Baltimore Babies!
Unless it's related to David Simon, people tend to be surprised to learn a famous person is from Charm City. Truth be told, Baltimore loves it's offspring and those from Baltimore love the city also, coming back for all sorts of charitable (or just plain fun) events. Here's a fun list of those people!
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Joshua Aaron Charles is an American actor. He is best known for the roles of Dan Rydell on Sports Night; Will Gardner on The Good Wife, which earned him two Primetime Emmy Award nominations; and his early work as Knox Overstreet in Dead Poets Society. He is the son of Allan Charles, an advertising executive. He is of Jewish heritage on his father's side, and has described himself as Jewish. He began his career performing comedy at the age of nine. As a teenager, he spent several summers at Stagedoor Manor Performing Arts Center in New York, and attended the Baltimore School for the Arts.- Actress
- Producer
- Director
Julie Bowen was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and is the middle daughter of Suzanne and John Luetkemeyer Jr., a real estate developer. Her early education was at Calvert School in Baltimore, and Garrison Forest School, Maryland. She moved on to St. George's School, Rhode Island and then attended Brown University, graduating with a BA in Renaissance Studies.
During college, Bowen acted in stage productions such as "Guys and Dolls" and "Stage Door". After graduation, she relocated to New York and studied at the legendary Actors Studio. Success followed with a series of TV roles, and in 1996 she appeared as the love interest in Happy Gilmore (1996). Other supporting film roles followed. However, it was on television that she was destined to make the biggest impact, with strong turns in ER (1994), Ed (2000) and Boston Legal (2004), among others. From 2009 she has starred as Claire Dunphy in the hit series Modern Family (2009), for which she has won Emmy and Screen Actors Guild awards.
Julie was previously married to Scott Phillips, a real-estate investor, and they have three sons: Oliver, and twins Gus and John.- Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Tracie Thoms has had wide-ranging success in film, television and theatre throughout her busy career.
Tracie's currently a series regular opposite Oscar winner Octavia Spencer on the Apple series, Truth Be Told, while at the same time recurring on Fox's 9-1-1 and ABC's Station 19.
Tracie realized a long-held dream when she starred as 'Joanne' in the final weeks of the historic Broadway run of the iconic musical, Rent. She played the same key role in Sony's film of Rent opposite Rosario Dawson and Idina Menzel. She was seen opposite Bruce Willis and Joseph Gordon-Levitt in Rian Johnson's Looper, and with Denzel Washington in Safe House. She starred with Kurt Russell in Quentin Tarantino's Grindhouse: Death Proof and opposite Anne Hathaway in David Frankel's The Devil Wears Prada. She was featured in Columbia's remake of Annie with Jamie Foxx and Quvenzhané Wallis. She's also been featured in dozens of indie films throughout her career.
Tracie starred on Broadway most recently in the acclaimed production of James Lapine's Falsettos. She also starred opposite Dulé Hill and Mekhi Phifer in Stick Fly, and opposite Alfre Woodard in Drowning Crow. She starred Off-Broadway in Working at Encores! Off-Center, with Oscar nominee John Hawkes in the world premiere of David Auburn's Lost Lake at Manhattan Theatre Club, and she was a lead in the acclaimed The Exonerated at The Culture Project. She's been featured in The 24 Hour Plays, The 24 Hour Musicals, and 10 Things To Do Before I Die at New York's Second Stage.
Tracie was a series regular for six years on CBS' Cold Case. She starred for Fox in Wonderfalls and recurred on Hulu's The First, WGN's Gone, Lifetime's UnREAL, Netflix's Love and NBC's Lincoln Rhyme: Hunt for the Bone Collector. She's guest starred on Veep, Person of Interest, Suits, The Shield, The Good Wife, The Mindy Project, Criminal Minds, The Affair, The Good Doctor, Grey's Anatomy, Mad About You, Run, Curb Your Enthusiasm and NCIS: Los Angeles.
