Carl Lumbly

Carl Lumbly is an actor respected for his steadfast talent, versatility and class. His prolific career includes over 150 credits in theatre, film, television and voiceover, with extensive critical acclaim for his work.

A familiar face on television, Lumbly recently made a memorable appearance in Marvel’s “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier,” for Disney+. The veteran actor played Marvel’s forgotten super-solider, ‘Isaiah Bradley,’ arguably, the original Captain America. Marvel Studios’ President Kevin Feige announced at D23 Expo that Lumbly will return in the role of ‘Isaiah Bradley’ in the highly anticipated feature length version, “Captain America: Brave New World,” which Walt Disney Studios will release theatrically on February 14, 2025.

For the big screen, Lumbly played a pivotal role in Warner Bros.’ supernatural thriller, Stephen King’s “Doctor Sleep,” the imaginative continuation of “The Shining” storyline. He starred as ‘Dick Hallorann,’ the role originally played by Scatman Crothers. The gripping film was directed by Mike Flanagan from his own screenplay based upon King’s best-selling novel.

Lumbly reunited with Mike Flanagan in his engrossing horror miniseries, “The Fall of the House of Usher,” based on various works from Edgar Allan Poe. In his initial casting announcement for “Usher,” Flanagan tweeted: Rounding out our first wave, as Poe’s legendary investigator C. Auguste Dupin, we are so honored to welcome back one of my favorite past collaborators, the extraordinary… CARL LUMBLY.” All eight episodes dropped globally on October 12, 2023 on Netflix and hit the top spot on Nielsen’s streaming charts opening week!

Now in his third collaboration with Flanagan, Lumbly has most recently been cast in Intrepid Pictures’ horror feature, “The Life of Chuck,” based on the Stephen King novella of the same name which was included in his 2020 anthology, “If It Bleeds.” The independent film, written and directed by Flanagan, was able to start production under the SAG-AFTRA Interim Agreement while the strike was still in effect.

The busy actor can also be seen in Netflix’s one-hour action/comedy series, “Obliterated,” from the creators of “Cobra Kai.” It follows the story of an elite Special Forces team who thwarts a deadly threat to Las Vegas, only to discover after a wild celebratory party that a bomb they deactivated was a fake. Lumbly plays CIA Director ‘James Langdon.’ The project dropped on November 30, 2023.

Lumbly portrayed CIA agent ‘Marcus Dixon,’ the gentle, mild-mannered field partner to agent ‘Sydney Bristow’ (Jennifer Garner) for five seasons on ABC’s hit drama series, “Alias.” He also previously starred in FOX’s drama series “M.A.N.T.I.S,” playing an independently wealthy paraplegic scientist/crimefighter, marking the first black superhero on series television.

He had a recurring role as classic DC character M’yrnn J’onzz, the father of J’onn J’onzz the Martian Manhunter on The CW television series “Supergirl.” He previously voiced action hero J’onn J’onzz/Martian Manhunter in the Cartoon Network’s animated series “Justice League.” The busy actor also recently had recurring roles on NBC’s “This Is Us,” CBS’ “S.W.A.T.,” Showtime’s “The Chi” and CBS’ “NCIS: Los Angeles,” along with guest-starring roles on CBS’ “God Friended Me,” Netflix’s “Altered Carbon” and HISTORY’s military action drama, “Six.”

Lumbly recently appeared in award-winning filmmaker Stanley Nelson’s “Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool,” which received a Grammy Award nomination in the category of “Best Music Film.” He voiced the iconic jazz musician in this feature-length documentary that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and screened theatrically to wide acclaim. Produced by American Masters, “Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool” made its television debut nationwide on February 2020 on PBS, in honor of Black History Month.

His impressive feature credits include a role opposite Robert De Niro and Cuba Gooding Jr. in “Men of Honor,” portraying the father of the first black diver in U.S. Navy history. In “Everybody’s All-American” with Jessica Lange and Dennis Quaid, he starred as a former football player affected by the segregated South. Other film credits include “How Stella Got Her Groove Back,” “South Central,” “Pacific Heights,” “To Sleep With Anger,” “The Bedroom Window,” “The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai,” “Caveman,” “Namibia: The Struggle for Liberation,” and director Gore Verbinski’s supernatural horror feature, “A Cure for Wellness.”

