Laurence Fishburne

Laurence J. Fishburne III has achieved an impressive body of work as an actor, producer and director. He starred in his first television show at age ten in the drama One Life to Live, and made his feature film debut at age twelve in Cornbread, Earl and Me. At fifteen, Laurence 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 theatre, 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, Laurence also received a Best Actor Oscar 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. Laurence 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 Quibi’s #FreeRayshawn.



Laurence may be best known for his role as Morpheus in the Wachowksi siblings’ 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, the 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 (HBO), Five Fingers (Lionsgate), Akeelah and the Bee (Lionsgate), Once in the Life (Lionsgate), Always Out Numbered (HBO), Hoodlum (United Artists), Miss Evers Boys (HBO), Madiba (BET) and Snowy Day (Amazon Studios), which won the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Pre-School Children's Animated Program in 2017. They produced the ABC-TV hit series black-ish, where Mr. Fishburne starred alongside Anthony Anderson and Tracee Ellis Ross, as well as its Freeform spinoff, “Grown-ish” and ABC spinoff, “Mixed-ish.” In 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2021, black-ish received Emmy 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 2017, Cinema Gypsy Productions produced the hit podcast series, “Bronzeville,” about Chicago’s center of Black culture in the 1940s. Season two of the podcast has since been released. Their award-winning documentary “The Cave of Adullam” aired on ESPN in October 2022 and can be streamed currently on ESPN+. The Cave won a RealScreen Award, while also taking home three wins at the Tribeca Film Festival (Best Documentary Feature, Best Editing in a Documentary Feature and the Audience Award). Fishburne and Sugland also executive produce “History’s Greatest Mysteries,” a one-hour documentary series that examines the top theories surrounding the world’s most enigmatic unsolved mysteries, which Fishburne also hosts. Their latest animated series Marvel’s “Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur” premiered Feb 2023 on Disney Channel and can now be streamed on Disney Plus. New episodes of the series will begin airing in early 2025; the show received five Children’s & Family Emmys wins. Next up is the new animated Disney series “Cookies & Milk,” which was inspired by the childhood of Shawn Amos, founder of the Famous Amos chocolate chip cookie brand. Fishburne will also voice act in Sneaks with producer Helen Sugland from Cinema Gypsy.



In 2016, Fishburne starred in Warner Bros.’ blockbuster Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, and A&E’s miniseries remake of Roots, alongside Forest Whitaker and Anna Paquin. The Roots remake premiered with universal acclaim, and Fishburne received a 2016 Emmy Nomination for Outstanding Narrator as Alex Haley. Fishburne also appeared in Passengers alongside Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt, which was released in December 2016.



In Madiba, a 2017 miniseries for BET Networks, Laurence portrayed Nelson Mandela in a drama about the politician’s life. In 2017, he 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 reprised his role as the Bowery King in John Wick 3 in May 2019.



Fishburne was seen in Running with the Devil, Annapurna’s highly anticipated adaptation of Where’d You Go, Bernadette, Quibi’s movie in chapter #FreeRayshawn, The Ice Road and Peacock series “MacGruber.”



He performed The Autobiography of Malcolm X, that was released on September 10, 2020, on Audible and is a NY Times Bestseller. Fishburne snagged an Audie Award for “Best Male Narrator” for his narration of the audiobook.



From 2021-22, Fishburne starred in American Buffalo on Broadway. His most recent mark in the fine arts was his one man show, “Like They Do in the Movies,” which ran from March 10-31, 2024, at PAC NYC. Fishburne was both the star and the playwright of this one-man tour-de-force which he describes as “the stories and lies people have told me. And that I have told myself.”



Fishburne has 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.



In 2023, he starred in Netflix’s The School for Good & Evil alongside Charlize Theron and Kerry Washington. Laurence resumed his role in John Wick: Chapter 4 and took the lead as Doc Rivers in FX’s new limited series, Clipped, which can be streamed in full on Hulu. Fishburne also paired up with Casey Affleck in their new sci-fi thriller, Slingshot, which released on August 30, 2024 and starred in Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis, which released in theaters on September 27, 2024. Next up, Fishburne will star alongside Kate Mara in The Astronaut, Rami Malik in The Amateur and will make his first appearance in season 4 of the Netflix hit series “The Witcher.”