Wesley Snipes

Wesley Trent Snipes was born on July 31, 1962, in Orlando, Florida, to Marian Snipes, a teacher's assistant, and Wesley Rudolph Snipes, an aircraft engineer. He grew up in the Bronx, New York, where he attended the High School of Performing Arts at Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts before relocating back to Florida, where he graduated from Jones High School in Orlando. He later returned to New York and earned a bachelor's degree in fine arts from the State University of New York at Purchase, and also attended Southwestern College in California.

Snipes began his professional stage career in New York, appearing on Broadway between 1985 and 1986 in two productions: The Boys of Winter and Execution of Justice. It was during this period, at age 23, that an agent discovered him while he was performing in a competition. He made his film debut in the 1986 Goldie Hawn vehicle Wildcats and that same year appeared on Miami Vice in the episode "Streetwise," which first aired on December 5, 1986, playing a drug-dealing pimp. In 1987, he appeared as Michael Jackson's nemesis in the Martin Scorsese-directed music video "Bad" and also appeared in the feature film Streets of Gold. That year he was also considered for the role of Geordi La Forge in Star Trek: The Next Generation, a role that ultimately went to LeVar Burton. Earlier, he had auditioned for the role of Leroy Green in the 1985 film The Last Dragon, which went instead to Taimak.

His appearance in the "Bad" music video attracted the attention of director Spike Lee. Snipes declined a smaller role in Lee's Do the Right Thing in favor of playing Willie Mays Hayes in the comedy Major League (1989). Lee subsequently cast him as jazz saxophonist Shadow Henderson in Mo' Better Blues (1990) and as the lead in Jungle Fever (1991). Following the release of Jungle Fever, The Washington Post referred to Snipes as "the most celebrated new actor of the season." He also appeared in King of New York (1990), playing Thomas Flanagan opposite Christopher Walken, and took on the role of drug lord Nino Brown in New Jack City (1991), a part written specifically for him by Barry Michael Cooper.

Throughout the 1990s, Snipes built a substantial filmography across multiple genres. His dramatic work included The Waterdance (1992), for which he received an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Supporting Male, and Down in the Delta (1998). In the action genre, he appeared in Passenger 57 (1992), Rising Sun (1993), Demolition Man (1993), Drop Zone (1994), Money Train (1995), The Fan (1996), U.S. Marshals (1998), and The Art of War (2000). His comedic credits from the decade include White Men Can't Jump (1992) and To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar (1995), in which he played a drag queen. In 1997, he won the Volpi Cup for Best Actor at the 54th Venice Film Festival for his performance in One Night Stand.

Snipes achieved his largest commercial success in 1998 with Blade, in which he portrayed Eric Brooks, also known as Blade, based on the Marvel Comics character. The film grossed over $150 million worldwide and launched a franchise. He reprised the role in Blade II (2002) and Blade: Trinity (2004), both of which he also produced. In 2005, he filed a lawsuit against New Line Cinema and director David S. Goyer, alleging unpaid salary, exclusion from casting decisions, and reduction of his screen time in favor of co-stars Ryan Reynolds and Jessica Biel; the suit was later settled with no details made public. In 2024, Snipes returned to the role of Blade after a twenty-year absence in the Marvel Studios film Deadpool & Wolverine, which brought the character into the Marvel Cinematic Universe and reunited him with Reynolds. Following the film's release, Snipes received two Guinness World Records: one for the longest career as a live-action Marvel character and one for the longest gap between character appearances in Marvel films.

After a period working primarily in direct-to-video productions in the mid-2000s, Snipes returned to theatrical releases with Brooklyn's Finest (2009), in which he played Casanova "Caz" Phillips, his first theatrical film since 2004. He appeared in The Expendables 3 in 2014, having been unable to participate in the original film due to a legal restriction preventing him from leaving the United States without court approval. His role as D'Urville Martin in Dolemite Is My Name earned him positive reviews and award nominations. His television work includes the drama series H.E.L.P. (1990), the action series The Player (2015), the limited series True Story (2021), and the television film Disappearing Acts (2000).

In 1991, Snipes founded the production company Amen-Ra Films and a subsidiary, Black Dot Media, to develop film and television projects. He has trained in martial arts since the age of 12, earning a 5th dan black belt in Shotokan karate and a 2nd dan black belt in Hapkido. In 2017, he published his debut novel, Talon of God, an urban fantasy. He has also received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and an honorary doctorate in humanities and fine arts from SUNY Purchase. Films in which Snipes has appeared have collectively grossed over $3.6 billion worldwide.