Brian Tyree Henry

Brian Tyree Henry at the 2019 San Diego Comic-Con International

Brian Tyree Henry (born March 31, 1982 in Fayetteville , North Carolina ) is an American actor . He gained fame primarily through his leading role as Alfred "Paper Boi" Miles from the Atlanta comedy series , for which he was nominated for numerous awards.

life and career

Brian Tyree Henry was born the youngest of five children in the city of Fayetteville, North Carolina, and grew up partly there and in Washington, DC . He has four older sisters. His father served in the military while his mother was a teacher who was killed in a car accident in 2016. The eighth episode of Atlanta season two, entitled Woods , is dedicated to her. Henry attended Morehouse College in Atlanta , Georgia for four years , where Samuel L. Jackson and Spike Lee also studied. His time there shaped him decisively. He later attended Yale University and took his first steps in the acting business at the New York City Theater . He was seen in several productions on Broadway , for example in the role of the general in the musical The Book of Mormon . There are also productions of works by William Shakespeare , for example as Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet or in the play Lobby Hero , which premiered on Off-Broadway . For the latter, Henry was nominated for a Tony Award and a Drama Desk Award .

In 2009, Henry made his acting debut in front of the camera with a guest appearance on the series Law & Order . Other guest roles followed, for example in Good Wife , Boardwalk Empire , The Knick and How to Get Away with Murder . For his role as Ricky in This Is Us - Das ist Leben , he was nominated for an Emmy Award in the category Best Guest Actor in a Drama Series in 2017 . From 2016 to 2017, he played a small role as Dascius Brown on the HBO series Vice Principals . Since 2016 he can be seen as Alfred "Paper Boi" Miles in a leading role in the comedy series Atlanta . In 2017 he was nominated for the Gold Derby Awards . For his performance in the second season he was nominated at the Primetime Emmy Awards 2018 in the category of Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series.

In addition to his series roles, Henry can often be seen in films, for example in Person to Person , Crown Heights , Hotel Artemis or Irreplaceable . He also took on other film roles in 2018 in Widows - Tödliche Widwen and If Beale Street Could Talk . In 2019 he appeared in the horror film Child's Play and also took on a small role in Todd Phillips ' Joker . It was announced at San Diego Comic Con 2019 that Henry will play the role of the comic character Phastos in The Eternals of the Marvel Cinematic Universe .