Anslem Richardson

Biography:

Anslem Richardson is an American actor, filmmaker, and visual artist of Trinidadian descent. He is best known for his roles as Mike in The Locksmith and Governor Khaled in NCIS: Los Angeles. Born in Brooklyn, New York, Richardson studied Creative Writing at Florida State University before transitioning into acting.

His early career included work in Off-Off-Broadway plays and roles in TV series like Third Watch and the video game Midnight Club II. He gained attention for his performance in the short film WHOA, which was an Official Selection at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival. He followed this with the co-lead role in Five Deep Breaths, a critically acclaimed short that earned multiple awards and was featured at prestigious festivals like Cannes and Sundance.

Richardson’s notable stage work includes his participation in the Off-Broadway play The Exonerated, which earned several awards, and his appearance in the 2005 TV film adaptation. He also appeared in TV series such as Detroit 1-8-7 and NCIS: Los Angeles and starred in films like Black Rock (2013) and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014).

A screenwriter as well, Richardson wrote his first screenplay, The Subway Story, which won the Gordon Parks Award for Outstanding African-American Screenwriting. His second screenplay, Bardos, earned him the Tribeca All Access Creative Promise Award. He co-founded the production company ThisThing Films with Marin Gazzaniga, and their short film LIKE SO MANY THINGS…UNSAID became a finalist in the IFC/Redbull Media Labs Competition. Their web series Like So Many Things aired on IFC.com in 2009.

Richardson was awarded the Maverick Actor Award for his role in Homewrecker, which won the Sundance Best of NEXT Award. He also co-produced and wrote for the series The Boys and worked on other projects like Timeless and Agent X.