Tracie began studying acting in her hometown of Baltimore at age 9. She attended high school at the prestigious Baltimore School for the Arts. Later, she received a bachelor of fine arts degree from Howard University and a graduate degree in acting from New York City's renowned Juilliard School.- Writer
- Actor
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Derek Waters was born on 30 July 1979 in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. He is a writer and actor, known for Drunk History (2013), Hall Pass (2011) and The Brothers Solomon (2007).- Producer
- Actress
- Writer
Jada Koren Pinkett Smith was born in Baltimore, Maryland, to Robsol Grant Pinkett, Jr., a contractor, and 'Gammy' Adrienne Banfield Norris, a nurse. They divorced after only a few months of marriage. Her father is of African-American descent and her mother is of Afro-Caribbean ancestry (from Barbados and Jamaica). Jada majored in dance and choreography at the Baltimore School for the Arts, where one of her classmates was Tupac Shakur. She spent a year at the North Carolina School of the Arts before dropping out to pursue her career in acting. Her big break came in 1991 when she was cast in the part of a college frosh on the television sitcom A Different World (1987). She made her feature film debut two years later in Menace II Society (1993). She did not gain widespread recognition, however, until her role opposite Eddie Murphy in The Nutty Professor (1996). In addition to being in front of the camera, she has spent time behind it directing music videos. Pinkett-Smith is married to Will Smith, and they have a son, Jaden Smith; and a daughter, Willow Smith.- Actor
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Penn Badgley was born in Baltimore, Maryland, to Lynne Murphy Badgley and Duff Badgley, who worked as a newspaper reporter and carpenter. Badgley split his childhood years between Richmond, Virginia. and Seattle, Washington. In Seattle, he was involved in the Seattle Children's Theater and did voice-overs for a children's radio station. It was through these experiences that Badgley discovered his love of acting. This passion brought him one summer to Hollywood, where he landed an agent and his first big break guest-starring on Will & Grace (1998). After relocating with his mother to Los Angeles, Badgley secured several recurring roles on Daddio (2000).
Badgley lives in New York City. At the age of 14, Penn completed his California High School Proficiency Exam and began attending Santa Monica City College. Also musically gifted, he enjoys singing, writing, and playing the guitar. In his spare time, Badgley likes to go skateboarding, surfing, skiing and snowboarding.- Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Incisive, intense, multi-talented American actor Lance Solomon Reddick was born in Baltimore, Maryland, the younger of two sons, to Solomon Reddick and public schoolteacher Dorothy Gee. Having opted initially for a career in music, he attended first the Peabody Preparatory Institute and the Walden School before studying classical composition at the University of Rochester's Eastman School of Music, qualifying with a Bachelor's Degree. By the early '90s, however, Reddick was forced to re-evaluate his career plans because of a severe back injury suffered while pulling a double shift waiting on tables and delivering newspapers. A pressing need to make ends meet made him enroll at the Yale School of Drama, from where he went on to graduate in 1994 with a Master of Fine Arts Degree. He derived much inspiration from his classmate Paul Giamatti and came to regard Daniel Day-Lewis as his quintessential acting role model.
Possessed of an athletic build and a deep, resonant voice, Reddick also had a self-declared affinity for accents. Preparing himself for his roles, he immersed himself fully into his characters as a "transformational performer", often rehearsing his lines in front of a mirror. He made his television debut in an episode of New York Undercover (1994). Though he played a couple of drug addicts early on, he soon found himself much in demand-- and ultimately typecast -- as powerful authority figures, from police detectives (Johnny Basil in Oz (1997)) to FBI agents (Law & Order (1990)) to senior police officer (Cedric Daniels in The Wire (2002)). One of his best known roles on the big screen was as the mysterious Mr. Charon, concierge at the Continental Hotel, scene of much of the action in the John Wick (2014) franchise.
Arguably, his most memorable character was that of Phillip Broyles, special agent-in-charge with the Department of Homeland Security, heading a team of experts investigating paranormal events in the outstanding science fiction drama series Fringe (2008). Broyles was a no-nonsense tough guy, who, nevertheless, remained steadfastly loyal in defense of his team against insidious forces from within and without. Unlike Broyles, Reddick's other important recurring TV character, Chief Irving in Bosch (2014), was a morally ambiguous man motivated chiefly by political ambition. Both were flawless performances.
