Tony Winters

Award-winning veteran actor/writer/producer Tony Winters' career has spanned decades with his work on stage, screen and television but he has recently been discovered by whole new generation of rabid fans. His outstanding work as the tough-as-nails "Assistant Coach" in the best selling video games NBA 2K15 and the Spike Lee directed NBA 2K16 has made him iconic amongst gamers. However, his artistic journey began long before the advent of electronic gaming. After graduation from Detroit's Redford High School Winters headed west to attend San Diego City College and later the University of California San Diego. It was there he was bitten by the acting bug and began his theatrical training in earnest. He was first cast in a supporting role in "Little Murders" and later in the lead role of Axel in Woody Allen's "Don't Drink The Water". But college theater was not enough for the eager thespian, so he looked beyond City's small campus and found a thriving African American theater scene and a mentor in the person of Dr. Floyd Gaffney. Under Gaffney, he tackled a succession of pivotal roles; Brick in "Cat On A Hot Tin Roof", Lou in "Spell #7", Prince in "Moon On A Rainbow Shawl" and Homer in "The Lilies Of The Field". He even appeared in the musicals "Guys And Dolls" and "Don't Bother Me, I Can't Cope".In an effort to expand his career into film and television, Winters moved north to Hollywood. Having earned a coveted SAG card with a supporting part in the prison drama Penitentiary III, his career was off and running. The recurring roles of "Tony" on the daytime's Days Of Our Lives and his breakthrough turn as "Ossie Dunbar M.E." on NBC's long running Hunter soon followed. In the years subsequent, he has evolved into one of Tinseltown's busiest journeyman actors and boasts of having worked with two Academy Award winning directors, Phil Alden Robinson and Mike Nichols, and of sharing the screen with his idol Sidney Poitier. In addition to his work in more than 70 different television shows and movies, he has also acted in scores of television commercials and modeled in print advertising. Never one to rest on his laurels, Winters, under the banner of his Detroit Winters Productions, began writing and producing his original screenplays and became a pioneer in the field of digital filmmaking. He wrote, produced and starred in the films Retiring Tatiana (2000) and Section 8 (2006), winners of the Audience Favorite Award at The Pan African Film & Arts Festival 2000 and Best Feature Film at the Arizona Black Film Showcase 2006, respectively. Throughout it all, he has never veered too far from his theatrical roots and has remained an active player on the stage most notably portraying Stan in Ken Davis' critically acclaimed "South of Where We Live", Joe in his self-penned, self-produced, stage production of "Section 8" which garnered 3 NAACP Theater Awards nominations in 2004 and as The Storyteller in his solo show "The Devil and Billy Markham" by Shel Silverstein which was nominated for "Best One Person Show" at the 2016 NAACP Theater Awards. Show less «