Early life and education

Richards is of Afro-Panamanian descent. He grew up in Bladensburg, Maryland. Richards attended the Visual and Performing Arts program at Suitland High School in Suitland, Maryland and graduated in 1991. He attended the USC School of Dramatic Arts on a scholarship.

Career

Richards's acting career began when he was spotted by a casting director. This resulted in him getting a guest star role on The Cosby Show as Vanessa's boyfriend Roy in the season 5 episode "Out of Brooklyn". Other guest appearances would come later on shows such as The Practice, Chicago Hope, Any Day Now, and Nash Bridges. Playing a rapping bike messenger who believes he is an alien abductee, it was the role of Taj Mahal in the Mark Taper Forum production of Tina Landau's play Space that first brought recognition.

Richards has appeared in feature films Why Do Fools Fall in Love and Good Burger. He starred in the television movies Critical Assembly and Mutiny, and appeared as singer Richard Street in the NBC miniseries The Temptations. Richards has also guest-starred on The West Wing and The 4400.

Richards gained a starring role beginning in the first season of Angel as Charles Gunn, a street-wise vampire hunter. He remained a member of the cast throughout all five seasons.

Richards has so far been featured in four series as an attorney: Beginning in the first episode of season five of Angel, "Conviction," Gunn becomes a lawyer after having his brain upgraded with a comprehensive knowledge of the law (both human and dæmonic) by the international and interdimensional law firm Wolfram & Hart. In 2006, Richards joined the cast of NBC's Law & Order spin-off Conviction as Billy Desmond, an undefeated New York City Assistant District Attorney with political aspirations. He has also been featured in CBS's CSI: Miami as the Floridian attorney Bob Villa, and portrayed attorney Marcus McGrath in the TNT series Raising the Bar until its cancellation.

Richards portrayed a young Richard Webber in two Grey's Anatomy episodes: "The Time Warp" in season six, and "Only Mama Knows" in season eleven. He also appeared in an episode of The Mentalist. Richards had played the part of Damon in "Just Say Yes", a 1998 episode of the science fiction television series Sliders. Richards also guest-starred in an episode of Syfy's Warehouse 13.

On 5 April 2013, TVLine confirmed that Richards had been given an unspecified role in ABC's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. The character was later revealed to be a character named Mike Peterson, a human being with implants for injections of Super-serum (similar to those of Captain America) known as Deathlok.

Also in 2013, Richards created his own sci-fi web series called The Hypnotist.

Filmography

Film

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1995	OP Center	FBI van tech	TV film
1997	Good Burger	Griffen
1998	Why Do Fools Fall in Love	Sherman
1998	The Temptations	Richard Street	TV film
1999	Mutiny	Reece Johnson	TV film
2000	Running Mates	Randall's aide	TV film
2003	Critical Assembly	Allan Marshall	TV film
2006	Paved with Good Intentions	Travis Balden

Television

Year	Show	Role	Notes
1988	The Cosby Show	Roy	"Out of Brooklyn"
1993	Family Matters	Guy at mall #2	"Scenes From a Mall"
1995	Space: Above and Beyond	Lt. Thomas	"The River of Stars"
1996	Diagnosis Murder	Troy Sommers	"The Pressure to Murder"
1997	JAG	Seaman Bernard	"Rendezvous"
1997	Good News	John Braxton	"Try a Little Tenderness"
1997	Players	Sam Bodie	"Contact Sport"
1998	Chicago Hope	Eric Lane	"Bridge over Troubled Waters"
1998	Clueless	Stewey	"Friends"
1998	Sliders	Damon	"Just Say Yes"
1999	The Practice	Former boyfriend	"Do Unto Others"
1999	The West Wing	Bill	"Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc"
1999	Nash Bridges	Ernie Vesper	"Rip Off"
2000	Moesha	Sean	"Family Affair"
2000	Undressed	Bryce	3 episodes
2000	Any Day Now	Billy	"It's a Good Thing I'm Not Black"
2000-04	Angel	Charles Gunn	91 episodes
2004	CSI: Miami	S.A. Bob Villa	"Hell Night"
2006	Conviction	A.D.A. Billy Desmond	13 episodes
2006	The 4400	John Shaffner	"The Starzl Mutation"
2008-09	Raising the Bar	Marcus McGrath	25 episodes
2010, 2014	Grey's Anatomy	Young Richard Webber	"The Time Warp", "Only Mama Knows"
2010	The Defenders	ADA Bracken	2 episodes
2011	The Mentalist	Dr. Vernon Watson	"Bloodstream"
2011	Warehouse 13	Zach Adanto	"Past Imperfect"
2013	Emily Owens, M.D.	George Morgan	"Emily... and the Leap"
2013	Arrow	Mr. Blank	"Home Invasion"
2013-present	Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.	Michael Peterson / Deathlok	9 episodes
2014	The Lottery	Deputy Secretary of State Nathan Mitchell	3 episodes
2014	Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce	Ford	Recurring character

Charities

J. August Richards supports the following charitable cause: AIDS.

[ Source: Wikipedia ]