Early life

Cathey was born in Huntsville, Alabama, and spent his childhood in West Germany. Cathey graduated J.O. Johnson High School, where he acted in plays such as "To Kill a Mockingbird". He subsequently studied theatre at the University of Michigan and the Yale School of Drama.

Career

One of Cathey's earliest roles was starring in the children's television show Square One. This was followed by guest roles in such series as Star Trek: The Next Generation and Homicide: Life on the Street. In 1994, he appeared in The Mask as Freeze, the main antagonist's friend and bodyguard who gets killed by the title character. He also appeared in 1995's Se7en as the coroner. He played the villain Dirty Dee in the cult comedy film Pootie Tang and had a regular role on the HBO series The Wire as Norman Wilson during the fourth and fifth seasons. He also worked with The Wire creator David Simon on the Emmy Award-winning miniseries The Corner; Cathey played a drug addict known as Scalio. He had a recurring role on the HBO prison drama Oz as unit manager Martin Querns. In the film Tank Girl, he played the role of Deetee. He narrated Aftermath: Population Zero, a National Geographic Channel special which imagines what Earth might be like if humanity no longer existed. He played the homeless man Al, murdered by Patrick Bateman, in the film American Psycho. He narrated TLC's Wonders of Weather, a TV series.

On Between the Lions, he played King Ray in the story of "Rumpelstitlkstin" in the episode, "Hay Day".

In 2009, Cathey performed in The People Speak, a documentary feature film that uses dramatic and musical performances of the letters, diaries, and speeches of everyday Americans, based on historian Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States.

Since September 2009, Cathey has played the role of Ellis Boyd "Red" Redding in a theatrical production of The Shawshank Redemption at Wyndham's Theatre, London. He has made two guest appearances on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, as an undercover police officer involved with animal smuggling (episode: "Wildlife") and later as a high-priced defense attorney to a hooker (episode: "Rhodium Nights"). This was followed by a guest appearance on Law & Order: Criminal Intent as a talented, charismatic and egotistical professor of American Studies suspected of involvement in a murder to advance his career. He also played boxing promoter Barry K. Word on the FX series Lights Out.

In 2013, Cathey began a recurring role as Freddy Hayes, the owner of Freddy's BBQ, in Netflix's original series House of Cards, as well as on Grimm, in the recurring role of Baron Samedi. His portrayal of Hayes in the second and third seasons of House of Cards earned him an Emmy nomination and a win for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series.

Cathey has expressed a wish to appear in the soap opera Fair City.

Cathey co-starred in Josh Trank's Fantastic Four (2015), as Dr. Franklin Storm, the father of The Invisible Woman and The Human Torch.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1984	A Doctor's Story	Richie	Television film
1988	Funny Farm	Reporter
1988	Crossing Delancey	Cab Driver
1988	Ich und Er	Waiter
1989	Penn & Teller get killed	Fan's friend
1989	Born on the Fourth of July	Speaker
1990	Astonished	Wayne
1990	Loose Cannons	Willie
1990	Quick Change	Sound analyst
1991	Eyes of a Witness	prosecuter	Television film
1991	What about Bob?	Howie
1992	Fool's Fire	Minister Gunther	Television film
1993	And the Band Played on	Staff doctor #2	Television film
1994	Clean Slate	1st cop
1994	The Mask	Freeze	as Reginald E. Cathy
1994	Clear and Present Danger	Sergeant-Major
1994	Airheads	Marcus
1994	The Hard Truth	Shotgun cop
1995	Napoleon	Frog	English version, voice
1995	Tank Girl	Deetee
1995	Tyson	Attorney Winston	Television film
1995	Se7en	Dr. Santiago
1997	Ill Gotten Gains	Nassor
2000	American Psycho	Homeless man
2000	Homicide: The movie	Bernard Weeks	Television film
2001	Boycott	E.D. Nixon	Television film
2001	Pootie Tang	Dirty Dee
2003	Head of State	Officer Waters
2003	A Good Night to Die	Avi
2003	S.W.A.T.	Lt. Greg Velasquez
2004	The Machinist	Jones
2004	Everyday People	Akbar
2004	Men Without Jobs	Mr. Morgan
2004	The Cookout	Frank Washington
2006	508 Nelson	Frank Harmon
2008	20 Years After	Samuel
2008	Patsy	Dr. Joshua
2009	Une aventure New-Yorkaise	Marcus	Television film
2011	My Last Day Without You	Pastor Johnson
2012	Arbitrage	Earl Monroe
2012	The Normals	Rodney
2012	Sampling	Leonard	short film
2014	Two Men in Town	Supervisor Jones
2014	Alex of Venice	Walt
2014	St. Vincent	Gus
2015	Nasty Baby	The Bishop
2015	Masters of the Clock: The Legend of Martinsville	Narrator	Television film
2015	Sweet Kandy	Curtis Coleson
2015	Fantastic Four	Dr. Franklin Storm

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1987	Spenser: For Hire	Shepard	1 episode
1987-1992	Square One TV	Various	24 episodes
1990	Great Performances	Guildenstern	1 episode
1993	Star Trek: The Next Generation	Morag	1 episode
1994	Roc	Fred	1 episode
1996	ER	IAD Investigator David Haskell	1 episode
1997-1998	Arli$$	Alvin Epps	3 episodes
1998	Homicide: Life on the Streets	Bernard Weeks	1 episode
2000	The Corner	Scalio	TV mini-series, 6 episodes
2000-2003	OZ	Martin Querns	8 episodes
2002	Law & Order: Criminal Intent	Professor Roland Sanders	1 episode
2004	Law & Order	Gerald	1 episode
2004	The Jury	Mr. Grove	1 episode
2005	Third Watch	Jaime Castro	1 episode
2006-2008	The Wire	Norman Wilson	23 episodes
2008-2013	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	Barry Querns / Victor Tyber	5 episodes
2010	30 Rock	Rutherford Rice	1 episode
2011	Lights Out	Barry K. Word	12 episodes
2012	Person of Interest	Davidson	2 episodes
2013	Grimm	The Baron / Baron Samedi	3 episodes
2013-2016	House of Cards	Freddy	15 episodes
2014	Banshee Origins	Det. Julius Bonner	TV mini series, 3 episodes
2014	Banshee	Det. Julius Bonner	2 episodes
2014	The Divide	Uncle Bobby	5 episodes
2015	The Good Wife	Judge Aaron Coleman	1 episode
2015	Neon Joe, Werewolf Hunter	Dad	TV mini series, 2 episodes
2016	The Blacklist	The Caretaker	1 episode
2016	Horace and Pete	Harold	TV mini series, 2 episodes
2016	Inside Amy Schumer	Congressman #2	1 episode

[ Source: Wikipedia ]