Draft:Keith Grant (actor)

Keith Grant
Born	(1954-04-23) April 23, 1954 Chicago, Illinois
Citizenship	American
Education	University of Utah (BFA) Yale School of Drama (MFA) Penn State University (MA) The American Conservatory Theatre’s Advanced Training Program (Certification)
Occupations	Actor, director, choreographer, academic
Spouse	Daniel Fergus Tamulonis
Children	2

Keith Lee Grant (born April 23, 1954) is an American actor, director, choreographer, and academic. He is the founder and artistic director of the Harlem Repertory Theatre (HRT) and a tenured professor in the Department of Theatre and Speech at The City College of New York. Grant has appeared in Broadway, Off-Broadway, regional theatre, film, and television productions, and has directed and choreographed stage works that have received AUDELCO Awards.

Early life and education

Keith Lee Grant was born on April 23, 1954, in Chicago, Illinois. His father, Hugh Grant, worked in business, and his mother, Dorothy Grant, was a nurse. He attended O’Keeffe Elementary School, followed by South Shore High School.[2][9] Grant completed a bachelor of fine arts in Theatre at the University of Utah in 1974. He continued his professional training at the American Conservatory Theatre, receiving a certificate from its Advanced Acting Program in 1976. He later acquired a master of fine arts degree from the Yale School of Drama in 1982 and completed a master of arts degree at Penn State University in 1984.

Career

Grant’s early professional work included stage performances as a resident actor for two seasons at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival from 1976 to 1977, where he played Ariel in The Tempest, The Duke of Suffolk in Henry VI, Part 2, and Lorenzo in The Merchant of Venice. In the early 1980s, he performed in Love’s Labour’s Lost at The Yale Repertory Theatre in 1982 and musical revue productions at the Ivoryton Playhouse in the summer of 1983. During this period, he also appeared on television, portraying Troy Bannister on the daytime drama The Edge of Night from 1982 to 1984, appearing in 46 episodes. In 1993, he performed as the First Gentleman in A Christmas Carol at Syracuse Stage.

Throughout the 1990s, Grant appeared in major regional, Off-Broadway, and Broadway productions. In 1994, he performed as Don Pedro in Much Ado About Nothing at the Indiana Repertory Theatre and appeared as a member of the ensemble on Broadway in Show Boat, a role he continued through 1997. From 1997 to 1998, Grant was part of the ensemble for the United States premiere of Ragtime at the Shubert Theatre in Los Angeles, serving as understudy for the roles of Coalhouse Walker Jr. and Booker T. Washington. In 1999, he appeared Off-Broadway as Rareback in In Dahomey at the New Federal Theatre and later that year performed on Broadway as Jean L’Adrese in Marie Christine at the Vivian Beaumont Theater. In 2000, Grant portrayed Mr. Hyacinth in Abie’s Island Rose at the Jewish Repertory Theatre.

Grant took a break from acting in the 2000s and 2010s. During this period, he founded the Harlem Repertory Theatre in 2004 and served as its founding artistic director for over twenty years. In 2009, he directed and choreographed The Wiz at the Harlem Repertory Theatre, receiving AUDELCO Awards for Best Director and Best Choreographer. In 2013, his direction of Dreamgirls received AUDELCO Awards for Best Director of a Musical and Best Musical Production. His later directing and choreography work included West Side Story in 2014, In the Heights in 2015, and Ain’t Misbehavin’ in 2017. His other AUDELCO nominations followed for In the Heights in 2016 and A Raisin in the Sun in 2017, both produced by the Harlem Repertory Theatre.

In addition, Grant directed/choreographed productions at The Cincinnati Opera, The Germantown Performing Arts Center, The Connecticut Repertory Theatre, The Nebraska Repertory Theatre, TheatreworksUSA, and Off-Off Broadway at the Theatre For The New City.  He directed/choreographed DREAMGIRLS in Hamilton, Bermuda in 2008.

As a stage actor, his later roles included Oberon and Theseus in A Midsummer Night’s Dream in Harlem at the Pittsburgh Public Theatre, What Will Happen to All That Beauty at the Contemporary American Theatre Festival, and REUNIONS Off-Broadway at City Center’s Second Stage in the fall of 2025.

Grant’s film and television work, other than The Edge of Night, includes voice-over narration as Adam Clayton Powell Jr. in the 2001 documentary Jazz, as well as appearances in short films such as Sawdust (2022), Last Call (2022), and Fundamental Shapes (2023).

Since 2001, Grant has been serving as a tenured full professor in the Department of Theatre and Speech at The City College of New York, where he teaches courses in African American dramatic literature, Introduction to Theatre, movement, and musical theatre.

Advocacy

From 1989 to 1995, Grant was an assistant professor in the Theatre Department at Cornell University.  In 1995, Grant filed a lawsuit against Cornell University, alleging racial discrimination during his tenure/promotion review. The case was later dismissed.

Personal life

Grant is openly gay. He married Daniel Fergus Tamulonis in 2011, with whom he began a relationship in 1981. The couple has two children and lives in New York City.