Avery Brooks facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Avery Brooks
Brooks at the 2012 Destination Star Trek event in London
Born	Avery Franklin Brooks (1948-10-02) October 2, 1948 (age 76) Evansville, Indiana, U.S.
Education	Indiana University, Bloomington Oberlin College Rutgers University, New Brunswick (BA, MFA)
Occupation	Actor director singer educator
Years active	1977-2013
Spouse(s)	Vicki Bowen ​ (m. 1976)​
Children	3

Avery Franklin Brooks (born October 2, 1948) is a retired American actor, director, singer, and teacher. He is famous for playing Captain Benjamin Sisko on the TV show Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. He also played a cool character named Hawk on Spenser: For Hire and its spin-off show, A Man Called Hawk.

Another one of his well-known roles was Dr. Bob Sweeney in the movie American History X. For his acting, Brooks has been nominated for a Saturn Award and three NAACP Image Awards. He has also received high honors for his work in theater.

Early Life and Education

Avery Brooks was born in Evansville, Indiana. His mother, Eva Lydia, was a music teacher and led a choir. His father, Samuel Brooks, was a union official and a worker who made tools. When Avery was eight, his family moved to Gary, Indiana.

Music was a big part of his family's life. His mother was one of the first African-American women to get a master's degree in music from Northwestern University. His father sang in a famous choir called the Wings Over Jordan Choir. His uncle was also a singer in a group called the Delta Rhythm Boys. Brooks once said, "Music is all around me and in me, as I am in it."

For college, Brooks went to Indiana University and Oberlin College. He earned his Bachelor of Arts and Master of Fine Arts degrees from Rutgers University in 1976. He was the first African American to get a Master of Fine Arts degree in acting and directing from Rutgers.

Career in Television and Film

Playing Hawk in 'Spenser: For Hire'

In 1985, Brooks began playing the character Hawk on the TV detective show Spenser: For Hire. Hawk was very popular with viewers. The character was so well-liked that in 1989, Brooks got his own show called A Man Called Hawk.

Brooks said he always saw Hawk as an equal to the main character, not just a sidekick. He later played Hawk again in four Spenser TV movies.

Captain Sisko in 'Star Trek'

Brooks is most famous for his role as Captain Benjamin Sisko in the science-fiction series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. The show was on for seven seasons, from 1993 to 1999.

To get the part, Brooks was chosen over 100 other actors. He became the first Black-American captain to be the main character of a Star Trek series. Besides acting, Brooks also directed nine episodes of the show. One of these, "Far Beyond the Stars", was about the challenges of racial injustice.

The show's producer, Ronald D. Moore, said that Brooks was a "thoughtful and intelligent man" who had great ideas about his character.

Other Roles on Screen

In 1984, Brooks starred in a PBS movie called Half Slave, Half Free: Solomon Northup's Odyssey. He played Solomon Northup, a free man from New York who was kidnapped and forced into slavery in 1841. The movie was based on Northup's real-life book, Twelve Years a Slave.

Brooks also did voice acting for cartoons. He was the voice of King Maximus in an episode of Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child and voiced a character named Nokkar in the Disney series Gargoyles.

In movies, Brooks played Dr. Bob Sweeney in American History X (1998) and a character named Paris in The Big Hit (1998). In 2001, he was in the movie 15 Minutes with Robert De Niro.

Work in Theater, Music, and Teaching

Avery Brooks in 2009

On the Stage

Brooks is a talented theater actor. He is famous for his performance in the play Paul Robeson, where he played the famous singer, actor, and activist Paul Robeson. He performed this one-man show on Broadway and in other major theaters.

He has also acted in many of William Shakespeare's plays. He played the main roles in Othello, King Lear, and Tamburlaine. For his work in classical theater, he received the William Shakespeare Award in 2007.

Music and Singing

Brooks is a singer with a deep baritone voice. He has performed with famous jazz musicians and even recorded an album with saxophone player James Spaulding. He also had the lead role in an opera about Malcolm X.

On Deep Space Nine, he showed off his singing skills. In one episode, he sang the Frank Sinatra song "The Best Is Yet to Come". In 2009, he released his own album called Here, which included jazz and blues songs.

Teaching and Narrating

Brooks has worked as a professor of theater at Rutgers University, Oberlin College, and Case Western Reserve University. He was also the artistic director for the National Black Arts Festival, which celebrates African-American culture.

His deep, powerful voice has made him a popular narrator for documentaries. He narrated the famous BBC series Walking with Dinosaurs for American audiences. He also narrated many other science and history shows for channels like National Geographic, including Drain the Ocean and Africa's Elephant Kingdom.

Personal Life

In 1976, Brooks married Vicki Lenora Brooks. She works as an assistant dean at Rutgers University. Together, they have three children.

Brooks is good friends with Cirroc Lofton, the actor who played his son on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. He is also a big baseball fan.

Filmography

Film

Television

Video games