Lamar Richardson grows theater and screen portfolio

COCOA JOURDANA

Lamar Richardson, who grew up in Charlotte and attended Independence High School, is the youngest Black producer nominated for a Tony Award.

Before Lamar Richardson became a Broadway player, he worked at everything from ride share driver to Bar Mitzvah dancer.

Those simple jobs in New York helped Richardson, 31, survive while he pursued his show business goals. Last year, the Independence High School alumnus became one of the youngest Black producers nominated for a Tony Award in the Best Musical category for “New York, New York.” Richardson was co-producer of “Merrily We Roll Along” and “Appropriate,” which were nominated for Best Revival of a Musical and Best Revival of a Play, respectively.

“You can enter this business with that awareness that’s not easy to gain,” he said. “And as long as you love it and you hold on to that, you will find the passion for it.”  

Richardson’s parents immigrated from Antigua and Barbuda in the Caribbean to New Brunswick, N.J., where he was born and ultimately to North Carolina. Richardson attended Independence High and North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics before studying at Duke and Oxford universities and ultimately earned his bachelor’s degree from Columbia University in New York City in 2015.

“I’m the first generation of my family to do all of this; to go to a four-year institution, to be working in entertainment, to have gone to a specialized boarding school,” he said. “All of this is new, so I feel a great sense of pride and responsibility in that because I’m the first generation to make an imprint of my family in this country, and failing isn’t an option.”  

It was at Columbia where Richardson pursued acting with the Black Theatre Ensemble, which ultimately led him to turn down an internship at Barclays Investment Bank.

“It was just that immediate response to seeing how people were moved by me and felt that they connected to my character and that I brought humanity to it,” he said.  
Richardson was also inspired by the opportunities and benefits of living in New York City.

“It just gave me the permission to say, ‘hey, you’re in New York, you’re young and you clearly love this performing thing,” he said. “This is a city where people make a living and a career out of it, so why not try it and see what happens.”  

Before carving his own success, Richardson juggled 9-to-5 jobs while booking acting gigs, waiting for someone to take him in for a role. Richardson eventually found work as an assistant to actor and producer Susan Batson, which gave him behind-the-scenes access to the industry. His big break was meeting actress Phylicia Rashad (“The Cosby Show”), which led to an offer to play Sylvester in Rashad’s award-winning regional production of August Wilson’s “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.”

Richardson transitioned to producer to differentiate himself from peers while also facing scrutiny as to whether he belonged in such a position as a young Black man.

Among his immediate goals is to produce and act in television and movies as well as stage. Richardson co-produced the 2022 revival of Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman" starring Wendell Pierce, Sharon D. Clarke and Andre de Shields. He made the jump to film with “The Fabulous Four” as co-producer as well as roles on CBS’s “FBI,” NBC’s “New Amsterdam,” Charlie Sanders and Jordan Peele’s “Weird City,” and James Sweeney’s “Straight Up.” He has a role in the season 13 finale of CBS’s “Blue Bloods” and Richard Lawson’s “Black Terror,” co-produced with Tina Knowles-Lawson.

“Everyone assumes like, ‘Oh you’re here because you’re a part of some diversity program, or someone’s doing you a favor,’ whereas now, I’m here raising thousands, and sometimes millions of dollars alongside you, doing the same thing,” he said.

As a producer and actor, Richardson has more control over scripts and the creative process while playing a character as well. He advises people looking to break into the entertainment industry to start as students and use the opportunities around them to gain as much knowledge as possible, as the industry becomes more complex.

“There are people at every single turn willing to tell you no, that you just have to really want this more than anything else,” Richardson said. “I’m now 12 years into this, and I’m just breaking through the ice and getting these nominations and headline articles, and I’ve been doing this for a long time.”

This story corrects Lamar Richardson's role in "Merrily We Roll Along" and "Appropriate."
      

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