Prior to his sad and untimely passing in March 2023 at the age of 60, Reddick was much sought-after as a voice actor for animations and video games. He also never lost his lifelong passion for music, and, in 2007, released an album of his compositions entitled "Contemplations & Remembrances". In private life, the twice-married Reddick was said to have been very much devoted to his three dogs.- Actor
- Writer
Lawrence Gilliard Jr. was born on 22 September 1971 in New York City, New York, USA. He is an actor and writer, known for The Wire (2002), The Walking Dead (2010) and The Deuce (2017). He is married to Michelle Paress.- Actor
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Growing up in Baltimore in the 1950s, John Waters was not like other children; he was obsessed by violence and gore, both real and on the screen. With his weird counter-culture friends as his cast, he began making silent 8mm and 16mm films in the mid-'60s; he screened these in rented Baltimore church halls to underground audiences drawn by word of mouth and street leafleting campaigns. As his filmmaking grew more polished and his subject matter more shocking, his audiences grew bigger, and his write-ups in the Baltimore papers more outraged. By the early 1970s he was making features, which he managed to get shown in midnight screenings in art cinemas by sheer perseverance. Success came when Pink Flamingos (1972) - a deliberate exercise in ultra-bad taste - took off in 1973, helped no doubt by lead actor Divine's infamous dog-crap eating scene.
Waters continued to make low-budget shocking movies with his Dreamland repertory company until Hollywood crossover success came with Hairspray (1988), and although his movies nowadays might now appear cleaned up and professional, they retain Waters' playfulness, and reflect his lifelong obsessions.- Actor
- Producer
- Music Department
Brendan Hines is an American actor and singer-songwriter. He was born in Baltimore, Maryland to a former nun and a former priest who became Philosophy professors. He began playing the trombone when he was 11 but gave it up for the guitar seven years later. Brendan attended Loyola High School where he performed in the Jazz Ensemble and appeared in several plays including 'Sweeney Todd' and Moliere's 'The Miser'. He moved to New York where he continued to work in the theater until being cast in his first feature, the 2001 independent film 'Ordinary Sinner'. Brendan has since appeared in a number of films and television shows including 'Terminator:The Sarah Connor Chronicles', 'The Middleman', 'Lie To Me' and 'Scandal'. In Spring 2011, Brendan returned to the stage to play Pip and Theo in South Coast Repertory's production of Richard Greenberg's 'Three Days of Rain'. He has written, recorded and released two folk albums; 2007's "Good For You Know Who" and 2012's "Small Mistakes". His song "Miss New York" was featured in the film 'Happythankyoumoreplease'.- Actor
- Producer
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Charles S. Dutton was born on 30 January 1951 in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. He is an actor and producer, known for Gothika (2003), Alien 3 (1992) and A Time to Kill (1996). He was previously married to Debbi Morgan.- Although her career spans over two decades, Stacy Keibler continues to be the fresh-faced beauty that both film and television audiences adore. Stacy was born in Baltimore, Maryland. She began dancing when she was three-years-old and has a background in ballet, tap and jazz. Stacy went to school in Baltimore and was also one of Baltimore's first "Raven Cheerleaders". She began her career as a model at the age of 6. Shortly thereafter, she was cast in national commercials, which led her to join AFTRA and SAG before the age of 10. Though still young, Keibler began building an impressive resume in both film and television. Her film credits include the box office successes . Added to Keibler's list of film roles is The Comebacks (2007), a 20th Century FOX feature she appeared in alongside comedian David Koechner.
When she competed on Dancing with the Stars (2005), Keibler's skills and popularity landed her among the final three contestants. Impressing not only the audience but also ABC executives, she was quickly offered a network talent deal. This has led to recurring roles on ABC's George Lopez (2002) and What About Brian (2006), where she played the love interest of the lead character "Brian", and the villain in the ABC Family mini-series Samurai Girl (2008). Keibler also appeared on the drama October Road (2007). Next up for Keibler is a reoccurring role on the ABC comedy In the Motherhood (2009), starring Cheryl Hines and Megan Mullally.
Prior to her stint on Dancing with the Stars (2005), Keibler, a former Baltimore Ravens cheerleader, auditioned for the chance to be the new "Nitro Girl" for World Championship Wrestling (WCW). Keibler wowed both fans and executives and went on to win the National Search. Shortly thereafter, WCW was acquired by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). Keibler's skills impressed the creators of the program so much that she was the only female brought over to the new company, where she immediately became a regular on the longest running live program in television history.
A model of peak physical fitness, Keibler has graced the covers of numerous magazines including Shape, Vegas, TV Guide, Maxim, FHM Australia, Muscle & Fitness, 6 Degrees, and Beverly Hills 213. She has been featured in Esquire, Cosmopolitan, Elle Girl, LA Times, Parade, Maxim (UK), and Fitness. She regularly appears in Entertainment Weekly, People, Us Weekly, The Look, OK, and Life & Style. The issue of Stuff featuring Stacy Keibler on the cover was one of the magazines highest selling issues of all time.
