Colman Domingo facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Colman Domingo
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Domingo at SXSW in 2024
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| Born |
Colman Jason Domingo
November 28, 1969 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
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| Education | Temple University (BA) |
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| Years active | 1995–present |
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Works
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Full list |
| Spouse(s) |
Raúl Aktanov
(m. 2014) |
| Awards | Full list |
Colman Jason Domingo (born November 28, 1969) is an American actor, playwright, and director. Prominent on both screen and stage since the 2010s, Domingo has received various accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award, and nominations for two Academy Awards and two Tony Awards. Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2024.
Domingo's early Broadway roles include the 2005 play Well and the 2008 musical Passing Strange. He gained acclaim for his role as Mr. Bones in the Broadway musical The Scottsboro Boys (2011), for which he was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical. He reprised the role in the 2014 West End production, receiving a nomination for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Performance in a Supporting Role in a Musical. In 2018, he wrote the book for the Broadway musical Summer: The Donna Summer Musical.
After early roles in various incarnations of the Law & Order series and as part of the main cast for The Big Gay Sketch Show, Domingo had his breakthrough playing Victor Strand in the AMC series Fear the Walking Dead (2015–2023). .....
Domingo received consecutive nominations in 2023 and 2024 for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayals of civil rights activist Bayard Rustin in the biopic Rustin and a prison inmate in the drama Sing Sing. His other notable film appearances include roles in Lincoln (2012), The Butler (2013), Selma (2014), If Beale Street Could Talk (2018), Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (2020), Zola (2021), and The Color Purple (2023).
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Early life and education
Domingo was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His father is from Belize and his family is from Guatemala. Domingo attended Overbrook High School and later Temple University, where he majored in journalism. Soon thereafter he moved to San Francisco, California, where he started acting, mainly in theatre productions.
Career
1994–2014: Early roles and professional struggles
Domingo's first on-screen acting credit is in a 1995 direct-to-video feature film called Timepiece. Domingo continued to act sporadically through the 1990s, making his television debut in the police procedural Nash Bridges in 1997. Then, he took a small role in Clint Eastwood's True Crime (1999) and acted in the independent films Desi's Looking for a New Girl (2000), Kung Phooey (2003), and the crime drama Freedomland (2006). He also took minor roles in Law & Order, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, and Law & Order: Trial by Jury. He also acted in the sketch series The Big Gay Sketch Show from 2008 to 2010.
On stage, Domingo starred as Mr. Franklin Jones, Joop, and Mr. Venus in the critically acclaimed rock musical Passing Strange, which, after a successful 2007 run at The Public Theater, opened on Broadway on February 28, 2008. He received an Obie Award in spring 2008 as part of the ensemble of Passing Strange Off-Broadway, and reprised his role in the film version of Passing Strange, directed by Spike Lee, which made its premiere at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival.
In 2010, Domingo's self-penned, one-man autobiographical play titled A Boy and His Soul premiered Off-Broadway at the Vineyard Theatre, for which he won a Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Solo Show. He was also nominated for a Drama Desk Award and a Drama League Award. From June 14 to July 18, 2014, Domingo played Billy Flynn in the Broadway revival of Chicago.
Domingo earned acclaim for his work in The Scottsboro Boys, directed by Susan Stroman on Broadway in 2010. For that performance, he was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical in May 2011. When The Scottsboro Boys opened in London, Domingo was nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Performance in a Supporting Role in a Musical in April 2014. He was also nominated for the Fred Astaire Award for Best Principal Dancer on Broadway in 2011.
Domingo also appeared in Lee's films Miracle at St. Anna (2008) and Red Hook Summer (2012). Around this time, he also booked supporting roles as Private Harold Green in Steven Spielberg's historical epic Lincoln (2012), as Lawson Bowman in 42 (2013), as Freddie Fallows in The Butler (2013), and as Ralph Abernathy in Selma (2014).
According to The New York Times, Domingo considered "quitting the acting business over the rejection" in 2014 after missing out on several television auditions, including one for a small role on Boardwalk Empire because casting directors allegedly said that his skin was too dark. However, soon after this period of struggle, Domingo booked his breakout role in AMC's The Walking Dead spinoff television series, Fear the Walking Dead.
