Actor Biography

An actor since childhood, Tyler James Williams has amassed a wide range of critically acclaimed roles to his credit. Most recently, he played a vital character to the plot of Kathryn Bigelow's Detroit.

Williams began acting at 4 years old on the children's television series Sesame Street. He went on to star in the Emmy® and Golden Globe®-nominated series Everybody Hates Chris, for which he won an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Comedy Series. His trajectory from playing a young Chris Rock to the first young black man to be killed the morning of the Algiers Motel incident during the Detroit riots is impressive.

Williams starred in the film Dear White People, which received a Special Jury Prize at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival. His other film credits include the Tyler Perry comedy Peeples and Unaccompanied Minors.

His additional television credits include The Walking Dead, Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders, Key & Peele, Law & Order: SVU, House M.D., Ballers, guest sketch appearances on Saturday Night Live and a starring role in the television movie Let It Shine, among others.

An accomplished musician, Williams released a mixtape with his brother, Tyrel Jackson Williams, titled Me, My Brother & A Mic. They produced this tape in a mere two weeks, after many requests from fans. Born in Harlem, New York City, and raised in Yonkers, Williams resides in Los Angeles.