Today we’d like to introduce you to Kamal Bolden.
Hi Kamal, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I grew up in Peoria, IL. One of the greatest basketball small cities in the States. We have a long history of slaying giants and defeating the top Chicago teams to bring home state championships. It has produced NBA stars like, three time champion with the Golden State Warriors—Shaun Livingston. So growing up I dreamt of making it to the NBA. In reality, standing a hair under 5’10 with a weak crossover, I didn’t even make junior varsity. I was crushed. Basketball was more than just a “sport” in my town, it was how you made friends, earned street cred, how you got girls. Oh, and college scholarships. Facing my reality, I dropped the hoop dreams and accepted my best friend’s invite to an informational meeting for the speech team. “The Speech Team?” I scoffed at first. That was some lame after school club for nerds and weirdos. But I figured I’d at least give it a try and add another activity to my college applications. Well, I quickly discovered that I, too, was a nerd and a weirdo, because I loved it! I had found my true people. I ended up becoming a state qualifier both of my seasons and went on to earn a Speech and Debate scholarship from Bradley University, which was not only located just a couple miles from my childhood home, but also housed the winningest team in collegiate history. I chose to major in business administration-entrepreneurship and went on to win many national championships with Bradley.
After college, I wanted to live somewhere other than Peoria, so I decided to move down to Nashville, TN with my then girlfriend who was finishing her BFA in theater at Tennessee State University. It was at an audition for the theater school’s fall show, that I accidentally began my career in theatre. Only there to accompany my girlfriend and get a sneak peek into her world, the director saw me sitting in the waiting room and mistook me for a student. He asked me if I had the “sides”. The only sides I knew at the time came with a two piece and a biscuit. He handed me a printed scene and had me audition. I thought it would be a fun thing to joke about later that night with my girlfriend, so I did it. I booked the lead role. That was not supposed to happen. The next day, my girlfriend informed her professor of my non-student status, but he was so impressed with my audition that he went against his fellow professor’s calls to boot me from the show, and instead moved me from the lead to a supporting role. The play was Christopher Durang’s ‘The Marriage of Bette and Boo’. After that show, my days were spent managing a Hertz Rent-A-Car location and my nights in small black box theaters with the cities budding Black Theatre Companies: Dream 7 Productions, Kennie Playhouse Theatre, Destiny Theatre Experience, and Sista Style. The community embraced me and helped me cut my teeth on both original works and the greats such as August Wilson and Lorraine Hansbury. Eventually, I booked a professional job at the Nashville Children’s Theatre and I had to make a decision: turn down my first union contract because it conflicts with my work schedule, or quit my job to follow my new dream of becoming a working actor. I was making really good money at Hertz, so the decision was tough. But I haven’t looked back. Best decision I ever made.
After three years of working all over the city, I left Nashville for Chicago, where I spent six years doing theatre, television, and commercials before moving to New York City with a production of Brett Neveu’s ‘The Opponent’. Just a year later, I would be called up to reprise my role in Paul Oakley Stovall’s ‘Immediate Family’ at the Taper Forum. That was ten years ago, and I’ve lived in Los Angeles ever since.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It’s no secret that the life of an artist is filled with setbacks, disappointment, and heartache. I hope to never get used to it. My very first play in Chicago was the biggest hit of the season. My face was in trade magazines and this sold out show was extended several times. It was massively successful which made New York take notice. When the show was picked up by one of the largest Off-Broadway houses, not only did I have to fly to the ‘Big Apple’ to audition for the role I originated, but it was the coldest room I have ever been in to this day. There were twenty decision makers seated behind a line of tables, all stone faced and silent throughout the entire audition. I fought through the tough crowd and gave it my best. Before I walked out of the room, one them, not to be named, said, “Wait. Let us see that body that everyone’s been talking about” suggesting I take off my shirt. I quickly fired back, “Gotta leave ‘em wanting more, right? Another time” At the least I had my dignity. I later found out my role had already been recast with a popular Broadway actor. The audition was just a formality to appease the Chicago team of collaborators. It was humiliating. It took weeks to get over what happened, but I learned a valuable lesson: it’s never personal. It’s just the way this business is. Expect nothing, appreciate everything.
The actor track is an individual sport, but it takes a team to make it. You have to have a strong, reliable support system or else you will get crushed. So many people have helped me along the way. I wouldn’t have been able to work my first TV job if it wasn’t for my Aunt and Uncle paying my dues to join the union. My Mom prays for my well being and my career everyday. My siblings support every project, large and small that I’ve done. I have friends that I can vent to when the going gets too tough.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
During my years on stage in Chicago, I was known for playing physically demanding characters such as athletes and warriors. The physicality was always the easy part, it was the challenge of bringing out the inner life and vulnerability of these men that I enjoyed the most. Recently I played the Scottish King in ‘Macbeth’ at A Noise Within Theatre in Pasadena and before that I played a very troubled father named “Cholly Breedlove” in the stage adaptation of Toni Morrison’s seminal work ‘The Bluest eye.’ I’m always striving to bring truth and rawness to every character which has served me well when making the transition from the stage to the screen. I was blessed to play the real life hero, Charles Johnson IV, who, unfortunately, lost his wife during the birth of his second son due to racial bias in the hospital system. Clips of my scenes in this episode of Fox’s ‘The Resident’ now have millions of views across social media platforms due to the black maternal mortality crisis in this country. The scene where the late, great Malcolm-Jamal Warner reveals to my character the tragic death of his wife, is gut wrenching and one of my favorite moments in my career. Taking the shortest path to the truth has afforded me a diversity of roles like playing a tortured cop in CW’s ’61st Street’ to a “karate man” in the Hulu comedy ‘Vacation Friends’ starring John Cena and Lil Rel Howery. Although, I am having fun going from stage to TV to film, it’s directing that I’m looking forward to the most.
Any big plans?
I’m gearing up to act in a three city tour of Zora Howard’s brilliant play ‘Hang Time’ this fall. The last stop on the tour is at the Apollo Theater in Harlem in November. It’s been a busy year for the non-profit arts organization, Oshana Arts, I founded last year. Most recently we co-produced our third annual ‘August in August’ Festival before helping create the inaugural LA Black Theatre Day photoshoot and mixer which saw over 150 Black theatre practitioners come together in solidarity. I directed a staged reading of August Wilson’s ‘Two Trains Running’ for the festival and I am really enjoying my time in this capacity. So much so, that I’ll be directing a staged presentation of Lawrence Fishburne’s ‘Riff Raff’ this Halloween at the Inglewood Playhouse before directing my first short film the beginning of December.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/kamalbolden.actor
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/kamalangelobolden
Image Credits
Cover image credit: Kamal Bolden
Macbeth: Daniel Reichert
