Brian Tyree Henry
Birthdate: Mar 31, 1982
Birthplace: Fayetteville, North Carolina, USA
Brian Tyree Henry may be best known for his recurring role as “Paper Boi” on FX’s hit series, Atlanta (2016-2022), but he rapidly became a widely acclaimed big-screen actor known for his range across styles and genres, starting with his big-screen debut in the comedy, Puerto Ricans in Paris (2015), co-starring Luis Guzman and Edgar Garcia under co-writer Ian Edelman’s direction and released by Focus World. Henry joined the ensemble of director/writer Dustin Guy Defa’s New York indie movie, Person to Person (2017), co-starring Abbi Jacobson, Michael Cera, Tavi Gevinson, Bene Coppersmith, George Sample III, Philip Baker Hall, Isaiah Whitlock, Jr., and Benny Safdie, and premiering at the Sundance Film Festival.
Henry appeared in another 2017 Sundance premiering movie as he was cast in a supporting role by director/writer/producer Matt Ruskin in his fine true-story crime drama, Crown Heights (2017), starring an excellent Lakeith Stanfield, Gbenga Akinnagbe, Nestor Carbonell, and Ron Canada, and released by Amazon Studios/IFC Films. Henry landed his first major film role in director/writer Laura Steinel’s indie comedy, Family (2019), starring Taylor Schilling, Kate McKinnon, and Peter Horton and premiering at the South by Southwest Film Festival before a limited release by The Film Arcade.
Brian Tyree Henry joined another American indie director/writer—Drew Pearce—for the cast of the futurist crime drama, Hotel Artemis (2018), with Jodie Foster, Sterling K. Brown, Sofia Boutella, Jeff Goldblum, Jenny Slate, Zachary Quinto, Charlie Day and Dave Bautista, and which lost money for distributors Global Road Entertainment (US) and Lionsgate (ex-US), and then Henry played a detective in the true-crime drama, White Boy Rick (2018), with Matthew McConaughey, Richie Merritt, Bel Powley, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Rory Cochrane, Eddie Marsan, Bruce Dern, and Piper Laurie, premiering at the Telluride Film Festival and losing money for Columbia Pictures/Sony Pictures Releasing.
Henry joined the impressive ensemble of Steve McQueen’s dynamic revenge crime drama, Widows (2018), starring Viola Davis, Michelle Rodriguez, Elizabeth Debicki, Cynthia Erivo, Colin Farrell, Daniel Kaluuya, Jacki Weaver, Carrie Coon, Robert Duvall, and Liam Neeson, and grossed $76 million for 20th Century Fox after premiering at the Toronto Film Festival.
Henry collaborated with another major Black filmmaker, Barry Jenkins, for Jenkins’ well-received James Baldwin adaptation of his 1974 novel, If Beale Street Could Talk (2018), co-starring KiKi Layne, Stephan James and Oscar-winning supporting actress Regina King, and earning $21 million for Annapurna Pictures. Henry was cast in his first studio franchise as the voice of Spider-Man’s dad, New York cop Jefferson Davis, in Marvel/Sony’s well-liked animated Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018), Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023) and Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse (date to be announced), featuring the voices of Shameik Moore as Miles/Spider-Man and Hailee Steinfeld, with the first two entries grossing over $1.7 billion worldwide earnings.
Brian Tyree Henry then joined the cast of director/writer Jacob Aaron Estes’ sci-fi horror movie for Blumhouse Productions, Don’t Let Go (2019), starring David Oyelowo, Storm Reid, Byron Mann, Mykelti Williamson and Alfred Molina, returning a tepid $5.3 million after premiering at the Sundance Film Festival, and then Henry joined another horror movie, the Lars Klevberg-directed remake of the 1988 movie, Orion Pictures/United Artists Releasing’s Child’s Play (2019), with Aubrey Plaza and Mark Hamill, delivering a profitable $45 million gross. Henry was cast in a small supporting role in director/co-writer/producer Todd Phillips’s controversial, Oscar-winning Joker (2019), starring Joaquin Phoenix (who won the Oscar for best actor), with Robert De Niro, Zazie Beetz, and Frances Conroy, grossing an astounding $1.08 billion for Warner Bros. after winning the Gold Lion at the Venice Film Festival.
Henry had his first starring role in director/writer/producer Casimir Nozkowski’s New York comedy-drama, The Outside Story (2020), with Sonequa Martin-Green, Sunita Mani, Olivia Edward, and Asia Kate Dillon, and released by Samuel Goldwyn Films, followed by Henry working in another big-scale franchise in the role of whistleblower-conspiracy theorist Bernie in both Godzilla vs. Kong (2021) and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024), both starring Rebecca Hall and directed by Adam Wingard and grossing a cumulative $1.4 billion globally for Legendary Pictures/Warner Bros. and Toho. Henry performed the voice of a love-smacked spoonbill bird opposite Nicole Byer in co-writer/director Kirk DeMicco’s animated movie backed by Columbia Pictures/Sony Pictures Animation, Vivo (2021), co-starring Lin-Manuel Miranda, Zoe Saldana, Juan de Marcos Gonzalez, Michael Rooker, Gloria Estefan and released theatrically and on streaming by Netflix.
Brian Tyree Henry was cast in the eclectic ensemble for the standalone MCU “Phase Four” epic, Eternals (2021), co-starring Gemma Chan, Richard Madden, Kumail Nanjiani, Lia McHugh, Barry Keoghan, Kit Harington, Salma Hayek and Angelina Jolie under co-writer Chloe Zhao’s direction, receiving mixed reviews and earning a mediocre $402 million (against $236 million budget) for Marvel Studios/Disney. Henry then joined the energetic ensemble of Brad Pitt, Joey King, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Andrew Koji, Hiroyuki Sanada, Michael Shannon, and Sandra Bullock in the David Leitch-directed action comedy, Bullet Train (2022), based on Kotaro Isaka’s 2010 novel Maria Beetle and released by Sony Pictures to a profitable $239 million return.
