LaKeith Stanfield

LaKeith Stanfield is an American actor whose breakthrough came through *Short Term 12*. He appeared in Destin Daniel Cretton’s original short film and later played Marcus in the 2013 feature-length version. Marcus is a teenager living in a residential care facility who struggles with the prospect of leaving when he turns eighteen. The performance earned Stanfield an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Supporting Male and led to a series of distinctive film roles.

In Ava DuVernay’s *Selma* (2014), Stanfield portrayed Jimmie Lee Jackson, the civil rights activist whose killing helped galvanize the march from Selma to Montgomery. He played Snoop Dogg in the N.W.A biographical drama *Straight Outta Compton* (2015). His television breakthrough followed in 2016 with *Atlanta*, the FX series created by Donald Glover. Across its four seasons, Stanfield played Darius Epps, a close friend of Glover’s character, Earn, and the rapper Paper Boi. Darius’s unusual observations and unpredictable encounters became a defining part of the show.

Stanfield appeared in Jordan Peele’s *Get Out* (2017) as Andre Hayworth, a missing man whose strange behavior at a party raises the protagonist’s suspicions. In 2018, he led Boots Riley’s satirical film *Sorry to Bother You* as Cassius “Cash” Green, a telemarketer who finds success by adopting a “white voice.” He then played a police detective in *Knives Out* and a jewelry-market contact named Demany in *Uncut Gems*, both released in 2019. In *The Photograph* (2020), he starred opposite Issa Rae as Michael Block, a journalist whose investigation brings him into contact with her character.

His portrayal of FBI informant William O’Neal in *Judas and the Black Messiah* (2021) brought him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. The film follows O’Neal’s infiltration of the Illinois Black Panther Party and his relationship with its chairman, Fred Hampton, played by Daniel Kaluuya. That year, Stanfield also portrayed the outlaw Cherokee Bill in the Western *The Harder They Fall*.

Stanfield’s later work includes Ben Matthias, a grieving astrophysicist, in Disney’s *Haunted Mansion* (2023). He starred as Apollo Kagwa in the Apple TV+ series *The Changeling*, adapted from Victor LaValle’s novel, and played both Clarence and Clarence’s twin brother Thomas in the biblical-era comedy-drama *The Book of Clarence* (2024). Together, these roles show the breadth of a career spanning historical drama, satire, horror, Westerns and television.