Phillip Boykin

Phillip Lamar Boykin, born November 2, 1968, in Greenville, South Carolina, is an American bass-baritone singer and actor whose Broadway career spans from 2012 to the present. One of ten children, Boykin began his formal training in Opera Performance at South Carolina State College before transferring to the North Carolina School of the Arts, which he left in 1990. He subsequently enrolled at the Hartt School of the University of Hartford, earning a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance in 1995, and later pursued graduate studies in Opera and Jazz Vocals at Howard University. In 2015, the Hartt School recognized him with its Alumni Award.

Before his Broadway debut, Boykin built his regional career in part through repeated portrayals of Joe in Show Boat, beginning with a non-equity tour that ran from 1999 to 2001. He returned to the role in productions at North Shore Music Theatre in 2008, the Media Theatre in 2009, and the Wells Fargo Pavilion in 2013. The 2008 North Shore Music Theatre production earned him an IRNE Award. He also appeared at North Shore Music Theatre as Caiaphas in Jesus Christ Superstar in 2006, and portrayed Booker T. Washington in a 2013 concert production of Ragtime at Avery Fisher Hall.

Boykin made his Broadway debut in the 2012 revival of Porgy and Bess, playing Crown. The performance earned him a Theatre World Award for Outstanding Broadway Debut, as well as nominations for the Tony Award, Drama Desk Award, and Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical. He reprised the role of Crown in 2014 at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre in London. His subsequent Broadway credits include On the Town, which ran at the Lyric Theatre from 2014 to 2015, and the 2017 revival of Sunday in the Park with George at the Hudson Theatre, where he became the first African-American performer to play the role of Boatman/Lee Randolph. That production reopened the Hudson Theatre, which had not hosted a Broadway show since 1968.

Also in 2017, Boykin joined the Broadway revival of Once on This Island, playing Tonton Julian at the Circle in the Square Theatre. The production ran from December 3, 2017, through January 6, 2019. In 2015, he starred as the Pirate King in New York City Center's production of The Pirates of Penzance. In 2022, he appeared in the Hugh Jackman-led Broadway revival of The Music Man, playing Olin Britt and a Traveling Salesman.

In September 2023, Boykin began playing Hades in the Broadway production of Hadestown, a role for which he received a Tony Award nomination. He performed his final Broadway performance in that run on January 12, 2025, opposite Jordan Fisher as Orpheus. Shortly after departing the Broadway cast, Boykin made his West End debut in the London production of Hadestown, stepping in for Patrick Page, who had sustained an achilles injury during rehearsals. Given three days' notice before his first London performance, Boykin performed in all scheduled shows from February 11 through March 9, 2025, with Page appearing only on filming dates. Boykin rejoined the Broadway cast of Hadestown on April 22, 2025, for a limited engagement running through August 31, 2025.

Beyond the stage, Boykin appeared in the 2014 films Freedom, starring Cuba Gooding Jr., and Top Five, starring Chris Rock, as well as the oratorio-musical Easter Mysteries. He is the founder and director of the NYGospel Brothers, a gospel quartet. In 2019, he was inducted into the South Carolina Theatre Association Hall of Fame following a performance of the Once on This Island tour in his hometown of Greenville, South Carolina.