Lakeith Stanfield

Lakeith Lee Stanfield was born on August 12, 1991, in San Bernardino, California, and grew up in Riverside and Victorville. His early life was marked by economic hardship within a fractured family. At the age of 14, he discovered acting through his high school drama club and subsequently attended the John Casablancas Modeling & Career Center in Orange County, which led to an agency signing and early commercial auditions. These formative experiences laid the groundwork for a career that would soon see him achieve notable success in the entertainment industry.

Stanfield’s professional acting career began with Destin Cretton’s college thesis film, “Short Term 12” (2008). He later reprised his role in the feature-length adaptation of “Short Term 12” (2013), marking his debut as a professional actor and earning him an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Supporting Male. His early career also included a significant role in the Martin Luther King biopic, “Selma” (2014), where he played civil rights activist Jimmie Lee Jackson. These initial projects provided a foundation for his versatility, allowing him to transition between various impactful roles and genres.

Throughout his career, Stanfield has consistently taken on diverse and challenging roles. He gained wider recognition for his performances in critically acclaimed films such as “Get Out” (2017), “Sorry to Bother You” (2018), “Knives Out” (2019), and “The Photograph” (2020). A career-defining moment arrived with his role in “Judas and the Black Messiah” (2021), which earned him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. On television, Stanfield is well-known for his role as Darius in the FX comedy-drama series “Atlanta” (2016–2022), for which he won a Black Reel Award for Television, and he also served as an executive producer on projects like “Yasuke” (2021) and “The Changeling” (2023). He also pursues a music career under the stage name Htiekal, with an upcoming debut album titled “Self Control.”