Please Rewind Talent Wall

Anthony Mackie

Anthony Mackie has built a career that moves comfortably between theatre, independent drama, science fiction and large-scale action. Born in New Orleans on September 23, 1978, he studied at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts and the North Carolina School of the Arts before graduating from Juilliard’s Drama Division. His stage work came first and remained an important part of his early career. In 2002, Mackie understudied Don Cheadle in Suzan-Lori Parks’ Topdog/Underdog and won an OBIE Award for Carl Hancock Rux’s Talk. He later took part in staged readings of August Wilson’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Fences and Jitney at the Kennedy Center, played Pentheus in The Bacchae for Shakespeare in the Park and appeared on Broadway opposite Christopher Walken in A Behanding in Spokane. On film, Mackie made an immediate impression as Papa Doc, the principal antagonist in 8 Mile. His first feature starring role followed in the independent drama Brother to Brother, where he played Perry, a young Black gay artist. Roles in Million Dollar Baby, She Hate Me, Half Nelson and We Are Marshall showed how readily he could shift between different kinds of stories. He also portrayed Tupac Shakur in Notorious, having previously played the rapper onstage in Up Against the Wind, and appeared in The Hurt Locker. Mackie reached a much larger audience as Sam Wilson, also known as Falcon, beginning with Captain America: The Winter Soldier. He returned across several Marvel films, including Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, before starring with Sebastian Stan in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Beyond Marvel, his screen work has included The Adjustment Bureau, All the Way, The Hate U Give, Altered Carbon and Black Mirror. He also starred in and produced the science-fiction film Outside the Wire. It is a varied body of work, held together by a direct, grounded screen presence that serves him equally well in intimate drama and spectacle.