Stacy Keibler currently resides in Los Angeles, CA. - Actor
- Composer
- Producer
Adam Duritz is an innovative lyricist and piano player who brings the same soul to his friends and lifestyle as he does to the beautiful lyrics and music that he performs. Duritz joined and performed in the Bay area band "The Himalayans" until 1991 at which time he left to form Counting Crows. Before he left, however, material was recorded which eventually lead to the release of the 2002 album "She likes the Weather". The album has a track called "round here" which was eventually re-recorded on the Counting Crows album "August and Everything After". During this period in his life he was also involved in the San Francisco based band 'Sordid Humour'. After the Himalayans lost Duritz and the Counting Crows were formed, Duritz's new band gained a huge following and the release of their acclaimed 1993 album was a huge success. The band toured extensively before heading into the studio again for the 1996 album "recovering the satelites". The album was a worthy follow up and it bookmarked the bands place in the music industry. The album was followed by 1998's 'This Desert Life' and 2002's 'Hard Candy'. The two albums house such hits as 'Hangin' around', 'American Girls' respectively. After a long season of touring, the band put together the greatest hits album "Films about ghosts" which not only had Crows material but also housed the new track "She Don't Want Nobody Near" and a Grateful Dead cover song. The album was released in 2003 and it saw even more success for the band with songs playing on shows such as the WB's One Tree Hill (2003).
He also tried his hand at film production with the Vince Vaughn-Ashley Judd film The Locusts (1997).- Writer
- Producer
- Editorial Department
Ira Glass was born on 3 March 1959 in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. He is a writer and producer, known for This American Life (2007), Freezing People Is Easy and Sleepwalk with Me (2012). He has been married to Anaheed Alani since August 2005.- Music Artist
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Of all the qualities that typified Frank Zappa, perhaps the most striking is that he was a paradox. A workaholic perfectionist rock star who eschewed the hippie culture of the 1960s, deploring its conformism, spurious ideals and drug use, Zappa was not only a brilliant rock guitarist but an orchestral composer, innovative filmmaker, music producer, businessman, iconoclast and perceptive political and social commentator. His oeuvre continually amazes: over 60 albums of music from rock to orchestral, in addition to innumerable films, concerts and other accomplishments.
Frank Vincent Zappa (b. 21 Dec 1940, Baltimore, MD) began to play drums at the age of 12, and was playing in R&B groups by high school, switching to guitar at 18. After barely graduating from high school, and then dropping out of junior college (where he met his first wife, Kay Sherman), Zappa worked at such jobs as window dresser, copywriter and door-to-door sales,an. With the money he earned from scoring Run Home, Slow (1965) (written by his high school English teacher, Don Cerveris), Zappa purchased a recording studio and, after concocting an allegedly obscene recording for an undercover policeman, spent ten days in jail. Zappa's diverse range of albums (both with the seminal and protean groups The Mothers of Invention and Zappa; as well as solo releases) are renowned not only for their bravura musicianship and satire, but for offending various groups (usually conservatives, both religious and political). The 200 Motels (1971) soundtrack was deemed too offensive by the Royal Albert Hall, which canceled scheduled concerts in 1975; and the song "Jewish Princess" (1979) led to Jewish calls for Zappa to apologize. These, and such events as Zappa testifying before Congress in 1985 against rock music censorship, being appointed by Czech president Václav Havel as his Cultural Liaison Officer or considering running for US president, have unfortunately been Zappa's only real source of mainstream publicity.
Diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1991, Zappa nonetheless continued working at his Hollywood Hills home, until his death on 4 December 1993. His widow, Gail, and children Dweezil Zappa, Moon Unit Zappa, Ahmet Zappa and Diva Zappa, soon released a statement to the press that simply stated: "Composer Frank Zappa left for his final tour just before 6pm Saturday."- Actress
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Julia Louis-Dreyfus was born on January 13, 1961, in the New York City borough of Manhattan, to Judith (LeFever), a special needs tutor and author, and Gérard Louis-Dreyfus, a billionaire businessman. Her parents divorced when she was young, and she spent her childhood in Washington, D.C., and New York. She met her husband, Brad Hall, while in college, and made her feature movie debut in the Woody Allen film Hannah and Her Sisters (1986). She lives in Los Angeles with Brad and their two children. Her father was born in France, and her grandfather Pierre Louis-Dreyfus was in the French Resistance against the Nazis.Not actually from Baltimore but endorses the city as much as the city loves her so she gets an honorary spot on the list.- Music Artist
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- Actor
David Byrne is an Oscar winning composer, songwriter and singer, best known for being frontman of the New Wave/punk band Talking Heads, which was active between 1975 and 1991. Born in Scotland but raised in the United States in Maryland, Byrne began performing musically in high school.
