Edwin Lee Gibson

Actor, Playwright Edwin Lee Gibson was born and raised in Houston, Texas. He began acting as part of the much-heralded Ross S. Sterling High School Drama Club. He began to get paid as an actor at age sixteen in a city-sponsored summer drama program. To date, Mr. Gibson has performed in over 90 professional theatre productions, in his 32 years as an actor. Edwin studied Mathematics at Paul Quinn College, where he also played baseball and sang in the choir. As a sophomore in college, a chance meeting with the late, famed female actor, Esther Rolle (Good Times), led to a role opposite her in a two-person show. Edwin went on to study at Texas Southern University in his native Houston, Texas where he was part of the university's debate and forensics team under the tutelage of Dr. Thomas F. Freeman (Freeman was the basis for the Denzel Washington character in, The Great Debaters). After college, Edwin spent eight years as a company member of The Ensemble Theatre in Houston (1987-1995). While working locally and touring in the theatre, Edwin was garnering success in the comedy world writing and performing sketch comedy and improvisation at Houston's Comedy Workshop (1987-1990), then as a stand-up comic (1989-1996). In 1995, Edwin moved to New York City. His knack for spinning characters and text made him a commodity first on the fringe of New York Theatre, then on major Off Broadway stages working with artists such as Michael John Garces, Carmen Rivera, Deb Margolin and later Kia Karthron, Jo Bonney, Bill T. Jones and Will Power. A chance meeting with Mr. Power led to Edwin winning the principal role in Powers' 2006 Lortell Award winning musical, The Seven. Gibson received overwhelming critical and commercial acclaim culminating with a 2006 OBIE Award (Off Broadway In Excellence) for Outstanding Performance. He also received the solo cover of the Village Voice for the week of 17 May 2006. Four of six plays he has written have been produced in New York City. His first play, a solo work entitled, Anatomy of a Knucklehead ran for127 performances over eight months in NYC. In 2008-2009, he received an NEA commission for his fourth play, Placebo. In 2010, he received a National Endowment for the Arts Artist Commission and a Mondo Cane Commission for his fifth play, Five 'Til: Solo. Mr. Gibson is also a lecturer having given talks at Yale University, New York University, S.U.N.Y. Purchase College, Ithaca College, Point Park University Pittsburgh, Western Michigan University, and multiple other colleges and universities around the country. He has worked as a guest artist at Princeton University, City College of New York, and Youngstown State University, among others. Edwin is a member of Actor's Equity Association, SAG-AFTRA, The Writers' Guild of America and New York Theatre Workshop's Usual Suspects. Show less «