Tory Kittles

Tory Kittles is an American actor, writer, and director whose work spans film, television, and Broadway. He grew up in Lawtey, a small town in northern Florida, where he was raised alongside a brother named Omar. His grandmother was a formative influence during his childhood, having him and his cousins grow and harvest their own vegetables, corn, and potatoes, an experience that instilled in him a lasting appreciation for time spent in nature.

Kittles entered the film industry in the early 2000s, drawing the attention of director Joel Schumacher with a supporting role in Tigerland (2000), a credit he shared with Neil Brown Jr. He also contributed to the film by co-writing the song "Looking for Charlie." A subsequent supporting role in Phone Booth (2002), also directed by Schumacher, helped open doors to broader opportunities. His film credits from that period include Malibu's Most Wanted (2003), Get Rich or Die Tryin' (2005), Next (2007), and Miracle at St. Anna (2008).

Television became a central focus of Kittles's career. He portrayed Laroy in Sons of Anarchy from 2008 to 2011 and appeared in True Detective in 2014. He played Clarence in Bessie alongside Queen Latifah, and starred as Broussard in Colony from 2016 to 2018, opposite Josh Holloway and Sarah Wayne Callies. Beginning in 2021, he took on the recurring role of Detective Marcus Dante in The Equalizer, reuniting him once again with Queen Latifah.

His film work continued with notable projects in the late 2010s and early 2020s. He appeared in Dragged Across Concrete (2018) and portrayed Frederick Douglass in Harriet (2019), the Academy Award-nominated film starring Cynthia Erivo. In 2020, he appeared in Wander Darkly, which premiered at Sundance, alongside Siena Miller and Diego Luna. The following year he starred in the action thriller Those Who Wish Me Dead (2021) with Angelina Jolie.

On Broadway, Kittles appeared in A Behanding in Spokane and, in 2024, starred as Cephus in a revival of Samm-Art Williams's Home, a Tony-nominated production in which he appeared alongside Stori Ayers and Brittany Inge. His Broadway career spans credits from 2010 to 2024.