The bestSterling K. Brownmovies and TV shows feature massively popular television shows and both critically acclaimed and mainstream blockbuster movies. Brown began studying early in life and ended up graduating from Stanford University with an acting degree. He studied further at New York University Tisch School of the Arts, where he graduated with a Master of Fine Arts degree. This led to his start in regional theater where he worked alongside some big names that all ended up in Hollywood.
For Brown, his entrance to Hollywood started with roles on TV shows, as he appeared in everything fromERandNYPD BluetoThird WatchandAlias. However, he really began to get noticed with recurring roles inpopular TV shows likeSupernaturaland his breakthrough inThe People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story. This almost immediately led tothe role most fans know him from, playing Randall Pearson on the drama seriesThis is Us.
Hotel Artemis
Cast
Hotel Artemis is a dystopian thriller set in a riot-torn future Los Angeles. Jodie Foster stars as The Nurse, who operates a secret, members-only hospital for criminals. The facility, run with strict rules, provides sanctuary and medical care amidst the chaos outside. The film features an ensemble cast, including Sterling K. Brown, Sofia Boutella, and Jeff Goldblum. Drew Pearce makes his directorial debut with this tense, action-packed narrative.
Released in 2108,Hotel Artemisis a dystopian crime thriller that takes place in a futuristic Los Angeles. The film is about a secret hospital called Hotel Artemis, set up to care for criminals, run by a brilliant Nurse named Jean Thomas (Jodie Foster)and her assistant Everest (Dave Bautista). The hospital has one main rule - no weapons, no non-members, and no killing other guests.Sterling K. Brown plays Sherman, a professional criminal who was involved in a botched bank robberyand ended up injured alongside his brother.
While he wasn’t the lead, Brown was the main criminal in the Hotel Artemis that the audience follows, and he carries that role admirably.
Sterling and his brother end up at the Hotel Artemis. He soon learns a fancy pen he stole from one bank customer before everything fell apart belonged to an associate of Orian “The Wolfking” Franklin (Jeff Goldblum), who owns the Hotel Artemis. It is also full of diamonds, and soon The Wolfking shows up. While he wasn’t the lead, Brown was the main criminal in the Hotel Artemis that the audience follows, and he carries that role admirably. The film received average to positive reviews, with praise going to the cast.
9Army Wives (2007-2013)
Roland Burton
Before his breakout onThis is Us, Sterling K. Brown starred in the Lifetime drama seriesArmy Wives. The series is based on the non-fiction bookUnder the Sabers: The Unwritten Code of Army Wivesby Tanya Biank. It is set at a fictional Fort Marshall in South Carolina and focuses on the lives of four Army wives, one Army husband, and their families.Brown is the husband, a psychiatrist who wants to reconnect with his wife(Wendy Davis), who just returned from a two-year deployment in Afghanistan.
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Brown was a main cast member for the first six seasons and then became a recurring cast member in the seventh and final season when he accepted a job at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore. The series picked up several accolades over its run, including several from the NAACP Image Awards and ASCAP Awards, with Wendy Davis receiving a lot of recognition for her performance alongside Brown throughout the series.
Solar Opposites
Solar Opposites is a Hulu adult animation series that centers on a family of aliens. After moving to America, they bicker about whether the country is better than their home planet. The series was created by Mike McMahan and Rick and Morty co-creator Justin Roiland, with characters voiced by Thomas Middleditch, Sean Giambrone, and Mary Mack.
Fans of the Hulu adult animation seriesSolar Oppositeslikely recognizedSterling K. Brown’s voice as he has the role of one of the most popular members of The Wall society- Halk Hogam. The character’s name was clearly a homage to professional wrestling megastar Hulk Hogan, as Halk is a haunted war hero from the Great Wall War and a member of Tim’s resistance movement. He is also someone who sets out to solve a series of murders and later becomes a member of the Wall Council.
Brown was a cast member for two seasons (seasons 2-3) and sacrificed himself to save Cherie and kill a mosquito. Co-created byRick and Mortyco-creator Justin Rouland, the series was highly acclaimed, with the two seasons that Brown appeared in holding a 100% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The Wall storyline was just one of many for the aliens who want to integrate into Earth’s society but end up constantly messing things up along the way.
