Obba Babatundé

His feature film appearances include Life as Willie, The Celestine Prophecy, Material Girls, After the Sunset, The Manchurian Candidate, The Notebook, a SWAT captain in John Q, an attorney in Philadelphia (1993), The Last Fall, If I Tell You I Have To Kill You, The Fallen Faithful, Trapped, Tension, and Kinky.

He also played Harvard College Dean Cain in the movie How High, as well as the role of Willie Long in the movie Life, the role of Lamar, the hotel concierge in the film That Thing You Do!, and in Santa Paws 2: The Santa Pups, he played Mayor Denny.

Babatundé has appeared in three prime-time series: CBS’ Madam Secretary, as Barton Royce in the Showtime's I’m Dying Up Here (2017) , and as Dean Fairbanks in Netflix's Dear White People (2017-2018).

Babatundé appeared in a recurring role on Kingdom and Amazon's Hand of God, as Bishop Bruce Congdon. He also appeared in Half & Half, as well as appearances on The Bold and the Beautiful, Boston Legal, Grey's Anatomy, NCIS, Cold Case, Strong Medicine, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Touched by an Angel, Chicago Hope, Any Day Now, Karen Sisco, Dawson's Creek, and Friends. In the 1998 miniseries, The Temptations, he played Berry Gordy, the founder of Motown Records.

Babatundé appeared as Daniel Harrelson, Sr., the father of Shemar Moore's character in the 2017 series S.W.A.T..

Babatundé's voice acting roles in animated movies and games include Lando Calrissian in Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds, Star Wars: Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader, Star Wars: Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike, and Disney Infinity 3.0 as well as Conroy in Rocket Power.[5] In the animated feature The Wild Thornberrys Movie, Babatundé voiced the character of Boko, and in the 2016 Air Bud Entertainment movie Pup Star, he played the soul-singing Basset Hound, Big Ears.

Babatundé was co-producer and director of Oscar's Black Odyssey, co-producer of Dorothy Dandridge: An American Beauty, and co-producer of TV in Black: The First 50 Years. He is associate producer of the horror film Voodoo Dolls and executive producer of Journey. Most recently, Babatundé directed and co-stars with Katt Williams in the Lionsgate Home Entertainment feature film American Bad Boy, and he produced and directed the short film Clarissa's Gift.

Babatundé also directed a version of the Broadway musical Dreamgirls. He co-authored, directed, and produced In the Blink of an Eye.

Some of his recorded works include singing the title track on the Onaje Allan Gumbs's album Sack Full of Dreams, and "The Gal That Got Away" on Over The Rainbow, the Harold Arlen soundtrack.

In 1982 Babatunde starred as Zodzetrick in the Houston Grand Opera's second production of Scott Joplin's opera Treemonisha. They had produced it first in 1976. After the opera was rediscovered, the world premiere was produced in 1972 by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Morehouse College chorus.

In 2016, Babatundé received the Daytime Emmy Award for "Outstanding Guest Performer in a Drama Series", as well as the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Peachtree Village International Film Festival.

In 2010, Babatundé won NAACP Theatre Awards' "Best Lead Male" for his portrayal of Sammy Davis, Jr. in the Old Globe production of the musical Sammy.[6]

Babatundé was nominated for an Emmy in the HBO movie Miss Evers' Boys, an NAACP Image Award in the HBO movie Introducing Dorothy Dandridge, and an Ovation Award and a Tony Award for his role as C.C. White in the original Broadway cast of Dreamgirls. He won an NAACP Image Award as “Best Actor” for his role as Sarge in A Soldiers Play.[7]