André Holland

André Holland is an American actor born on December 28, 1979, in Bessemer, Alabama, where he also grew up. He attended John Carroll Catholic High School in Birmingham before going on to study at Florida State University, which included a period abroad at the FSU London study centre. He earned a Master of Fine Arts degree from New York University in 2006. His earliest stage experience came at age eleven, when he appeared in a production of Oliver! at the Birmingham Summerfest Theatre.

Holland's professional on-screen debut came in 2006 with an episode of Law & Order. That same year, he took on three roles in the stage production Blue Door, earning a positive notice from New York Times critic Charles Isherwood. In 2008, he appeared in the play Wig Out! and made his film debut in the sports drama Sugar. The following year he performed in The Brother/Sister Plays, portraying the characters Elegba and Marcus. In 2010, he was cast in Matthew Lopez's The Whipping Man, a performance that earned him the Vivian Robinson/Audelco Award for Best Supporting Actor. In 2011, he appeared in several episodes of the NBC sitcom Friends with Benefits, playing Julian "Fitz" Fitzgerald.

Holland's film work gained momentum in 2013 when he portrayed sportswriter Wendell Smith in 42, followed in 2014 by his portrayal of politician and activist Andrew Young in Ava DuVernay's historical drama Selma, for which he received an NAACP Image Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture. Also in 2014, he joined the cast of the Cinemax drama series The Knick, starring opposite Clive Owen as Dr. Algernon Edwards, a role he continued through 2015.

In 2016, Holland delivered the performance that brought him widespread recognition, playing Kevin in Barry Jenkins's film Moonlight. The film won multiple Academy Awards, including Best Picture at the 89th annual ceremony. Critics at Rolling Stone and GQ singled out Holland's work as a standout contribution. As part of the ensemble cast, he received a nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture at the 23rd Screen Actors Guild Awards, along with nominations for Best Supporting Actor from the Florida Film Critics Circle and Outstanding Supporting Actor at the Black Reel Awards. Also in 2016, he appeared as Matt Miller in the FX series American Horror Story: Roanoke.

Holland's Broadway career spans 2009 to 2017. His credits include August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone and Jitney, the latter produced in 2017, in which he played the role of Youngblood. In 2018, he made his Off Off Broadway directing debut with a production of Greg Keller's Dutch Masters, and that same year he starred in a production of Othello at Shakespeare's Globe alongside Mark Rylance. In 2020, he took a lead role in The Eddy, a Netflix musical drama series directed by Damien Chazelle. He later starred as Henry Matthew Deaver in the Hulu series Castle Rock, a performance that drew praise from critics including Vulture's Amy Woolsey. Holland also starred in the lead role of Duke Johnson's 2025 film The Actor, based on Donald E. Westlake's novel Memory.