2015–2018: Rise to prominence with Fear the Walking Dead
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On Fear the Walking Dead, Domingo portrayed the character of Victor Strand; his first appearance was in the fifth episode of the first season, titled "Cobalt". In December of that year, it was announced that Domingo was promoted to series regular for the second season of the series. IndieWire called him "easily the most vivid character in the sometimes gray apocalypse" of the series.
In 2016, Domingo appeared in various television series, with roles such as Dr. Russell Daniels in The Knick, Father Frankin Lucifer, and Dr. Evers in Louis C.K.'s Horace and Pete. That year, he also starred as Hark Turner in Nate Parker's The Birth of a Nation, which was based on the story of Nat Turner, an enslaved man who led a slave rebellion in Southampton County, Virginia in 1831. In 2017, Domingo joined the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as a member of the Actors' Branch, and played a dragonfly in an episode of the fourth season of the Netflix animated series BoJack Horseman.
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In 2018, Domingo joined the Directors Guild of America as a director on season four of Fear The Walking Dead. He became the first ever actor from the series to helm an episode within The Walking Dead franchise. He ultimately directed 3 episodes of Fear The Walking Dead (episode 12 of season four, "Weak"; episode three of season five, "Humbug's Gulch"; and episode three of season six, "Alaska"). That year, he also wrote the book for the Broadway musical Summer: The Donna Summer Musical, and appeared in Barry Jenkins' If Beale Street Could Talk, a film adaptation of the James Baldwin 1974 novel of the same name. In the latter, his on-screen wife was played by Regina King, who received the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. He also collaborated with Sam Levinson for the first time with a supporting role in Assassination Nation (2018).
2019–present: Career breakthrough and expansion
..... Domingo attracted considerable attention for his performance in Euphoria, eventually winning the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series in 2022 for his work in the second season of the series.
In 2020, Domingo signed a first-look deal with AMC Networks. That year, he also received acclaim for his supporting role as Cutler in the Netflix adaptation of August Wilson's play Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, alongside Viola Davis and Chadwick Boseman. The following year, he received further notice for his role as X, a ruthless ..., in the crime film Zola, which was directed by Janicza Bravofor A24. For his role as X, he received a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male. That year, he also served as an executive producer on Scott Aharoni and Dennis Latos' short film Leylak, which premiered at that year's Tribeca Film Festival and qualified for the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film.
In 2023, Domingo starred as civil rights activist Bayard Rustin in the Netflix biopic Rustin, which was directed by George C. Wolfe. Upon the announcement of his being cast in the lead role, the Bayard Rustin Center for Social Justice voiced their approval directly to Domingo, espousing that "Your powerful voice helps amplify Bayard Rustin, Godfather of Intersectionality, Planned the March, Brought non-violence to the Movement, Inspired the Freedom Riders, Lost to history because of who he loved, Who he was. Angelic Troublemakers unite!"
For his performance in Rustin, Domingo received nominations for the Academy Award, BAFTA Award, Golden Globe Award, and Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actor. His Academy Award nomination for Rustin made him the first Afro-Latino to receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor, as well as the second openly gay man, after Ian McKellen—and the first American openly gay man—to receive an Academy Award nomination for playing a gay character.
He received positive notice for his performance as Mister in the second film adaptation of The Colour Purple novel and musical, and along with the ensemble cast, he received a nomination for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture for the film. That year, he also voiced the DC Comics superhero Batman in the Spotify scripted podcast The Riddler: Secrets in the Dark.
Domingo portrayed John "Divine G" Whitfield in the prison drama Sing Sing, which premiered at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival, and which was picked up by A24 for theatrical distribution the following year to critical acclaim. Domingo received nominations for the Academy Award, BAFTA Award, and Golden Globe Award for his performance in Sing Sing.
Upcoming projects
In January 2024, it was announced that Domingo was cast to play Joe Jackson in the musical biopic Michael (2025) about the life of singer Michael Jackson. It was also announced Domingo is set to direct and star in the leading role of an untitled Nat King Cole biopic from a script he co-wrote. In September 2024, it was reported that Domingo is slated to appear in Steven Spielberg's next film project.
Personal life
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From 2009 to 2017, Domingo lived in the federally subsidized artists' building Manhattan Plaza.
Domingo is gay. He met his husband, Raúl Domingo, in 2005. They married in 2014.
Filmography
Awards and nominations
See also
In Spanish: Colman Domingo para niños
