Colman Domingo

Domingo is gay and has been married to Raúl Domingo since 2014. The pair first met in 2005 through a Craigslist Missed Connections post.

He grew up in a working-class neighborhood in Philadelphia as the third of four children. His mother, Edith Bowles, worked at a bank and as a homemaker. His biological father was from Belize with family roots in Guatemala. As a child, Domingo had a lisp and attended speech therapy. His mother died in 2006, one day after he booked his role in the musical Passing Strange.

Outside of performing, Domingo has taught acting at several universities. He served on the faculty at the University of Southern California School of Dramatic Arts and has taught at the Yale School of Drama and the University of Texas at Austin. He holds honorary doctorates from Ursinus College, American University, and Swarthmore College.

Domingo studied journalism at Temple University before relocating to San Francisco. There, he started acting in regional theater productions. He made his Broadway debut in 2005 in Well.

His stage career accelerated in 2008 with the rock musical Passing Strange. His performance earned him an Obie Award Off-Broadway before the show moved to Broadway and was adapted into a feature film by Spike Lee. In 2010, Domingo starred as Mr. Bones in The Scottsboro Boys. That performance brought him nominations for both a Tony Award and a Laurence Olivier Award. He also played Billy Flynn in the Broadway revival of Chicago in 2014.

Domingo is also a playwright. He wrote and performed the solo autobiographical show A Boy and His Soul, which won a Lucille Lortel Award in 2010. His play Dot premiered at the 2015 Humana Festival before running Off-Broadway at the Vineyard Theatre. He co-wrote the book for Summer: The Donna Summer Musical and co-produced the Pulitzer Prize-winning play Fat Ham on Broadway.

After nearly walking away from acting in 2014 due to casting frustrations, Domingo landed the part of Victor Strand on AMC's Fear the Walking Dead in 2015. The role changed his career. He appeared in 109 episodes across eight seasons. In 2018, he joined the Directors Guild of America and directed three episodes of the series, becoming the first cast member in the franchise to direct an episode.

In 2019, Domingo joined the HBO drama Euphoria as Ali Muhammad, a recovering substance user who mentors Rue. In 2022, he won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series. He later starred as Danny in the Netflix series The Four Seasons, earning another Emmy nomination.

Domingo built his film career through supporting roles in historical dramas. He appeared as Private Harold Green in Steven Spielberg's Lincoln (2012), as Freddie Fallows in The Butler (2013), and as Ralph Abernathy in Ava DuVernay's Selma (2014). He also played Cutler in the 2020 film adaptation of Ma Rainey's Black Bottom and X in Zola (2021).

In 2023, he starred in the biographical drama Rustin. Playing civil rights organizer Bayard Rustin, Domingo earned nominations for the Academy Award, BAFTA, Golden Globe, and Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actor. The nomination made him the first Afro-Latino performer nominated for Best Actor, as well as the first openly gay American man nominated for portraying a gay character.

In 2024, he starred in Sing Sing as John "Divine G" Whitfield alongside a cast of formerly incarcerated actors. The role earned him a second consecutive Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. In 2026, he portrayed Joe Jackson in the musical biopic Michael and reunited with Spielberg for Disclosure Day.