesis at the Crossroads, a Chicago-based organization dedicated to bringing peoples of combatant cultures together through the shared artistic expressions of music and dance.  He also serves on the artistic board for Washington DC’s Shakespeare Theatre National Council, where he was also honored in 2000 with their prestigious Millenium Award for his contribution to classical theatre.   Some years ago Hollywood honored him with a Celebrity Outreach Award for his work with charitable organizations.  He has been the recipient of Lifetime Achievement Awards from Pacific Pioneer’s Broadcasters and the San Diego Film Festival and will receive the Mary Pickford Award for versatility in acting. 

Keach was a Fulbright scholar to the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, attended the University of California at Berkeley and the Yale Drama School.  He is an accomplished keyboard enthusiast and composer, but claims that his greatest accomplishment is his family.  He has been married to his beautiful wife Malgosia for twenty years, and they have two wonderful children, Shannon, aged 18, and daughter Karolina.

VONDIE CURTIS HALL (Slick)

Emmy Award-nominated actor and director Vondie Curtis Hall has had memorable performances in film, television and theater.  Probably best known for his portrayal of series lead Dr. Dennis Hancock for four seasons in the top-rated CBS drama Chicago Hope, Curtis Hall also captivated viewers and earned a emmy award nomination for his role as a suicidal transvestite in NBC’s ER during the 1994-95 season. 

Curtis Hall appeared on Broadway in It’s So Nice To Be Civilized, the box office smash-hit musicals Lena Horne, The Lady and Her Music and  Dream Girls.   They were followed by his critically acclaimed performance in the off-Broadway production of “Williams and Walker.”  Some of his television movie and miniseries credits include Ali, Freedom Song, Sirens, HBO’s Only in America, Best Intentions for CBS.

Curtis Hall’s breakthrough role came in the 1992 John Sayles feature film Passion Fish.  He has also appeared in supporting roles in the feature releases William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet directed by Baz Lurhman, Broken Arrow directed by John Woo,  Heaven’s Prisoners with Alec Bladwin, Sugar Hill, Clear and Present Danger, Spike Lee’s Crooklyn, Mystery Train directed by Jim Jarmusch and  the blockbuster Die Hard 2.  He also played the lead in The DROP Squad produced by Spike Lee, and later starred in the feature hit film Eve’s Bayou, directed by his wife Kasi Lemmons.

In a parallel career behind the cameras, Curtis Hall wrote and directed his first feature film, Gridlock’d, starring Tim Roth and Tupac Shakur. Gridlock’d earned him the 1997 National Board of Review Award for Excellence in Filmmaking.  That was followed by the 2001 release Glitter starring singer Mariah Carey.  Most recently, Curtis Hall directed Redemption starring Jamie Foxx, which premiered at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival.  

Curtis Hall resides with his family in Los Angeles.

SEAN PATRICK THOMAS (Dex)

Sean Patrick Thomas recently wrapped production on The Burrowers for Lionsgate, a unique take on the western genre about a band of courageous men who set out to find a family of settlers that have vanished from their home under mysterious circumstances.  Prior to that, he shot the TV adaptation of Raisin in the Sun opposite Sean Combs, Phylicia Rashad, Sanaa Lathan and Audra McDonald.

Thomas was last seen in Darren Aronofsky’s film The Fountain opposite Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz.  He also starred alongside Ice Cube and Cedric the Entertainer in MGM’s Barbershop, which opened number one at the box office.  He reprised his role of ‘Jimmy James’ in the sequel, Barbershop 2: Back in Business, which also opened at number one, taking in over $25 million in it’s opening weekend.  His performance in Paramount Pictures’ box office smash Save the Last Dance earned him two MTV Movie Awards: Male Breakout Performance and Best Kiss (with Julia Stiles).  In addition, he also received the Male Standout Performance Award at the 2001 Movieline Magazine Young Hollywood Awards.

Thomas has also appeared in Ed Zwick’s Courage Under Fire, Cruel Intentions, Can’t Hardly Wait, Picture Perfect and Conspiracy Theory. 

Thomas co-starred on the CBS hit drama, The District with Craig T. Nelson.  His portrayal of Detective Temple Page earned him Movieguide’s 2003 Grace Award for Best Television Performance by an Actor and the show was nominated for New Series of the Year in 2001 by TV Guide.

His numerous theater credits include Timon of Athens at the New York Shakespeare Festival and the lead role of Paul in Six Degrees of Separation at the Hanger Theater.  Thomas earned his MFA from New York University.   

KEB’ MO’ (Possum)

Singer-songwriter and guitarist Keb’ Mo’s music is a living link to the seminal Delta blues that traveled up the Mississippi River and across the expanse of America--informing all of its musical roots—before evolving into a universally celebrated art form. Born Kevin Moore in South Los Angeles to parents originally from the deep South, he adopted his better known stage name when he was a young player who became inspired by the force of this essential African-American legacy. In the storied tradition of bluesmen before him including Muddy Waters—formerly McKinley Morganfield—and Taj Mahal, who began his days as Henry St. Clair Fredericks, Moore became known as Keb’ Mo’. His acclaimed self-titled 1994 debut album introduced that now famous appellation to the world, and his latest album, 2006’s Suitcase, brings it to new heights.

