Forrest McClendon

Forrest McClendon is an American stage actor, singer, and professor who was born and raised in Norwalk, Connecticut, where he grew up in the Roodner Court housing projects in South Norwalk. He attended Nathan Hale Middle School before graduating from Norwalk High School in 1983. His early vocal training came from Lewis Cisto, a music teacher at Norwalk High School, and was later supplemented by lessons from Betty Jones, a Connecticut opera singer, and Cassandra Eaton, the music minister of Grace Baptist Church in Norwalk. McClendon initially enrolled at the University of Connecticut to study engineering before changing course and earning a bachelor's degree in vocal studies.

McClendon's professional stage career began off-Broadway in 1993 with a production of Faith Journey. In 2005, he appeared as CC White in a Prince Music Theatre revival of Dreamgirls: The Musical in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He went on to perform the role of Mr. Tambo in The Scottsboro Boys off-Broadway before bringing the character to Broadway in 2010, marking his Broadway debut. The performance earned McClendon a Tony Award nomination for Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical in 2011. That same year, he appeared in a regional production of Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris at the Two Rivers Theatre in Red Bank, New Jersey. McClendon later returned to Broadway with a starring role in Thoughts of a Colored Man, extending his Broadway presence through 2021.

Beyond performing, McClendon holds academic positions as a faculty member at Temple University and an adjunct associate professor at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. As of 2011, he has resided in East Lampeter Township, a suburb of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. His mother, Ruthie Mae Brown, continues to live in Norwalk, Connecticut.