André Robin De Shields (born January 12, 1946) is an American actor, singer, dancer, director, and choreographer. He has received numerous accolades including a Tony Award, a Grammy Award, and a Primetime Emmy Award. Among his other film and TV appearances, he appeared for two years in the soap opera Another World.
De Shields has appeared in the original Broadway casts of multiple stage productions, including The Full Monty, Warp!, and The Wiz, and most notably originating the role of Hermes on Broadway in the musical Hadestown, winning the 2019 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical and the 2020 Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album for his performance. He has also appeared on television, and won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement for his performance in the 1982 NBC broadcast of Ain't Misbehavin'.
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Early life and education
André Robin De Shields was born on January 12, 1946, in Dundalk, Maryland, to Mary Gunther and John De Shields. He was raised in Baltimore, the ninth of eleven children; his father died at the age of 50, when André was 17. De Shields obtained his high school diploma at Baltimore City College in 1964, then attended Wilmington College, where he starred in a production of Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun. He then transferred colleges and earned his BA in English literature from the University of Wisconsin, Madison in 1970. In 1991, De Shields received his MA in African-American studies from the Gallatin School of Individualized Study of New York University.
He is an adjunct professor at Gallatin.
Career
1969–1979: Hair and career beginnings
De Shields began his professional career in the 1969 Chicago production of Hair, which led to a role in The Me Nobody Knows and participation in Chicago's Organic Theater Company. He has performed in a number of Off-Off-Broadway productions at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club in the East Village of Manhattan, including Ken Rubenstein's Sacred Guard (1973) and Lamar Alford's Thoughts (1974).
He made his Broadway debut as Xander in Stuart Gordon's 1973 Warp! and next appeared in Paul Jabara's 1973 Rachael Lily Rosenbloom (And Don't You Ever Forget It), which closed during previews. He then appeared in the title role of The Wiz, Charlie Smalls and William F. Brown's 1975 musical directed by Geoffrey Holder.
After choreographing two Bette Midler musicals, De Shields returned to Broadway to perform in the musical revue Ain't Misbehavin' in 1978. The original production ran for over 1,600 shows and De Shields earned a 1978 Drama Desk Award nomination for his performance. Three years later, he returned to Broadway to perform in Stardust: The Mitchell Parrish Musical, a musical revue featuring the lyricist's work with Hoagy Carmichael, Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, and Leroy Anderson.
1980–2018: Career fluctuations
De Shields won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement for his performance in the 1982 NBC broadcast of Ain't Misbehavin', and played Tweedledum in a 1983 televised production of Alice in Wonderland that also featured Eve Arden, Richard Burton, Colleen Dewhurst, James Coco, Kaye Ballard, and Nathan Lane.
In 1984, De Shields wrote, choreographed, directed, and starred in André De Shields' Haarlem Nocturne, a Broadway musical revue featuring standards from the American songbook, pop hits from the early 1960s, and De Shields' own songs. The revue was produced at the Latin Quarter and at La MaMa (with music by Marc Shaiman). He co-wrote (with Judith Cohen) and directed an evening of songs called Judith and the Cohen Sisters in Midnight in Manhattan at La MaMa in September/October 1984. In 1985, he appeared in the Cotton Club Gala at La MaMa with music by Aaron Bell and directed by Ellen Stewart. He directed a production of Chico Kasinoir's The Adventures of Rhubarb: The Rock and Roll Rabbit in 1985. He appeared in a revival of Ain't Misbehavin' in 1988. He directed a production of his own work, Saint Tous, to celebrate Black History Month at La MaMa in February 1991. De Shields next appeared on Broadway in 1997 as the Jester in Play On!, a musical based on Ellington's songs. He earned Tony Award and Drama Desk Award nominations for his performance. He appeared on television on Another World, Cosby, Sex and the City, Great Performances, Lipstick Jungle, Law & Order, and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
In 2000, De Shields originated the role of Noah "Horse" T. Simmons in the Terrence McNally / David Yazbek musical adaptation of the film The Full Monty. As with Play On!, De Shields earned both Tony Award and Drama Desk Award nominations for this performance. In 2004, he appeared in the Broadway production of Mark Medoff's Prymate at the Longacre Theatre. In 2008, he received a Drama Desk Award nomination for his performance in an off-Broadway production of Langston Hughes' Black Nativity. In 2009, he appeared on Broadway opposite Joan Allen and Jeremy Irons in Impressionism. The play ran through May 2009 at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theater.
