Harry Lennix

Early life

The youngest of four siblings, Lennix was born in Chicago, Illinois, to Lillian C. (née Vines), a laundry worker, and Harry Lennix Jr., a machinist. His mother was African-American and his father was Creole from Louisiana.

Lennix attended Quigley Preparatory Seminary South and intended to become a priest. His first play was with the seminary. After a few weeks at seminary, he changed paths to Northwestern University "to pursue a girl", and settled on career choice in drama and majored in Acting and Direction. In his senior year at Northwestern, he was the coordinator of the African-American student organization, For Members Only.

Career

Teaching and Career Beginnings

Lennix taught music for Chicago Public Schools for eight years. While in school himself and teaching, he commuted two hours between Englewood for teaching and then performances in plays at night. He continued acting training and performed at the Goodman Theatre and Steppenwolf Theatre.

TV and Film

Lennix's first film role was in The Package (1989), which was a Chicago production.

Lennix starred in the film Titus (1999), based on Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus, as Aaron the Moor, the secret lover of the Queen of the Goths; in the Showtime Networks television film Keep the Faith, Baby (2002) as reverend and Congressman Adam Clayton Powell Jr.; and in the ABC television series Commander in Chief. For ten seasons, Lennix co-starred in the role of Harold Cooper, assistant director of the FBI Counterterrorism Division, on the NBC drama The Blacklist (2013–2023).

In film, Lennix has had supporting roles such as The Five Heartbeats (1991), Comfortably Numb (1995), Get on the Bus (1996) in which he plays the lover of a gay ex-Marine played by Isaiah Washington, Love & Basketball (2000), The Matrix series (1999–2004), Ray (2004), Barbershop 2: Back in Business (2004), Stomp the Yard (2007), and State of Play (2009).

In television, he had a recurring role in Diagnosis: Murder as Agent Ron Wagner as well as a guest voice role as Mar Londo in the Legion of Super Heroes episode "Timber Wolf". He also had a recurring role in the sixth season of 24 as Muslim civil rights activist Walid Al-Rezani. He appeared on the series House M.D. as a paralyzed legendary jazz trumpet player, and in six episodes of ER as Dr. Greg Fischer. He also appeared in the episode "The Blame Game" of the first season of Ally McBeal. He played the parts of Boyd Langton in Joss Whedon's series Dollhouse and U.S. president Barack Obama in the comedy sketch show Little Britain USA.

In 2007, he was an official festival judge at the first annual Noor Iranian Film Festival.

In 2010, Lennix had planned to star in an African-diasporic film version of Macbeth, with director Aleta Chappelle and tentatively also starring Terence Howard, Sanaa Lathan, Blair Underwood, and Danny Glover.

Also in 2012, Lennix produced and starred in the lead role in several film productions (see Producer-Actor Projects below) including H4, a modernized Shakespeare film adaptation of Henry IV, Mr. Sophistication which is about a stand-up comedian, and the biblical story Revival!.

Theatre

Lennix has directed and appeared in numerous stage productions, including: Permanent Collection in 2005 with the Northlight Theater Company, which was also presented at the Greenway Arts Alliance in Los Angeles and later directed by Lennis at LA's Kirk Douglas Theater. He directed the stage version of Robert Townsend's film The Five Heartbeats, which received three NAACP Theater Award nominations and The Glass Menagerie for Chicago's Steppenwolf Theater Company. Lennix made his Broadway debut in August Wilson's Tony-nominated play, Radio Golf, directed by Kenny Leon. In 2009, Lennix directed The St. James Infirmary with the Congo Square Theatre Company at the Chicago Center for Performing Arts.

Lennix played Malcolm X in a 1989 production of The Meeting, which earned him an Obie Award. Lennix also performed the play years later. Jack Helbig at the Chicago Reader said about the 1989 performance, "Harry J. Lennix’s uncanny impersonation of Malcolm X went a long way toward redeeming the play. Luckily, Lennix also has the gift of being able to make the most ridiculous lines sound real. “We are all pawns,” he says at one point, somehow convincing us that he is the first person ever to have thought of that."

