David Alan Grier

David Alan Grier (born June 30, 1956) is an American actor and comedian. He began his career by portraying Jackie Robinson in the 1981 Broadway production The First, for which he earned a nomination at the 36th Tony Awards for Best Featured Actor in a Musical. In 1982, he played James's "Thunder" Early in the Broadway musical Dreamgirls. He then appeared in the Robert Altman film Streamers (1983) as Roger, a role for which he won the Volpi Cup for Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival.

That same year, he starred in the stage production of A Soldier's Play (1983), and later starred in the film adaptation titled A Soldier's Story (1984). Grier portrayed multiple characters on the American sketch comedy television series In Living Color (1990–1994). In 1992, he starred alongside Eddie Murphy in the romantic comedy Boomerang. From 1993 to 1997, he played the role of Reverend Leon Lonnie Love on the Fox comedy series Martin. For his performances in the Broadway productions Race (2009) and Porgy and Bess (2012), he received Tony Award nominations, with the latter also earning him a Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album nomination. In 2021, he won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play for his role as Sergeant Vernon C. Waters in the stage revival of A Soldier's Play (2020).

His other works include starring as Bernard on Damon (1998), as David Bellows on Life with Bonnie (2002–2004), as Joe Carmichael on The Carmichael Show (2015–2017), the Lion in The Wiz Live! (2015), as Hal on A Series of Unfortunate Events (2018), Carl Bentley in Jumanji (1995), and Jim Fields in Bewitched (2005). He also created and executive-produced the American satirical.