About me
Destined for the stage
Glynn Turman is an Emmy-winning actor, director, and producer whose career began on Broadway at age 12 in A Raisin in the Sun. Known for iconic roles in Cooley High, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, and Rustin, he has built a legacy of excellence across stage and screen. A devoted equestrian and youth advocate, Turman continues to inspire through both his artistry and community work—living proof he was destined for greatness.
Glynn Turman
Stage, Screen, and Television
Award-winning, New York City-born actor, Glynn Turman, enjoyed his first real taste of acting success as a young teenager, originating the role of Travis Younger on Broadway in Lorraine Hansberry’s landmark play A Raisin in the Sun in 1959 opposite Sidney Poitier and Ruby Dee as his various family members. Upon graduation from the renowned High School of Performing Arts in New York, he apprenticed in regional and repertory companies throughout the country until he settled in Los Angeles in the mid-1970’s. Turman is also an award-winning stage and television director, helming episodes of Hanging with Mr. Cooper and The Wayans Bros, also directed during his seasons of acting work on the Cosby Show spinoff A Different World. His strong work in film and television continues today with his memorable roles on The Wire, House of Lies and Queen Sugar, among many others.
In 2008, Turman scored his first Emmy win as Outstanding Guest Actor for the HBO series In Treatment and he earned his second Emmy nomination for the same category in 2019 for his role as Nate Lahey Sr. on ABC’s How to Get Away with Murder. Turman has had a Los Angeles Critics Award, a Dramalogue Award and multiple NAACP Image Award nominations including in 2015 for his portrayal as Jeremiah Kaan on the Showtime hit series House of Lies. He’s won four NAACP Image Awards and a NAACP Lifetime Achievement Award for Theatre, the 2011 National Black Theater Festival’s ‘Sidney Poitier Lifelong Achievement Award’, the 2010 Pan African Film Festival Lifetime Achievement Award, the 2013 & 2010 LA Stage Ovation Awards for Outstanding Lead Actor for two August Wilson plays, “Joe Turner’s Come & Gone” & “Two Trains Running” and in 2017, he was nominated for a third Ovation Award and a NAACP Theatre Image Award as Outstanding Lead Actor for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. Also starring in the film adaptation of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom in 2020 opposite Viola Davis and the late Chadwick Boseman, Turman was awarded the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor and garnered nominations from the Film Independent Spirit Awards, National Society of Film Critics Awards, and NAACP Image Awards. In the same year, Turman had another outstanding role in FX’s Fargo as Dr. Senator in which he was nominated for a Critics Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Miniseries.
Turman’s career catapulted to new heights since his Emmy win in 2008 and his upcoming projects are a testament to his non-stop work releasing this year and next, including his role as Toledo in the Denzel Washington-produced Netflix adaptation of August Wilson’s 1982 play Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.
Turman stars opposite Chadwick Boseman, Viola Davis and Colman Domingo. He also starred the AT&T Audience Network’s Mr. Mercedes opposite Brendan Gleeson as Judge Bernard Raines, the no-nonsense judge presiding over Lou Linklatter’s murder trial, he suffers no fools and takes no prisoners. He is none too pleased with the lawyers working on this case who seem hell bent for trial. Turman also had strong supporting roles in TNT’s Claws, as Niecy Nash’s character’s father, in Netflix’s Marlon Wayans film Sextuplets and in Ben Affleck’s drama film The Way Back for Warner Bros. in 2020, Turman starred in the critically acclaimed Netflix film Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and FX’s latest season of Fargo, opposite Chris Rock.
He recently starred opposite Adrienne Warren in ABC’s “Women of the Movement,” as Mose Wright, a real-life Civil Rights movement leader and great-uncle to Emmett Till. Turman also just wrapped filming Netflix’s RUSTIN, the biopic on the Civil Rights icon which sees him reunite with former MA RAINEY co-star Colman Domingo and director George C. Wolfe in the first film for the Obama’s Higher Ground production company. The film will be out later this year. He also has roles in Hulu’s “Black Cake,” Disney+’s “Percy Jackson and the Olympians,” and Apple TV+s “The Big Cigar.”
His many film credits include Race, Dakota’s Summer, Super 8, Burlesque, Takers, Sahara, John Dies at the End, Kings of the Evening (for which Glynn won Best Supporting Actor at the 2009 San Diego Black Film Festival), Men of Honor, Deep Cover, Gremlins, J.D.’s Revenge, Light It Up, The Serpent’s Egg, The Inkwell, How Stella Got Her Groove Back, and the cult classic Cooley High. Glynn’s television series and roles include Jeremiah Kaah on House of Lies, Colonel Taylor on A Different World, Ernest Bordelon on Queen Sugar, Suits, Graves, Proof, Criminal Minds, NCIS: LA, The Wire, Revolution, The Defenders, In Treatment, CSI, The Bernie Mac Show, Law and Order, CI, Resurrection Blvd, Big Apple, Scrubs, Southland, Buffalo Soldiers and The Minstrel Man. Glynn has also directed several films, plays and television shows from the 80’s hit Dynasty to several webisodes for the Showtime series, House of Lies.
Turman has also had a prolific stage career, having starred in three August Wilson plays, most recently Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom directed by Phylicia Rashad and in 2015 he co-starred in Eugene O’Neil’s A Moon for the Misbegotten opposite Audra McDonald in Williamstown. He has performed in such plays Athol Fugard’s My Children, My Africa, Ceremonies in Dark Old Men, Ron Milner’s What the Wine Sellers Buy, Eyes of the American & his own autobiographical, one-man show, Movin’ Man.
He always had a love for horses as a young child and grew up training them. He started competing in rodeo about 35 years ago and placed in several competitions. In 1999, Glynn won the state's Regional Team Roping Finals and placed in the top 5 in the National US Team Roping Champion Finals in Oklahoma City. In November 2011 Glynn was inducted into the Western Heritage Multi-Cultural Museum's Hall of Fame in Ft. Worth Texas. Glynn and his wife Jo-An currently own a ranch in Lake Hughes, California called IX Winds Ranch. They bought the 20-acre ranch 40 years ago and built the entire ranch from ground up; currently keeping a small stable of 3 quarter horses. In 1992, Glynn and Jo-An co-founded a free, non-profit, western style summer camp program called “Camp Gid D Up” for inner-city and at risk youth which takes place at IX Winds, which they started as a promise to the late Mrs. Coretta Scott King to help bring peace among youth gangs and to help youth in the community after the riots in the 1990s.
