André De Shields

André Robin De Shields, born January 12, 1946, in Dundalk, Maryland, is an American actor, singer, dancer, director, and choreographer whose Broadway career spans from 1969 to 2026. Raised in Baltimore as the ninth of eleven children, De Shields lost his father at age 17. He earned his high school diploma from Baltimore City College in 1964, then attended Wilmington College before transferring to the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where he received a BA in English literature in 1970. In 1991, he completed an MA in African-American studies at the Gallatin School of Individualized Study at New York University, where he subsequently served as an adjunct professor.

De Shields launched his professional career in the 1969 Chicago production of Hair, which led to a role in The Me Nobody Knows and involvement with Chicago's Organic Theater Company. Throughout the 1970s, 1980s, and early 1990s, he performed in numerous Off-Off-Broadway productions at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club in Manhattan, including Ken Rubenstein's Sacred Guard in 1973, Lamar Alford's Thoughts in 1974, and the 1985 Cotton Club Gala with music by Aaron Bell, directed by Ellen Stewart. In September and October of 1984, he co-wrote with Judith Cohen and directed Judith and the Cohen Sisters in Midnight in Manhattan at La MaMa. He also directed Chico Kasinoir's The Adventures of Rhubarb: The Rock and Roll Rabbit in 1985 and his own work Saint Tous at La MaMa in February 1991 to mark Black History Month.

His Broadway debut came in 1973 as Xander in Stuart Gordon's Warp!, followed that same year by Paul Jabara's Rachael Lily Rosenbloom (And Don't You Ever Forget It), which closed during previews. He then took the title role in The Wiz, the 1975 musical by Charlie Smalls and William F. Brown, directed by Geoffrey Holder. After choreographing two Bette Midler musicals, De Shields returned to Broadway in 1978 for the musical revue Ain't Misbehavin', which ran for over 1,600 performances and earned him a Drama Desk nomination. He reprised that production in a 1988 revival. In 1981, he appeared in Stardust: The Mitchell Parrish Musical, a revue featuring Parrish's collaborations with Hoagy Carmichael, Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, and Leroy Anderson.

In 1984, De Shields wrote, choreographed, directed, and starred in André De Shields' Haarlem Nocturne, a Broadway musical revue drawing on American songbook standards, early 1960s pop hits, and his own compositions. The production was presented at the Latin Quarter and at La MaMa, with music by Marc Shaiman. In 1997, he appeared on Broadway as the Jester in Play On!, a musical built around Duke Ellington's songs, earning both Tony and Drama Desk nominations. Three years later, in 2000, he originated the role of Noah "Horse" T. Simmons in The Full Monty, the Terrence McNally and David Yazbek musical adaptation of the film, again receiving Tony and Drama Desk nominations.

De Shields appeared in the 2004 Broadway production of Mark Medoff's Prymate at the Longacre Theatre and in the 2009 Broadway play Impressionism, opposite Joan Allen and Jeremy Irons, which ran at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theater through May of that year. His regional theatre work includes productions of Waiting for Godot, The Man Who Came to Dinner, Death of a Salesman, Camino Real, King Lear, and The Gospel According to James, among others. In 2013, he portrayed Akela and King Louie in the world premiere of Mary Zimmerman's adaptation of The Jungle Book, a co-production of the Goodman Theatre and Huntington Theatre Company, for which he received his third Jeff Award for Outstanding Achievement as Actor in a Supporting Role in a Musical. He also portrayed Barrett Rude Sr. in The Fortress of Solitude beginning at Vassar College in 2012, through its Dallas Theater Center premiere in 2014 and its subsequent off-Broadway run co-produced with The Public Theater. In 2015 and 2016, he starred alongside Lillias White, Stefanie Powers, and Georgia Engel in the new musical Gotta Dance, directed and choreographed by Jerry Mitchell, at Chicago's Bank of America Theatre.

De Shields originated the role of Hermes in the Broadway musical Hadestown, which began previews on March 22, 2019, at the Walter Kerr Theatre. The performance brought him the 2019 Tony Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical and the 2019 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical, the Tony being his third nomination in that category. He also received the 2020 Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album for his work on the production. De Shields played his final performance in Hadestown on May 29, 2022. On January 26, 2021, it was announced that he would reprise the role of Hermes in Live From Mount Olympus, a narrative podcast for tweens directed by Rachel Chavkin and Zhailon Levingston, produced by The Onassis Foundation and TRAX from PRX.

On television, De Shields won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement for his performance in the 1982 NBC broadcast of Ain't Misbehavin'. He played Tweedledum in a 1983 televised production of Alice in Wonderland featuring Richard Burton, Eve Arden, Colleen Dewhurst, James Coco, Kaye Ballard, and Nathan Lane. His additional television credits include Another World, Cosby, Sex and the City, Great Performances, Lipstick Jungle, Law & Order, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and Elsbeth. In 2020, he played the recurring character Chubby in the CW series Katy Keene. On January 1, 2021, he starred as Anton Ego in the benefit concert presentation of Ratatouille the Musical, which streamed on TodayTix. He appeared in Lin-Manuel Miranda's directorial debut film tick, tick... BOOM!, released on Netflix on November 12, 2021, in the musical sequence for "Sunday," and took on the supporting role of Jack in the Netflix comedy Uncoupled, released in July 2022. He also appeared in John Mulaney & the Sack Lunch Bunch, the Netflix comedy and musical variety special released on December 24, 2019, performing "Algebra Song!"