Adam Davenport

Adam Davenport is the kind of artist some might call a Renaissance man: actor, model, writer, filmmaker, music producer. Born in Harvey, Illinois, one of the poorest neighborhoods in the country, Davenport overcame many obstacles in his youth to graduate from Yale University and became a recipient of the Panavision New Filmmaker Award, a distinction shared by Paul Thomas Anderson and Steven Soderbergh on their first directing efforts. At 26 he became the youngest member in the Playwright/Directors Unit of the Actors Studio: his interview was with Martin Landau and Mark Rydell.He made his New York stage debut in 2015 in Michael Bergmann's production of the opera Bonfire of the Vanities, and recently filmed the role of Hercules in the independent feature Project Olympus produced by Road Warrior Entertainment; according to Indiewire, Davenport may be the first African-American actor to play Hercules. He was recently directed by Academy Award winner Olympia Dukakis in a reading of Amiri Baraka's Dutchman, and in late 2017 will be filming a supporting role in the period civil rights drama Son of the South, to be executive produced by Spike Lee. To date he has worked with the likes of Alfre Woodard, Tony nominee Daphe Rubin-Vega and Academy Award winner Melissa Leo. As a model he has been featured by DNA Magazine, which profiled him on their Best of 2016 list.Davenport was born and raised in the south burbs of Chicago, Illinois. At age fifteen, Davenport wrote a short story titled "Home" which was published in the anthology Looking Inward, for which he was presented with an Award of Achievement by former President George Bush, Sr. in 1999. In the spring of 2003, he created the production company Bulldog Productions in response to the lack of filmmaking opportunities at Yale.Davenport's short film Midnight Son (2007), which he made as his thesis project while an undergraduate at Yale University, became the recipient of the Panavision New Filmmaker Award. Made when he was twenty-one years old, the project was photographed by Clint Eastwood's cinematographer Tom Stern and starred Melissa Leo, Jack Mulcahy and Tony nominee David Harbour. As a director, Davenport has worked with six Academy Award nominees and two Tony nominees. Show less «