Mo’s music is also a purely post-modern expression of the artistic and cultural journey that has transformed the blues, and his own point of view, over time. His distinctive sound embraces multiple eras and genres, including pop, rock folk and jazz, in which he is well-versed. In total, it owes as much to contemporary music’s singer-songwriter movement, encompassing his longtime friends and collaborators Bonnie Raitt and Jackson Browne, as to the spirit of blues godfather Robert Johnson that dwells in his work. For Keb’ Mo’, the common bond between these influences is the underlying storytelling ethic, the power of song to convey human experience and emotional weight.

Honeydripper is Mo’s first acting appearance.

KEL MITCHELL (Junebug)

Hailing from the Windy City, Kel Mitchell began his acting career at the young age of 12 with the ETA Creative Arts Foundation. Young Kel wowed audiences with his on-stage performances in Chicago theatrical productions such as Kasimu & the Coconut Palm and Dirt. But it was his outstanding performance in Eden at the historic Victory Gardens Theater which caught the attention of a prominent talent agent.

At the age of 14, Mitchell got the opportunity of a lifetime. He flew to Florida to be on a TV show on the then new network for kids, Nickelodeon. He beat out thousands of other kids and was cast in what soon became a groundbreaking TV show, All That. The success of that show lead to a spin-off show, Kenan & Kel, and eventually to the film Good Burger.

Mitchell has been awarded the prestigious Cable Ace Award in 1998 for Best Male Actor in a Comedy Series, a Kids’ Choice Award in 1999 for Best Male Actor in a Comedy Series as well as nominations for the Daytime Emmys and the NAACP Image Awards. 

Additionally, Mitchell has penned music featured in some of the films in which he has starred including Clifford the Big Red Dog and Mystery Men.  He also stepped behind the camera writing and producing the film Ganked and the Kel Videos Live DVD series.

Mitchell is currently touring his one-man show entitled Kel On Earth which he wrote and directed. Additionally he can be seen weekly on BET’s Take the Cake parodying today’s most popular music artists.

In addition to Honeydripper, Mitchell stars in the upcoming film Caught on Tape written and directed by Kirk “Sticky Fingaz” Jones and starring Cedric the Entertainer, Vivica A. Fox, and Malik Yoba and the romantic comedy Xs & Os also starring Clayne Crawford.

DR. MABLE JOHN (Bertha Mae)

Dr. Mable John was born in Louisiana and raised in Detroit.  Following her younger brother, Little Willie John, she recorded as a solo artist for the Tamla and Stax labels, scoring her first major hit in 1966 with the soul classic “Your Good Thing is About to End,” which she co-wrote.  She served for several years as director of Ray Charles’ backup group, the Raelettes, often performing with them, and created her own music publishing and talent agency.  Now a Doctor of Divinity, Dr. John is pastor of the Joy in Jesus Ministries and supervises outreach programs that provide aid and counseling for people in the Los Angeles area, as well as writing and recording religious music.  In 1994 the Rhythm and Blues Foundation presented her with its Pioneer Award.

EDDIE SHAW (Time Trenier)

Eddie Shaw has played his tenor sax with many of the legends of the blues, including Hound Dog Taylor, Freddie King, Otis Rush, Muddy Waters and a long run with Howlin Wolf.  He continued with many of the members of that band to form the Wolf Gang.  His son Eddie ‘Vaan’ Shaw is a guitarist, while his son Stan Shaw has become a highly-regarded film actor.  While Shaw’s appearance in Honeydripper is his first film work, he has long been known for his dramatic, powerful playing style.

ARTHUR LEE WILLIAMS (Metalmouth Sims)

Arthur Lee Williams is a native of Tunica, Mississippi.  As a boy he moved to Chicago with his family, and there, inspired by such neighborhood greats as Sonny Boy Williamson II and Little Walter, taught himself to play harmonica.  He began gigging in the mid ‘50s, sitting in with luminaries such as Muddy Waters, Elmore James and Eddie Taylor.  He returned to Mississippi and his country roots after high school, breaking in on Memphis radio with Barber Parker and the Silver Kings and played countless dates in juke joints and roadhouses similar to the one depicted in Honeydripper, eventually partnering with Frank Frost and Sam Carr on several blues records.  Relocating to St. Louis in the early ‘70s, he formed the Bluesmasters and became a vital part of the Midwestern music scene.

YAYA DACOSTA (China Doll)

Yaya DaCosta made her feature film debut in the New Line Cinema film Take the Lead opposite Antonio Banderas and Rob Brown. She previously appeared in Isaac Mizrahi’s short film SuperModelHero. DaCosta’s work in television includes roles in the Nickelodeon pilot, Always There and UPN’s Eve.

Born and raised in Harlem New York, DaCosta graduated from Brown University with a degree in Africana Studies/International Relations.

GARY CLARK JR. (Sonny Blake)

Gary Clark Jr., recently named Best Blues Artist at the Austin Music Awards, is one of the most exciting young guitarists in the country.  Self-taught, he hit the Texas music scene in 1998 at the age of fourteen, and since has opened for talents such as Gatemouth Brown, Jimmie Vaughan, Bobby Bland and Joe Ely, while steadily building a substantial club following of his own.  A singer/songwriter who also plays bass, harmonica and drums, Clark is working on his fourth and most ambitious CD and has begun to write soundtrack music for films.  Honeydripper is his first appearance in a movie.