Invincible
Based on the comic book character by Robert Kirkman, Invincible follows Mark Grayson, a seventeen-year-old who leads a seemingly average life save for the fact that he lives behind the shadow of his superhero father, Omni-Man. Mark goes on to develop superhuman abilities, but he must also learn that his father’s legacy isn’t as glitzy and glamorous as he’s been led to believe.
After finishing up his voice work onSolar Opposites, Sterling K. Brown joined an even darker adult series with the comic book adaptationInvincible. Created by Robert Kirkman (The Walking Dead),Invinciblefollows a teenager who became a superhero (known as Invincible)and learned under his father, Omni-Man, himself the most powerful superhero on the planet. However, as the story plays out, it turns out that his father betrayed his superhero team and is an alien sent to Earth to set up for an invasion.
Brown picked up a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Character Voice-Over Performance in 2024.
Brown voices the character of Angstron Levy, a man who can create portals to other dimensions. He gets together variants of himself to grow smarter to improve his world, but an accident mutates his brain and he becomes a villain. He was the main focus ofInvincibleseason 2 and was the ultimate villain for Invincible throughout that entire season. Brown picked up a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Character Voice-Over Performance in 2024.
Supernatural
Supernatural is a television series that follows brothers Sam and Dean Winchester, who were raised by their father to hunt and combat supernatural entities after losing their mother to a demonic force. Traversing the American landscape in their ‘67 Chevy Impala, they face numerous paranormal threats.
One of Sterling K. Brown’s earliest major TV roles came on the fantasy seriesSupernatural.He was a recurring character named Gordon Walker, a vampire hunterwho had worked with Bobby Singer and John Winchester. He shows up in Dean and Sam’s lives after John died and appeared in the second, third, and fourth seasons of the show. He also had a major character arc as he proves to be more sadistic and violent than Sam and Dean thanks to his intent hatred of all vampires.
When Gordon decides that Sam is a danger to the world, he sets out to kill him, but Dean and Sam find a way to get him arrested rather than have to kill one of their dad’s old allies. Eventually, Gordon ends up turning into a vampire, but he remains steadfast in killing other vampires and still keeps his eye on eliminating Sam. Ironically, Gordon was supposed to have an even longer storyline, but he signed on forArmy Wivesand was only allowed two moreSupernaturalepisodes to end his arc (viaEclipse).
Black Panther
Black Panther follows King T’Challa as he returns to Wakanda to assume the throne of the technologically advanced African nation. Faced with internal and external challenges, T’Challa dons the Black Panther mantle, uniting with allies to protect Wakanda from potential global conflict.
Sterling K. Brown also has an MCU role, and while he only appeared for a few short minutes, he ended up as one of the most important characters to appear in theBlack Pantheruniverse.Brown played N’Jobu, the brother of T’Chaka and uncle to T’Challa.Black Pantheropened with King T’Chaka visiting his brother who was working undercover in Oakland, California. However, N’Jobu was working with a black-market arms dealer named Ulysses Klaue and was selling stolen Vibranium to him.
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T’Chaka killed his brother, which set his young son Erik on the path to becoming Killmonger, a man who challenged T’Challa for leadership of Wakanda with the intention of starting a new World War. It was only the one scene and then some flashbacks that Erik had of his childhood, but Brown helped make N’Jobu a sympathetic man, despite him being a criminal who betrayed his own people. Brown picked up a BET Awards nomination for Best Actor for his performance.
American Fiction
Based on the novel by Percival Everett, American Fiction is a drama film that stars Jeffrey Wright as author and English Professor Thelonious “Monk” Ellison. With his students lacking cultural sensitivity and publishers rejecting his novels, believing them not to be “Black enough,” Monk returns to his hometown where he witnesses a new young Black author who has created an instant best seller. As he attempts to ignore the success of another, he reunites with his family, where tragedy and chaos begin to consume them.
Cord Jefferson directed the comedy-dramaAmerican Fictionin 2023 with Jeffrey Wright in the lead role. Wright plays Thelonious “Monk” Ellison, an upper-class Black writer and professor in Los Angeles. His novels are all great but sell poorly, and his editor tells him they aren’t “Black enough.” As a result, Monk takes on a new persona to be “more Black” and suddenly finds his books selling in massive numbers after he writes a book using ridiculous Black stereotypes.
