Laurence Fishburne
Laurence J. Fishburne III is an executive producer of Disney Branded Television’s “Marvel’s Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur” through Cinema Gypsy Productions. He also voices the recurring role of The Beyonder, a curious and mischievous trickster.
Fishburne has achieved an impressive body of work as an actor, producer and director. He starred in his first television show at age 10 in the drama “One Life to Live” and made his feature film debut at age 12 in “Cornbread, Earl and Me.” At 15, Fishburne appeared in “Apocalypse Now,” the first of many cult classics destined to define his long career.
Fishburne’s versatile acting has won him awards in theater, film and television. In 1992, Fishburne won a Tony Award® for his portrayal of Sterling Johnson in August Wilson’s “Two Trains Running.” He won his first Emmy® Award in 1993 for “The Box” episode of “TriBeCa,” and his second for his one-man show, “Thurgood,” in 1997. In 1993, he also received a Best Actor Oscar® Award nomination for the Tina Turner biopic, “What’s Love Got to Do with It.” He was an Emmy Award nominee and an NAACP Image Award winner for his starring role in the 1997 telefilm “Miss Evers’ Boys,” which he also executive-produced. Fishburne has been nominated 25 times for NAACP Image Awards, with seven wins — most recently in 2021 for “Outstanding Performance in a Short Form Series” for “#FreeRayshawn.” His most recent Emmy win was also for his role in “#FreeRayshawn.”
Fishburne may be best known for his role as Morpheus in the Wachowski’s blockbuster “The Matrix” trilogy, but his many film credits include Academy Award® nominee John Singleton’s “Boyz n the Hood,” Richard T. Heffron’s telefilm “A Rumor of War,” Steven Spielberg’s “The Color Purple,” Steven Zaillian’s “Searching for Bobby Fischer,” Mr. Singleton’s “Higher Learning,” Clint Eastwood’s “Mystic River” and cult classics, “Deep Cover” and “King of New York.”
In 2000, Fishburne founded Cinema Gypsy Productions with his longtime manager and producing partner, Helen Sugland. They have produced numerous nominated and award-winning projects, including “Thurgood,” “Five Fingers,” “Akeelah and the Bee,” “Once in the Life,” “Always Outnumbered,” “Hoodlum” and “Miss Evers’ Boys.” Currently, they produce the ABC hit series “black-ish,” where Mr. Fishburne stars alongside Anthony Anderson and Tracee Ellis Ross, as well as its Freeform spinoff “grown-ish” and the ABC spinoff “mixed-ish.” In 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2021, “black-ish” received Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Comedy Series. The show was also nominated in 2017 and 2018 for a Golden Globe® Award for Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy.
In 2016, Fishburne starred in the blockbuster “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” and the miniseries remake of “Roots” alongside Forest Whitaker and Anna Paquin. The “Roots” remake premiered with universal acclaim, and Fishburne received a 2016 Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Narrator as Alex Haley. Fishburne also appeared in “Passengers” alongside Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt, which was released in December 2016.
Fishburne’s other recent releases include “Bronzeville,” a 10-episode audio drama written by “A History of Violence” scribe Josh Olson and produced with Larenz Tate’s company TateMan Entertainment and Audio HQ; season two premiered in March 2021. Cinema Gypsy Productions and UCP have made a deal with Apple to produce the successful podcast as a streaming series to be written and directed by Seith Mann.
In the 2017 miniseries “Madiba,” Fishburne portrayed Nelson Mandela in a drama about the politician’s life. In 2017, he also appeared in Richard Linklater’s “Last Flag Flying,” in which he starred with Steve Carell and Bryan Cranston. In 2018, he was seen in Marvel’s “Ant-Man and The Wasp,” and recently, he reprised his role as the Bowey King in “John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum” in May 2019.
Fishburne was last seen in “Running with the Devil,” the highly anticipated adaptation of “Where’d You Go, Bernadette,” “#FreeRayshawn” and “The Ice Road.” His newest series, “MacGruber,” is now streaming on Peacock.
Next up for him is “The School for Good and Evil” and “John Wick: Chapter 4.”
He recently performed “The Autobiography of Malcolm X,” which was released on Sept. 10, 2020, on Audible and is a New York Times Best Sellers list. Fishburne just snagged an Audie Award for Best Male Narrator for his narration of the audiobook.
Fishburne served as an Ambassador for UNICEF since 1996. In 2007, he was honored by Harvard University as Artist of the Year for his outstanding contributions to American and international performing arts as well as his humanitarian contributions.