De Shields' other regional theatre credits include Waiting for Godot, The Man Who Came to Dinner, Death of a Salesman, Dusyanta: A Tale of Kalidasa, The Gospel According to James, Camino Real and King Lear. In 2013, he portrayed Akela and King Louie in the world premiere of Mary Zimmerman's adaptation of Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book, a co-production of the Goodman Theatre and Huntington Theatre Company. De Shields received his 3rd Jeff Award (Outstanding Achievement in the category of Actor in a Supporting Role – Musical) for his role as King Louie, and garnered an Elliot Norton Awards nomination for Outstanding Musical Performance by an Actor as well as an IRNE Awards nomination for Best Supporting Actor – Musical.
2019–present: Resurgence with Hadestown
De Shields played Hermes in the Broadway musical Hadestown, which began previews on March 22, 2019, at the Walter Kerr Theatre. He received the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical for the role. He played his final performance on May 29, 2022. On January 26, 2021, it was announced that De Shields would reprise his role as Hermes in Live from Mount Olympus, a narrative podcast for tweens directed by Rachel Chavkin and Zhailon Levingston. The series was produced by The Onassis Foundation and TRAX from PRX. De Shields' co-stars include fellow Hadestown cast member Amber Gray, Divine Garland, Vinie Burrows, Kristen Sieh, and more.
De Shields appeared in John Mulaney's John Mulaney & the Sack Lunch Bunch in which he sang "Algebra Song!" The comedy/musical/variety special was released on Netflix on December 24, 2019. In 2020, he played the role of Chubby, a recurring character, in the television series Katy Keene on The CW. He has also appeared on the CBS series Elsbeth.
On December 28, 2020, it was announced that De Shields would star as Anton Ego in a benefit concert presentation of Ratatouille the Musical, an internet meme that originated on TikTok, inspired by the 2007 Disney/Pixar film. The concert streamed exclusively on TodayTix on January 1, 2021. De Shields appeared in Lin-Manuel Miranda's directorial debut film, tick, tick... BOOM!, released on Netflix on November 12, 2021, as a patron of the Moondance Diner in the musical scene for "Sunday", as well as other Broadway actors such as Chita Rivera, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Phillipa Soo, among others. He also plays the significant supporting role of Jack in the Netflix comedy Uncoupled, released in July 2022.
In September 2022, De Shields began performances as Uncle Ben in Death of a Salesman on Broadway at the Hudson Theatre. In March 2024, De Shields was announced to be portraying Old Deuteronomy in Cats at the Perelman Performing Arts Center in the summer of that year. He reprised his role when the production transferred to Broadway, earning another Tony nomination. He reprised his role as Hermes in the West End production of Hadestown together with the other stars of the original Broadway cast for a limited engagement from February to March 2025, during which the show was filmed for theatrical release.
Personal life
De Shields is gay, but prefers to be described as "a Black man who is queer" or "a Black man who loves other men". He is also a "long-term survivor" of HIV, living with HIV for over 40 years, having been diagnosed during the early AIDS epidemic after noticing his lymph nodes were swollen when shaving before a Los Angeles performance on Ain't Misbehavin's 1980 national tour and being formally diagnosed in 1991. His partner of 17 years, Chico Kasinoir, died in June 1992 of AIDS-related lymphoma. Another partner of De Shields, a man named John whom he was with for two years, died of AIDS-related meningitis in 1995.
Acting credits
Theatre
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