Byrne attended the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) between 1970 and '71. He dropped out to attend the Maryland Institute College of Art before dropping out for good in 1972. He returned to Providence and started a band in 1973 called The Artistics with Chris Frantz, whom he knew at RISD. The band broke up in May '74 and Byrne moved to New York, followed by Frantz and his girlfriend Tina Weymouth in September. The three started performing as Talking Heads in 1975. The band was one of the major acts of the punk and new wave scene of the 1970s.
Byrne won an Oscar and a Grammy Award for his soundtrack to the movie The Last Emperor (1987) in 1988, the same year Talking Heads ceased to function. Except for a brief reunion in 1991, the band stopped recording together in '88 as Byrne launched a solo career. Talking Heads were inducted into Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002.- Actress
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Mo'Nique received a standing ovation when she stepped on stage for the first time in her hometown of Baltimore, Maryland, giving her confidence to pursue a career as a stand-up comedian. After numerous stand-up performances, she took a leap forward with one of the starring roles in The Parkers (1999).
Mo'Nique's huge international breakthrough came with her performance in the independent feature film Precious (2009), for which she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and over 30 other major awards for best acting including the most important ones like the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award, the New York Film Critics Circle Award, the Chicago Film Critics Association Award, the Independent Spirit Award, the Screen Actors Guild Award, the National Society of Film Critics Award, the BAFTA Film Award and Sundance Film Festival's Special Jury Prize.- Actor
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American actor, filmmaker and activist Edward Harrison Norton was born on August 18, 1969, in Boston, Massachusetts, and was raised in Columbia, Maryland.
His mother, Lydia Robinson "Robin" (Rouse), was a foundation executive and teacher of English, and a daughter of famed real estate developer James Rouse, who developed Columbia, MD; she passed away of brain cancer on March 6, 1997. His father, Edward Mower Norton, was an environmental lawyer and conservationist, who works for the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Edward has two younger siblings, James and Molly.
From the age of five onward, the Yale graduate (majoring in history) was interested in acting. At the age of eight, he would ask his drama teacher what his motivation in a scene was. He attended theater schools throughout his life, and eventually managed to find work on stage in New York as a member of the Signature players, who produced the works of playwright and director Edward Albee. Around the time when he was appearing in Albee's Fragments, in Hollywood, they were looking for a young actor to star opposite Richard Gere in a new courtroom thriller, Primal Fear (1996). The role was offered to Leonardo DiCaprio but he turned it down. Gere was on the verge of walking away from the project, fed up with the wait for a young star to be found, when Edward auditioned and won the role over 2000 other hopefuls. Before the film was even released, his test screenings for the part were causing a Hollywood sensation, and he was soon offered roles in Woody Allen's Everyone Says I Love You (1996) and The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996). Edward won the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Supporting Role and received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Primal Fear (1996). In 1998, Norton gained 30 pounds of muscle and transformed his look into that of a monstrous skinhead for his role as a violent white supremacist in American History X (1998). This performance earned him his second Oscar nomination, this time for Best Actor.
He received his third Oscar nomination, for Best Supporting Actor, for his work in Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014). His most prominent roles also include the critically acclaimed Everyone Says I Love You (1996), The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996), Fight Club (1999), Red Dragon (2002), 25th Hour (2002), Kingdom of Heaven (2005), The Illusionist (2006), Moonrise Kingdom (2012), and The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014). He has also directed and co-written films, including his directorial debut, Keeping the Faith (2000). He has done uncredited work on the scripts for The Score (2001), Frida (2002), and The Incredible Hulk (2008).
Alongside his work in cinema, Norton is an environmental and social activist, and is a member of the board of trustees of Enterprise Community Partners, a non-profit organization for developing affordable housing founded by his grandfather James Rouse.