Lennix also starred as Levee in August Wilson's Ma Rainey's Black Bottom at the Goodman Theater in 1997. The production broke box office records. For a later 2026 production in which Lennix returned to the same play and theatre as musical director, Lennix said:

August Wilson came to one of our preview performances [in 1997], wrote [director] Chuck Smith a note that 'I've never seen a better production of this, thank you.' It brings back ghosts, so I think it's haunted, it's fraught with drama, it's fraught with trauma, it's fraught with great music, great humor and also great pain, kind of like life. The play is set in Chicago, so we feel a special ownership, a proprietary pride in it. This is my home theater. This theater gave me my first equity job, while I was still in college, while I was at Northwestern.

Lennix was the first recipient of an Ollie Award for his portrayal of Malcolm X at the Goodman Theater in Chicago, and received two Joseph Jefferson Citations for his roles in August Wilson's Ma Rainey's Black Bottom and Caught in the Act. He also starred as King Hedley II at the Mark Taper Forum in LA. In 2001, he was part of the first American company to be invited to the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Shakespeare Work and Scholarship

Lennix has numerous Shakespearean credits. Lennix was also part of the first American company to be invited to the Royal Shakespeare Company, in 2001.

In 2007, Lennix starred in the Steve Marvel-directed all-black version of Macbeth at the Lillian Theatre in Loss Angeles.

Lennix has presented at Shakespeare symposiums in 2004, 2008, and 2010. He has also written multiple scholarly publications including an article in Weyward MacBeth: Intersections of Race and Performance (2009) and an interview in a special issue Shakespeare Bulletin in 2009, and specifically on the subject of race, Shakespeare, and contemporary relevance. With Laurence Fishburne he has had numerous conversations and debates about Shakespeare, race, and performance.

On the topic of his Henry IV adaptation H4 and Shakespeare in general, Lennix has said:

"When you have a white character played by a black person, the way that they arrive at a destination may be different, but the ultimate end is the same. If Shakespeare must be studied by every student in the English speaking world, and beyond, because of its universal relevant themes and characters, then if it is truly universal, why do I so rarely see anyone black doing it? So with H4 I'm saying that it is universal."

"There are a lot of people who would think that Othello is a black Shakespeare film, but it's not. Othello is about one black guy in the midst of a bunch of people in Venice. So it's not really a black Shakespeare film. What I mean by black Shakespeare film is that for the first time, to my knowledge, on film, we have taken a Shakespearian play and placed in a recognizably black world experience. It's from the perspective of black people, acted primarily by black people, and it's from the black point of view." -Harry Lennix in 2013

Music

In 2026, Lennix was the musical director for a production of August Wilson's Ma Rainey's Black Bottom.

Lennix learned to play the trumpet while working on August Wilson’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. He also played the saxophone in a production and has played the piano in other theatrical roles. Northlight Theatre Company director BJ Jones said that Lennix played jazz piano in the rehearsal room during a run of Permanent Collection (2005), and shared Red Garland CDs with him. A 2018 episode of the PBS series The History Makers contains video of Lennix playing piano with a band and singing on stage at an event. In 2005, he played the part of a fictional legendary jazz musician in an episode of House.

Community Work

Lennix is developing a performing arts center in the Bronzeville of Chicago and has been given $26 million dollars from the state of Illinois for the project, which will include a "Lillian Marcie Center." The facility is planned to include a museum and two performance spaces, one of about 350 seats and one of about 100 seats.

The Illinois Broadcasters Association said that Lennix has a foundation, The Lennix Foundation, which "aims to support young artists and promote cultural enrichment within underprivileged communities." In 2023, Lennix was awarded by HeartShare Human Services of New York for a "commitment to [...] community that transforms the landscape for underserved and marginalized populations."

Personal life

In 2009, Lennix married business executive Djena Graves.

Lennix is a member of the Omega Psi Phi fraternity. He was initiated into the fraternity in November 2012 via the Theta Kappa Kappa graduate chapter in Evanston, Illinois.

Lennix has given multiple college commencement speeches including 2006 at Santa Monica College (speech entitled "Do Not Stop, Do Not Slow Down") and 2008 at Arizona State University (speech entitled "Acting While Black").

Lennix is Catholic.

Acting credits