Robert Townsend (born February 6, 1957 in Chicago, Illinois) is a film director/writer/actor who has many credits to his name.
Considered one of the most versatile talents in Hollywood today, many regard Townsend a renaissance man. He's an actor, director, producer, comedian and writer with a career that spans two decades. He has acted in films like A Soldier's Story (1984), directed by Norman Jewison and The Mighty Quinn (1989) with Denzel Washington. Townsend broke ground when he wrote, directed, produced, and starred in the classic comedy Hollywood Shuffle in 1987. Since then, Townsend has danced back and forth -- wearing various caps as actor, director and writer. For the small screen, he created and produced two groundbreaking variety shows -- the Cable Ace award-winning Robert Townsend and His Partners in Crime for HBO and the Fox Television Variety Show "Townsend Television" (1993) and he created and starred in the WB Network's hit sitcom The Parent Hood (1995).
On the big screen, he has directed Eddie Murphy in Eddie Murphy: Raw (1987); Academy Award-winning actress Halle Berry and Academy Award-winning actor Martin Landau in B*A*P*S (1997); James Earl Jones, Bill Cosby and a cast of thousands in his inner-city fable that he wrote, directed and starred in, The Meteor Man (1993). Other films in which he starred and directed include: The Five Heartbeats (1991), Love Songs (1999) (TV), starring Louis Gossett, Jr. and Andre Braugher, and the Disney family film Up, Up, and Away! (2000).
Townsend made history at the NAACP Image Awards in 2001 by directing three actors nominated in the best actor/actress category in three different films: Leon Robinson for his role in Little Richard which Townsend directed for NBC; Alfre Woodard for her role in the Showtime Movie Holiday Heart (2000), which also garnered her a Golden Globe nomination; and Natalie Cole for her gripping self portrayal in Livin' for Love: The Natalie Cole Story (2000), for which she won the Image Award for best actress. Townsend also produced the television films Carmen: A Hip Hopera (2001) and 10,000 Black Men Named George (2002) a period piece about the Pullman porter strike.
