Wood Harris

Sherwin David "Wood" Harris (born October 17, 1969) is an American actor who first gained attention for his role as Motaw in the 1994 Jeff Pollack film *Above the Rim*. He later portrayed high school football player Julius Campbell in the Walt Disney Pictures film *Remember the Titans* (2000) and Jimi Hendrix in the Showtime television film *Hendrix* (2000). He became widely recognized for his portrayal of drug kingpin Avon Barksdale on the HBO crime drama *The Wire* (2002–2008). Harris also played the role of cocaine dealer Ace, based on the life of Azie Faison, in the 2002 crime film *Paid in Full*.

On television, Harris is known for playing Avon Barksdale in *The Wire* and Brooke Payne on the BET miniseries *The New Edition Story* (2017). He also starred as Barry Fouray on the VH1 miniseries *The Breaks* (2016–2017), Damon Cross on the Fox series *Empire* for its fifth and sixth seasons, and currently portrays the drug lord "Pat" in the Starz series *BMF*.

Harris has also appeared in films such as the 2009 dark comedy *Next Day Air*, the 2015 Marvel Studios superhero film *Ant-Man*, the science fiction films *Dredd* (2012) and *Blade Runner 2049* (2017), and the sports drama *Creed* (2015), along with its sequels *Creed II* (2018) and *Creed III* (2023).