Lumbly, the son of Jamaican immigrants Carrol and Ida, was raised with three sisters in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Like many immigrants, his parents stressed education and reading, as the gateway to respect, success and achievement. A self-described ‘library geek to this day,’ Lumbly worked in libraries to earn money and have ready access to the larger worlds of literature, world history and art, which inspired his early appreciation for literature. An English major in college, Lumbly’s first love was writing. He worked as a journalist in Minneapolis, early on. Through a series of ‘happy accidents,’ he took a short break from writing and worked in a political -satire comedy theatre. After a couple of years, Lumbly moved to San Francisco intending to continue his work as a journalist for the Associated Press. Just two days after arriving, he came across a newspaper ad seeking “two black actors for South African political plays.” He went to the audition and met the other actor already cast — an unknown Danny Glover. He landed the part and toured with Glover in productions of Athol Fugard’s “Sizwe Bansi is Dead” and “The Island.”

The plays brought Lumbly to Los Angeles, where he signed with an agent, followed by a move to New York. He landed his first significant on-screen role in a movie-of-the-week, “Cagney and Lacey,” which turned into the hit series. More importantly, CBS cast the beautiful and talented actress, Vonetta McGee, as his wife on the show. They fell in love, married and had a beautiful son, Brandon and a beautiful life together. Lumbly starred as ‘Detective Marcus Petrie’ for the show’s seven-year run.

Lumbly’s versatility spans a range of characters, from his NAACP Image Award-nominated work in TNT’s “Buffalo Soldiers,” produced by Danny Glover, to a wealthy, black entrepreneur in “Oprah Winfrey Presents: The Wedding,” starring opposite Halle Berry. He starred in the Showtime telefilm “Just a Dream,” directed by Glover. He also starred in the telefilms “Color of Friendship,” “Little Richard,” “On Promised Land,” “The Ditchdigger’s Daughters,” “Nightjohn” and “Sounder,” ABC’s telefilm remake of the 1972 classic. Of his critically acclaimed performance in “Sounder,” the Houston Chronicle stated, “Carl Lumbly plays ‘Father’, and his performance is a stunner: Dignity and anguish come together to touch your heart.”

His additional television credits include a recurring role on the TNT cop drama, “Southland,” where he played old-school, no-nonsense LAPD Captain ‘Joel Rucker.’ He appeared in the ensemble cast of A&E’s suspense series “The Returned” and has made numerous guest-starring appearances on such popular television series as “NCIS,” “Criminal Minds,” “Chuck,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Cold Case,” “Battlestar Galactica,” “The West Wing,” “ER” and “The X-Files.”

For the stage, Lumbly received glowing reviews for his 2015 performance of ‘Pops Washington’ in “Between Riverside and Crazy” at the American Conservatory Theater (ACT) in San Francisco. States the Huffington Post, “Pops is portrayed with torrents of fury and flashes of gentleness by the marvelous Carl Lumbly. He is one of seven characters in Stephen Adly Guirgis’s play, which won this year’s Pulitzer Prize for drama, but he provides the fuel that energizes all.”

In 2013, Lumbly starred Off-Broadway at Romulus Linney Courtyard Theatre in New York’s Pershing Square Signature Center in “stop. reset,” directed by Regina Taylor. “stop.reset.” tells the story of ‘Alex Ames’ (Lumbly), the owner of Chicago’s oldest African-American book publishing company.

He starred in the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre’s (LHT) 2012 production of British playwright Joe Penhall’s comedy drama “Blue/Orange” in San Francisco. He was featured in the San Francisco Playhouse’s 2010 production of Cormac McCarthy’s “Sunset Limited.” In 2007, he starred in the SF Playhouse’s production of “Jesus Hopped the ‘A’ Train,” directed by Bill English. For his remarkable performance, he was honored with a San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Award for Best Performance by an Actor.

Lumbly works out regularly to keep in shape for his demanding roles. In his free time, he enjoys writing, long walks and playing basketball. Carl is a Leo. That’s about all…