Dorian Harewood epitomizes the problematic nature of the category “obscure black c-listers.” Yes, I know I’m the one responsible for its creation, but please allow me to re-explain what the term means because I’ve fielded numerous questions about it lately.

In spite of an actor’s talent or long-standing performance career, there are some many actors whose names are far from the household level. Hundreds of very recognizable black actors could rob a bank and still be treated as anonymous Hollywood bit players in the news (except by, perhaps, Jet Magazine, but that’s another post). Sure, Halle…

Lee Weaver may be the quintessential Obscure Black C-Lister; you’ve seen him dozens of times but could you ever even try to guess his name? His fifty years in television and film (125 credits!) is practically unparalleled, and he continues to appear on-screen from time to time. If you’re having a hard time placing him that’s because Weaver tends to play a random homeless man, bartender, junkyard owner, blues man, waiter, handyman, or other fly-by-night character. With multiple credits as “Wino,” “Leroy,” and “Bus Boy,” he has…

I had to wait more than a year and a half to finally post about Clifton Powell because my blog cousin Invisible Woman beat me to it, calling him “the hardest working black man in show business” in a July 2007 post.  She ain’t neva’ lied! Clifton Powell is and will forever be “that dude.” He’s Pinky from Next Friday, that ol’ hatin’ Chauncey from Menace II Society who snitched on O-Dog, the sneering neighborhood gangster Andre on Roc, and…

According to everything we  know about how Hollywood works for black women (to the extent that it works at all), Melissa De Sousa should be at least a B-lister. Of Panamanian descent, De Sousa attended New York’s High School of Performing Arts and trained to be a dancer. Her career started in the early nineties with her dichotomous appearances in a CBS Schoolbreak Special and a brief stint as a video vixen (Guy’s “Let’s Chill” and TKA’s “Crash”).  She then guest starred in a…

What really happened to T.K. Carter? The Missing Person police are satisfied as long as IMDB.com lists a few recent credits for an actor, but Thembi is not. He broke into the industry at the age of twelve with a stand up comedy routine featuring an impressive Bill Cosby impression. If you really have an eagle eye for these things you’ll remember that he played J.J.’s friend Head on Good Times in one of his first…

Poor Kelly Perine. He is the perfect example of a black actor whose resume would suggest you know his name, but few people do. Perine has been acting almost his entire life, starting out as a stand-up comedian and moving to commercials, earning an MFA, and finally landing a series of bit parts and recurring roles on sitcoms. In addition to recurring roles on black shows like One on One and Hanging

If you consumed a fraction of the black entertainment that I did during the 80’s and 90’s you should recognize Kelly Jo Minter’s face. She started acting as a teen prentending to be a kid in tv movies and educational videos such as Mr. T’s “Be Somebody or Be Somebody’s Fool!” In her early twenties she started playing teenagers, and her “attitude face” brought her movie roles in Mask, People Under The Stairs, and the often-rerun-on-HBO Mark Harmon vehicle Summer School

This is NOT – I repeat – NOT Blair Underwood. When Mya on Girlfriends cheated on her husband with that jump-off Stan, he was played by Don Franklin, not Blair Underwood. When Regine from Living Single finally met her handsome millionaire Dexter Knight, that was Don Franklin again, and not Blair Underwood. I know it’s not just me, but for at least the first thirty seconds of Don Franklin’s screen time I’m always forced to make sure that he is not Blair Underwood, but instead his less successful alter…

Whenever I try to reference Roger Guenveur Smith I always end up using the phrase “that really lightskinned guy with the ill cheekbones.” And no, I don’t mean Giancarlo Esposito, a common mistake considering both have been in multiple Spike Lee joints. In fact, Roger Guenveur Smith has been Spike Lee’s “color consciousness muse,” in films such as Malcolm X, Do The Right Thing, and Get on the Bus. In each of…

There are a few older black gentleman who I just find so handsome. Michael Warren, whether I see him in old school roles like his most famous as Bobby Hill on Hill Street Blues, or as Joan’s father on Girlfriends, he is just so genetically sound, smooth, and has this boyish twinkle in his eye to boot. I think this quality is what makes him great for playing an older playboy type – he had a recurring role on the short-lived black hospital drama City of Angels…