André De Shields

André De Shields is the triple-crown winner of the 2019 awards season, having won the Outer Critics Circle, Drama Desk, Grammy and Tony Awards as Best Featured Actor in a Musical for his unanimously critically acclaimed performance as Hermes, Messenger to the Gods, in Hadestown. The Actors’ Equity Foundation followed suit with the Richard Seff Award, which honors veteran stage actors’ best supporting performances of the year. Prior to his Tony Award win, Mr. De Shields was best known for his show-stopping performances in four legendary Broadway productions: The WizAin’t Misbehavin’ (Emmy Award), Play On!, and The Full Monty. In a career spanning fifty years, he has distinguished himself as an unparalleled actor, director, and educator, receiving in 2018 the 8th Annual Off Broadway Alliance Legend Award, and the 33rd Annual Bob Harrington Life Achievement Bistro Award. Among his other accolades are the 2009 National Black Theatre Festival’s Living Legend Award and the 2007 Village Voice Obie Award for Sustained Excellence of Performance. On August 19, 2019, His Honor Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young presented André with the Key to the City of his hometown, Baltimore, Maryland. 2019 continued to unfold as a banner year, adding to his accolades the inaugural Harlem Week Pride 50 Award, the 2019 Project1Voice Lifetime Achievement Award, the 2019 Joyce Worshow Lifetime Achievement Award from SAGE, the 2019 Oscar Hammerstein Award for Lifetime Achievement in Musical Theatre and induction into The American Theater Hall of Fame. On January 12, 2020, André celebrated his seventy-fourth year of living an anointed life on the Earth Plane. Mr. De Shields is a proud member of Actors’ Equity Association, SAG-AFTRA and SDC, and a distinguished alumnus of the University of Wisconsin-Madison ’70.  www.andredeshields.com. Ubuntu!