Henry earned his first Oscar nomination as best supporting actor for his nuanced performance in Causeway (2022), starring Jennifer Lawrence, Linda Emond, and Jayne Houdyshell under Lila Neugebauer’s direction and co-written by Ottessa Moshfegh, and released by A24 after premiering at the Toronto Film Festival. Henry returned to voice work in animated features in his co-starring role as Megatron vs. Chris Hemsworth’s Optimus Prime in Paramount Animation/Hasbro/Paramount Pictures’ Transformers One (2024), directed by Josh Cooley with a voice cast including Scarlett Johansson, Keegan-Michael Key, Steve Buscemi, Laurence Fishburne, and Jon Hamm.
Brian Tyree Henry co-starred with Ryan Destiny and Judy Greer under Rachel Morrison’s direction in Amazon MGM Studios’ sports biopic, The Fire Inside (2024), written by Barry Jenkins and premiering at the Toronto Film Festival. Henry then played opposite Kelvin Harrison Jr., Halle Bailey, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Jaboukie Young-White, Tim Meadows, and Anderson. Paak and Missy Elliott in the Michel Gondry-directed musical based on Pharrell Williams’ childhood, Atlantis (2025), released by Universal Pictures.
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Personal Details
Brian Tyree Henry was born in Fayetteville, North Carolina, and was raised in Fayetteville and Washington, D.C., by her military-enlisted father and late mother Willow Dean Kearse (educator). Henry has four sisters. Henry attended and graduated from E.E. Smith High School. Henry then graduated from the famed Atlanta HBCU Morehouse College having switched his major from business to theater, and then earned a master’s degree in acting from the Yale School of Drama. Henry’s height is 6’ 2”. Henry’s estimated net worth is $2 million.
Filmography
actor
Upcoming (2)
- 2025 |
- 2024 | The Fire InsideasJason Crutchfield
The Fire Inside
The story of Claressa 'T-Rex' Shields, a boxer from Flint, Michigan who trained to become the first woman in her country's history to win an Olympic gold medal in the sport.
Previous (20)
- 2024 | Transformers OneasD-16
Transformers One
The untold origin story of Optimus Prime and Megatron, better known as sworn enemies, but who once were friends bonded like brothers who changed the fate of Cybertron forever.
- 2024 | Godzilla x Kong: The New EmpireasBernie Hayes
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire
Two ancient titans, Godzilla and Kong, clash in an epic battle as humans unravel their intertwined origins and connection to Skull Island's mysteries.
- 2023 | The Magician's Elephantas Leo Matienne
- 2023 | Spider-Man: Across the Spider-VerseasJeff Morales
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Miles Morales catapults across the multiverse, where he encounters a team of Spider-People charged with protecting its very existence. When the heroes clash on how to handle a new threat, Miles must redefine what it means to be a hero.
- 2022 | Bullet TrainasLemon
Bullet Train
Five assassins aboard a swiftly-moving bullet train find out that their missions have something in common.
- 2022 |
- 2021 |
- 2021 | The Outside StoryasCharles Young
The Outside Story
An introverted editor living a vertical life in his 2nd-floor apartment, always on deadline and in a rut. When Charles locks himself out of his building, he's forced to go horizontal and confront the world he's been avoiding in search of a way back inside.
- 2021 | Godzilla vs. KongasBernie Hayes
Godzilla vs. Kong
The epic next chapter in the cinematic Monsterverse pits two of the greatest icons in motion picture history against each other--the fearsome Godzilla and the mighty Kong--with humanity caught in the balance.
- 2020 | Superintelligenceas Dennis
- 2019 | Don’t Let GoasGarret Radcliff
Don’t Let Go
Detective Jack Radcliff and his recently murdered niece race against time to solve the crime before it happens.
- 2019 | Child’s PlayasMike
Child’s Play
A mother gives her 13-year-old son a toy doll for his birthday, unaware of its more sinister nature.
- 2019 |
- 2018 | If Beale Street Could TalkasDaniel Carty
If Beale Street Could Talk
A young woman embraces her pregnancy while she and her family set out to prove her childhood friend and lover innocent of a crime he didn't commit.
- 2018 | Spider-Man: Into the Spider-VerseasJefferson Davis
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Teen Miles Morales becomes the Spider-Man of his universe and must join with five spider-powered individuals from other dimensions to stop a threat for all realities.
- 2018 |
- 2018 | White Boy RickasDetective Jackson
White Boy Rick
The story of teenager Richard Wershe Jr., who became an undercover informant for the FBI during the 1980s and was ultimately arrested for drug-trafficking and sentenced to life in prison.
- 2018 | Hotel ArtemisasHonolulu
Hotel Artemis
Set in riot-torn, near-future Los Angeles, 'Hotel Artemis' follows the Nurse, who runs a secret, members-only emergency room for criminals.
- 2017 | Flint Strongas Self - Dancer
- 2017 | Person to PersonasMike
Person to Person
Follows a variety of New York characters as they navigate personal relationships and unexpected problems over the course of one day.
Some Facts About Brian Tyree Henry
Theatre Man: Brian Tyree Henry Shakespeare in the Park’s 2007 Romeo and Juliet, original 2011 Broadway production of The Book of Mormon, 2014 off-Broadway The Fortress of Solitude, Tony nomination for best featured actor in the 2018 Broadway revival of Kenneth Lonergan’s drama Lobby Hero; Talk About Race at the Public Theatre.