Brown won Best Supporting Actor from the Black Film Critics Circle and the African-American Film Critics Association.
The film is a satire on what people expect Black-written fiction to look like. Sterling K. Brown plays Dr. Clifford “Cliff” Ellison, Monk’s brother who recently came out as gay.Brown plays a strong role as someone who tries to figure out his place in the worldand then tries to help Monk realize he needs to be more true to himself as well. Critics praisedAmerican Fiction, awarding it a 93% fresh rating, and Brown won Best Supporting Actor from the Black Film Critics Circle and the African-American Film Critics Association.
American Crime Story
Created for FX, American Crime Story is an anthology true crime series that follows a new cast each season. Each is a self-contained series exploring true crime court cases in American history. The initial season visits and reenacts the murder trial of O.J. Simpson in the 1990s, with the show’s structure following several points of view to give a wider picture of each case.
Sterling K. Brown’s first major awards recognition came in 2016 when he starred inThe People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story.Brown stars as Christopher Darden, the real-life co-prosecutorin the O.J. Simpson murder trial. With an ensemble cast, the FX docuseries tells the familiar story of O.J.’s trial while somehow remaining thrilling and shocking.
Brown parlayed the role into great success, ashe won his first-ever Emmy Award along with a Golden Globe nomination for his performance. Brown also said that this was the role that caused him to “trust and believe that I am capable, that I can do the job people pay me to do” (viaEntertainment Weekly). In all,The People, v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Storypicked up a total of 22 nominations, with Sarah Paulson, Cuba Gooding Jr., John Travolta, David Schwimmer, and Courtney B. Vance also earning nominations.
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
Miriam “Midge” Maisel is a 1958 New York City woman who has everything she’s ever wanted—the perfect husband, two kids, and an elegant Upper West Side apartment perfect for hosting Yom Kippur dinner. But her perfect life suddenly takes an unexpected turn and Midge discovers a previously unknown talent for stand-up comedy—a talent that changes her life forever.
Sterling K. Brown also had a major role in the hit Prime Video historical drama seriesThe Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. The series stars Rachel Brosnahan as a New York housewife named Midge Maisel who discovers a unique talent for stand-up comedy. The series then follows her rise to the top, despite the obstacles standing in the way of a woman in the male-run industry of the 1950s and 60s.As for Brown, he plays Reggie, the protective manager of entertainer Shy Baldwin(LeRoy McClain).
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According to Brown, this acting experience was the"closest thing to live theater being done on television. There was nothing more exhilarating than being on that set"(viaEntertainment Weekly).Brown received an Emmy Award nomination in 2020 for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Seriesfor his performance. The series itself also won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series in 2018.
This Is Us
This Is Us chronicles the Pearson family across the decades: from Jack (Milo Ventimiglia) and Rebecca (Mandy Moore) as young parents in the 1980s to their 37-year-old kids, Kevin (Justin Hartley), Kate (Chrissy Metz) and Randall (Sterling K. Brown) searching for love and fulfillment in the present day. This grounded, life-affirming dramedy reveals how the tiniest events in our lives impact who people become and how the connections people share with each other can transcend time, distance, and even death.
The show that Sterling K. Brown is most known for, and the one he won the most awards for, isThis is Us. The series is told across two timelines. In one, Jack and Rebecca Pearson (Mile Ventimiglia and Mandy Moore) have twins and adopt a baby born that day and abandoned by his parents and this timeline shows the family’s history growing up. The second timeline is in the future when the three are in their 30s and their father has died. Brown plays Randall, the adopted son.
Along with the other two of the Big Three - Chrissy Metz’s Kate and Justin Hartley’s Kevin - the grown adults have to figure out their place in the world while dealing with their own personal trauma.Sterling K. Brownwon several awards for his performance from the Black Reel Television Awards, Critics’ Choice Television Awards, GLAAD Media Awards, Golden Globe Awards, NAACP Image Awards, People’s Choice Awards, and Primetime Emmy Awards.
