Cedric G. Young

Cedric G. Young

I have been working as a professional actor for nearly forty years, since turning professional with SAG/AFTRA in 1985, I have appeared in several films and worked with some of the top directors in the business. Ron Howard in Backdraft, principle character, and The Paper Martha’s paramedic; featured character. Alfredo DeVilla in Nothing Like the Holidays as named Character; Spencer. Jean-Marie Gaubert in Just Visiting; Miller. Chris Columbus in Home Alone II; as Central Park Arresting officer. Robert Mandel in Big Shots; Ghetto Bartender.

Television work includes recurring characters in: The Chi as Sonny Dickinson first three seasons: Low Winter Sun as Vince Churchill fight trainer: Betrayal as Larry Abrams; Power Book IV Force as Herman Gibbs season one, and most recently as Coach Murphy in SouthSide. Additionally I have appeared as named characters in: Chicago Fire, Med, and Justice; Fargo, The Chicago Code, Early Edition, Turks, Sense 8, What About Joan, and many others shot in Chicago, Detroit, and New York City. Some of the television directors include: Tanya Hamilton, Salli Richardson Whitfield, Sanaa Hamri, Darren Grant, Justin Tipping, Jet Wilkinson, The Wachowskis, Zetna Fuentes, David Rodriguez, Michael Uppendahl, and Michael Blieden.

I learned my craft by working in live theatre: first on the streets of Chicago with the: Rapid Fire Guerilla Communication political satire group. That led to community theatre with The Parkway Community House’s Experimental Black Actors Guild or XBAG; performing in both original works and in print dramas. My formal education came when I returned to School for my degree in communications and theatre from The University of Illinois Chicago. While attending I won a talent tuition waiver from the department, and worked on every student production as a performer, designer and construction technician. Since graduating I have appeared on Broadway in: The Song of Jacob Zulu, from Steppenwolf Theatre, and Radio Golf; where I worked as Standby for Sterling and Old Joe; having been invited to join the Broadway company following the run at The Goodman in Chicago. Other theatre companies in Chicago include: The Black Ensemble, Congo Square, Lookingglass, ETA and Chicago Readers Theatre.