Don Cheadle has, since being named Best Supporting Actor by the Los Angeles Film Critics for his breakout performance opposite Denzel Washington in Devil in a Blue Dress, consistently turned in powerful performances on the stage and screen.
Cheadle most recently starred in Traitor, an international thriller set in the world of covert counter-terrorism operations, opposite Guy Pearce.
Additional film credits include the following: Talk to Me, directed by Kasi Lemmons and co-starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, about the Washington D.C. radio personality Ralph "Petey" Greene, an ex-con who became a popular talk show host and community activist in the 1960s; the 2006 Oscar®-winning Best Picture, Crash, which Cheadle also produced; Hotel Rwanda, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award®, a Golden Globe Award, a Broadcast Film Critics Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actor; Ocean's Eleven, Ocean's Twelve and Ocean's Thirteen, all directed by Steven Soderbergh and starring Brad Pitt and George Clooney; Mike Binder's Reign Over Me with Adam Sandler; Brett Ratner's After the Sunset with Pierce Brosnan and Salma Hayek; The Assassination of Richard Nixon with Naomi Watts and Sean Penn; the Academy Award®-winning Traffic, and the George Clooney/Jennifer Lopez-starrer Out of Sight, both also directed by Soderbergh; Paul Thomas Anderson's critically acclaimed Boogie Nights with Julianne Moore and Mark Wahlberg; Volcano with Tommy Lee Jones; Bulworth directed by and starring Warren Beatty; Swordfish, co-starring John Travolta and Halle Berry; Mission to Mars with Tim Robbins and Gary Sinise; John Singleton's Rosewood; Family Man, also directed by Ratner and starring Nicolas Cage; and the independent features Manic, The United States of Leland and Allison Anders' Things Behind the Sun. Cheadle was recently honored at ShoWest as Male Star of the Year.
Cheadle is also well-recognized for his television work. He received a Golden Globe Award for his remarkable portrayal of Sammy Davis Jr. in HBO's The Rat Pack, a performance for which he was also nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Emmy. That same year, he received an Emmy nomination for his starring role in HBO's adaptation of the critically-acclaimed, bestseller A Lesson before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines, in which Cheadle starred opposite Cicely Tyson and Mekhi Phifer. He also starred for HBO in Rebound: The Legend of Earl 'The Goat' Manigault, directed by Eriq La Salle.
Well known for his two-year stint in the role of District Attorney John Littleton on David E. Kelley's critically-acclaimed series Picket Fences, Cheadle's other series credits include a guest-starring role on ER (a performance that earned him yet another Emmy nomination), a series regular role on The Golden Palace and a recurring role on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Cheadle was also part of the stellar cast of the thrilling live CBS television broadcast of Fail Safe, in which he starred opposite George Clooney, James Cromwell, Brain Dennehy, Richard Dreyfuss, and Harvey Keitel.
An accomplished stage actor, Cheadle originated the role of Booth in Suzan-Lori Parks' Pulitzer Prize-winning play Top Dog/Underdog at New York's Public Theatre under the direction of George C. Wolfe. His other stage credits include Leon, Lena and Lenz at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis; The Grapes of Wrath and Liquid Skin at the Mixed Blood Theater in Minneapolis; Cymbeline at The New York Shakespeare Festival; 'Tis a Pity She's a Whore at Chicago's Goodman Theater; and Athol Fugard's South African play Blood Knot at The Complex Theater in Hollywood.
Born in Kansas City, Missouri, Cheadle later relocated to Lincoln, Nebraska and Denver, Colorado before he finally settled in Los Angeles. He attended the prestigious California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, California, where he received his Bachelor's Degree in Fine Arts. With the encouragement of his college friends, Cheadle auditioned for a variety of film and television roles while attending school and landed a recurring role on the hit series Fame. This led to feature film roles in Colors, directed by Dennis Hopper; the John Irvin-directed Hamburger Hill, opposite Dylan McDermott; and Meteor Man, directed by Robert Townsend. A talented musician who plays saxophone writes music and sings, Cheadle is also an accomplished director with the stage productions of Cincinnati Man at the Attic Theater, the critically-acclaimed The Trip at the Friends and Artists Theater in Hollywood, and Three, True, One at the Electric Lodge in Venice, California.
In addition to his many acting honors, Cheadle was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2004 for Best Spoken Word Album for his narration/dramatization of the Walter Mosley novel Fear Itself.
Cheadle resides in Los Angeles.
