Early life

Pierce was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, one of three sons of a teacher and a decorated World War II veteran who worked as a maintenance engineer. His father's segregated Army unit helped Marines win the Battle of Saipan in 1944. Pierce said of his father's experience: "When the country wasn’t loving my father, my father was loving his country. It's the ultimate act of patriotism."

Pierce was raised in the black middle-class community of Pontchartrain Park, the first African-American post-war suburb. His father, along with many black veterans, moved into the neighborhood after returning home from the war. The neighborhood was wiped out during Hurricane Katrina in 2005, including Pierce's family home, which was flooded with 14 feet of water.

After attending Benjamin Franklin High School, Pierce graduated from the New Orleans Centre for Creative Arts, where he was a Presidential Scholar of the Arts. As a young actor, he appeared in The Winter's Tale at the Tulane Shakespeare Festival. He produced and hosted Think About It, a youth-themed talk show, for the local NBC affiliate station, and also hosted a weekly jazz show on WYLD-FM Radio called Extensions from Congo Square.

He then attended the Juilliard School's Drama Division from 1981 to 1985, where he graduated as a member of Group 14 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts.

Career

Pierce has been in over 30 films, appeared in nearly 50 television shows and has performed in dozens of stage productions. He worked on the HBO dramas The Wire and Treme. He appeared in The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2 as "J. Jenks".

For his role in Treme, Pierce learned to play the trombone, though he relied on “sound double”, Stafford Agee of the Rebirth Brass Band. Agee played off-camera for Pierce, syncing his trombone with Wendell's motions for authenticity.

Pierce was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead for his portrayal of "Joe" in Four, playing a married, closeted gay man who steps out on his family with a young white man he met online. The film was released on September 13, 2013, around the same time that The Michael J. Fox Show debuted on NBC, in which Pierce played Michael J. Fox's character's boss until the show's cancellation some five months later.

Stage

Pierce has been in numerous stage productions. He was lauded for his performance as Holt Fay in Queenie at the John F. Kennedy Center. He has performed on Broadway in staged productions of The Piano Lesson, Serious Money and The Boys of Winter. He has performed off Broadway in The Cherry Orchard (for which he was nominated for a VIV Award for Lead Actor, Waiting for Godot (which was set on a New Orleans rooftop post-Hurricane Katrina, and Broke-ology, performed at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.

Other performances include Cymbeline (at The Public Theater), The Good Times Are Killing Me, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Tis Pity She's a Whore and Ms. Ever's Boys performed at the ACT Theatre.

Pierce is also a theater producer, having produced the Broadway show, Clybourne Park. The show was nominated for four Tony Awards. It went on to win the Tony Award for Best Play in 2012.

In 2015, Pierce returned to the stage to star in the Billie Holiday Theatre production of Jackie Alexander's Brothers from the Bottom in New York.

Radio

In 2009, Pierce became the host of the nationally syndicated, Peabody Award-winning radio program, Jazz at Lincoln Center, which features live recordings from Jazz at Lincoln Center's House of Swing.

Business and philanthropy

Pierce considers himself a "true capitalist" and a "classic entrepreneur."

In 2013, Fast Company named Pierce one of the "100 Most Creative People in Business."

Pontchartrain Park Community Development Corp.

Pierce started the non-profit, Pontchartrain Park Community Development Corp., to build new affordable solar and geothermal homes in the area for families displaced by Hurricane Katrina.

Sterling Farms

Inspired in part by Michelle Obama's initiative to bring more supermarkets to “food deserts” - where residents lack easy access to fresh produce - Pierce, along with two partners (Troy Henry and James Hatchett), started a chain of grocery stores, Sterling Farms, in the Ninth Ward of New Orleans in 2012. Sterling Farms also has a convenience store division called "Sterling Express." The stores are named after Sterling Henry, his business partner's father who ran a pharmacy for about 40 years at the Lower Ninth Ward.

Personal life

Pierce describes himself as "tri-coastal", splitting his time among Los Angeles, New York City, and New Orleans. He is a supporter of the New Orleans Saints, and locals have nicknamed him "Saints Wendell". He is also an avid supporter of St. Patrick's Athletic FC.

Pierce attended the 2012 Democratic National Convention, was one of President Barack Obama's top campaign fundraisers in 2012 (along with Harvey Weinstein and Eva Longoria), and once escorted Gwen Ifill to a White House State Dinner.

When first cast in The Wire, Pierce and his castmates doubted the show would be a hit: "I remember the first time we all sat around and watched the pilot. We all turned to each other and said, 'Man, I don't think this shit is going anywhere.'"

