Commanding actor Richard Brooks was born in Cleveland, Ohio. He is an
actor, director and singer. Raised in Cleveland, Ohio, Brooks studied
acting, dance, and voice work at Interlochen Academy of Arts in
Michigan. Later, he moved to New York City and was a student of the
Circle in the Square Professional Theater School and performed in the
Eugene O'Neill Theater Conference production of August Wilson's Fences.
He moved to Los Angeles, where he started his movie career. Some of his
appearances were in _Teen Wolf_,
Off Limits (1988), _Shakedown_, _Shocker_ and
To Sleep with Anger (1990). He became
noticed in
The Substitute (1996) with
Tom Berenger and as voodoo drug
lord Judah Earl in
The Crow: City of Angels (1996) with
Vincent Perez,
Thomas Jane,
Mia Kirshner and
Iggy Pop. While on TV, he is best known
as Paul Robinette on
Law & Order (1990) and Jubal Early on
Firefly (2002). He portrayed Frederick Douglass in the PBS American
Experience docudrama mini-series The Abolitionists (1988) and plays
Gabrielle Union's big brother Patrick in the hit BET drama
Being Mary Jane (2013).