Michael Potts

Michael Potts (born September 21, 1962) is an American actor. He has appeared on stage, on television and in motion pictures.

The actor made his film debut in Halloween Night (1990), also known as The Damning, DeathMask, and Hack-o-Lantern. He appeared in Hackers (1995), The Peacemaker (1997), and Conspiracy Theory (1997). In 2000, he appeared in the short film Black People Hate Me and They Hate My Glasses. His later film credits include Diggers (2006), Jocasta (2008), Mom (2013), 37 (2016), Let Me Make You a Martyr (2017), Here and Now (2018), Change in the Air (2018), Cicada (2020), Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (2020), Measure of Revenge (2022), Rustin (2023), The Piano Lesson (2024), and Highest 2 Lowest (2025). He also appeared in Out of Order!.

On television, he appeared in the miniseries The West (1996) and in episodes of NYPD Blue (1996) and Thomas Jefferson (1997). He had multiple roles across five episodes of Law & Order between 1997 and 2010, returning in 2025. He portrayed Brother Mouzone in The Wire (2003–2004) and Detective Maynard Gilbough in True Detective (2014). Other recurring or guest roles included appearances in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (2012–2016), Damages (2010), Gotham (2015), Show Me a Hero (2015), Person of Interest (2015–2016), Madam Secretary (2016), The Blacklist (2017), The First Lady (2022), and East New York (2022–2023), among numerous other single-episode roles from 1998 through 2023.

In video games, he voiced Cyrus in The Warriors (2005). His theatre credits include Off-Broadway and regional productions beginning with The America Play (1994) at The Public Theater and a workshop of Rent (1994) at New York Theatre Workshop. He appeared in productions including Arms and the Man (2000), Twelfth Night (2002), Lennon (2005) on Broadway, Grey Gardens (2006–2007), Richard III (2007), The Tempest (2008), The Book of Mormon (2011–2013), Cabin in the Sky (2016), Jitney (2017), 1984 (2017), The Prom (2018–2019), and The Piano Lesson (2022–2023) on Broadway.