On Sunday, May 15, 2016, Pierce was arrested and charged with simple battery for an alleged attack against a female Bernie Sanders supporter outside Atlanta Lowes Hotel. He was booked and released on $1,000 surety bond from Fulton County Jail. Pierce has been a vocal supporter of Hillary Clinton and is on the board for Alliance for a Healthier Generation, a campaign created by the Clinton Foundation.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role
1986	The Money Pit	Paramedic
1989	Casualties of War	MacIntire
1989	Family Business	Prosecutor
1990	A Matter of Degrees	Wells Dennard
1991	A Rage in Harlem	Louis
1992	Malcolm X	Ben Thomas
1993	Manhattan Murder Mystery	Policeman
1994	It Could Happen to You	Bo Williams
1995	Bye Bye Love	Hector
1995	Hackers	Agent Dick Gill
1995	Waiting to Exhale	Michael Davenport
1996	Get on the Bus	Wendell
1996	Sleepers	Little Caesar
1998	Bulworth	Fred
1999	The 24 Hour Woman	Roy Labelle
1999	Shadows of the Past (aka Abilene)	Reverend Tillis
2002	Brown Sugar	Simon
2003	The Fighting Temptations	Reverend Lewis
2004	A Hole in One	Dan
2004	Land of Plenty	Henry
2004	Ray	Wilbur Brassfield
2006	Stay Alive	Detective Thibodeaux
2007	I Think I Love My Wife	Sean
2010	Night Catches Us	David Gordon
2010	Love Ranch	Naasih Mohammed
2011	The Mortician	Wendell Simms
2011	Horrible Bosses	Detective Hagan
2011	Foreclosure	Actor
2012	Lay the Favorite	Dave the Rave
2012	The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2	J. Jenks
2013	Parker	Carlson
2013	Möbius	Bob
2013	Four	Joe
2014	Elsa & Fred	Armande
2014	Selma	Hosea Williams
2015	The Runner	Frank Legrand

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1987	Vietnam War Story	French	Episode: "The Pass"
1989	A Man Called Hawk	Derrick West	Episode: "Never My Love"
1988-1989	The Equalizer	Dr. Wolff	Episodes: ""The Last Campaign", "Starfire"
1990	Capital News	Conrad White	All Episodes
1991	General Motors Playwrights Theater	Sergeant Kelly	Episode: "Avenue Z Afternoon"
1991	The 10 Million Dollar Getaway	Parnell "Stacks" Edwards	TV movie
1991	I'll Fly Away	Charles	Episode: "Coming Home"
1992	Law & Order	Chief Ola-Gimju Nwaka	Episode: "Consultation"
1992	Unnatural Pursuits	Cabbie	Episode: "I Don't Do Cuddles"
1993	Strapped		TV movie
1995	Law & Order	Jerome Bryant	Episode: "Rage"
1995	New York News	Jesus	Episode: "The Using Game"
1996	New York Undercover	Dr. Anthony Fisher	Episode: "Bad Blood"
1996	Never Give Up: The Jimmy V Story	John Saunders	TV movie
1996-1997	Moloney	DA Calvin Patterson	5 episodes
1997	413 Hope	Taffy	Pilot episode
1997	The Advocate's Devil	Justin	TV movie
1997-1998	The Gregory Hines Show	Carl Stevenson	All episodes
1999	The Expert	Dr. Worseley	Pilot episode
1999	Law & Order	Mr. Wade	"Disciple"
1998-2000	The Brian Benben Show	Kevin La Rue	7 episodes
2000	God, the Devil and Bob	Voice Only	Episodes: "In the Beginning", "Date from Hell"
2000	Third Watch	Officer Conrad 'Candyman' Jones	5 episodes
2000	City of Angels	Norbert Grimly	Episode: "Straight Flush"
2001	My Wife and Kids	Dr. Boucher	Pilot episode
2000-2001	The Weber Show/Cursed	Wendell Simms	All episodes
2002	Girlfriends	Anthony Jackson	Episode: "Childs in Charge"
2004	Judging Amy	Harry Benton	"Sins of the Father"
2004	Law & Order	Roger Porter	"Gunplay"
2004	Law & Order: Trial by Jury	Dr. Richard Link	Episodes: "The Line", "Eros in the Upper Eighties"
2006	Close to Home	Sam Carter	Episode: "Prodigal Son"
2007	Life Support	Slick	TV movie
2007	The Wire: The Chronicles	Det. William "Bunk" Moreland	Episode: "2000: Bunk and McNulty"
2002-2008	The Wire	Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland	Entire Series
2008	Women's Murder Club	Bill Schroeder	Episode: "Father's Day"
2008	In Plain Sight	Dr. Warren McBride/Warren Morris	Episode: "It Doesn't Live Here Anymore"
2008	House of Payne	Jeffrey Lucas	Episodes: "The Last Supper", "We've Come this Far by Faith: Part 2"
2007-2008	Numb3rs	William Bradford	4 episodes
2009	Fear Itself	Wiilbur Orwell	"Something with Bite"
2009	Hawthorne	Michael Schilling	Episode: "Trust Me"
2009	Drop Dead Diva	Neal David	Episode: "Grayson's Anatomy"
2010	Tim & Eric Awesome Show	Detective	Episode: "Re-Animated"
2010-2013	Treme	Antoine Batiste	Entire Series
2013-	Suits	Robert Zane	Recurring Role, 9 episodes
2013-2014	The Michael J. Fox Show	Harris Green	Regular cast
2014	Ray Donovan	Ronald Keith	Recurring Role (2nd Season)
2015	The Odd Couple	Teddy	Regular cast
2016	Grease: Live	Coach Calhoun	Live TV musical
2016	Confirmation	Clarence Thomas	TV movie

[ Source: Wikipedia ]