Avery Brooks

Acting

Avery Brooks

Born 1948-10-02 · Evansville, Indiana, USA

Avery Franklin Brooks (born October 2, 1948) is an American actor, director, singer, narrator and educator. He is best known for his television roles as Captain Benjamin Sisko on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, as Hawk on Spenser: For Hire and its spinoff A Man Called Hawk, and as Dr. Bob Sweeney in the Academy Award–nominated film American History X. Brooks was born in Evansville, Indiana, and raised in Gary, Indiana. He attended Oberlin College, where he studied music and theater. After graduating from Oberlin, he moved to New York City to pursue his acting career. Brooks's first professional acting role was in the play "The Great White Hope" in 1970. He went on to appear in a number of Broadway productions, including "The Wiz" and "A Chorus Line". He also starred in the television miniseries "Roots" in 1977. In 1993, Brooks was cast as Captain Benjamin Sisko on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. The series ran for seven seasons, and Brooks's performance as Sisko was critically acclaimed. He won a Saturn Award for Best Actor on Television in 1995. After Star Trek: Deep Space Nine ended, Brooks continued to work in television and film. He starred in the series "Shark" from 2006 to 2008, and he appeared in the films "American History X" and "The Score". Brooks is also a talented singer and musician. He has released two albums, "Song of My People" and "The Way I Feel". He is also a gifted director, and he has directed a number of theater productions and television episodes.

Acting credits

American History X poster
8.3

Derek Vineyard is paroled after serving 3 years in prison for killing two African-American men. Through his brother, Danny Vineyard's narration, we learn that before going to prison, Derek was a skinhead and the leader of a violent white supremacist gang that committed acts of racial crime throughout L.A. and his actions greatly influenced Danny. Reformed and fresh out of prison, Derek severs contact with the gang and becomes determined to keep Danny from going down the same violent path as he did.

American History X

1998

15 Minutes poster
5.9

When Eastern European criminals Oleg and Emil come to New York City to pick up their share of a heist score, Oleg steals a video camera and starts filming their activities, both legal and illegal. When they learn how the American media circus can make a remorseless killer look like the victim and make them rich, they target media-savvy NYPD Homicide Detective Eddie Flemming and media-naive FDNY Fire Marshal Jordy Warsaw, the cops investigating their murder and torching of their former criminal partner, filming everything to sell to the local tabloid TV show "Top Story."

15 Minutes

2001

The Big Hit poster
6.0

Affable hit man Melvin Smiley is constantly being scammed by his cutthroat colleagues in the life-ending business. So, when he and his fellow assassins kidnap the daughter of an electronics mogul, it's naturally Melvin who takes the fall when their prime score turns sour. That's because the girl is the goddaughter of the gang's ruthless crime boss. But, even while dodging bullets, Melvin has to keep his real job secret from his unsuspecting fiancée, Pam.

The Big Hit

1998

The Captains poster
6.4

The Captains is a feature-length documentary film written and directed by William Shatner. The film follows Shatner as he interviews the other actors who have portrayed starship captains in the Star Trek franchise.

The Captains

2011

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - The Way of the Warrior poster
6.1

When a Klingon fleet under General Martok arrives at the station ostensibly to protect the Alpha Quadrant from the Dominion, Sisko recruits Lieutenant Commander Worf to discover the Klingons' true intentions.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - The Way of the Warrior

1995

Trials and Tribble-ations: Uniting Two Legends poster
8.0

The making of the iconic Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode.

Trials and Tribble-ations: Uniting Two Legends

2003

What We Left Behind: Looking Back at Star Trek: Deep Space Nine poster
7.1

A documentary exploring the legacy of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, the reasons it went from the black sheep of Star Trek to a beloved mainstay of the franchise, and a brainstorm with the original writers on what a theoretical eighth season of the show could look like.

What We Left Behind: Looking Back at Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

2018

Roots: The Gift poster
7.3

On Christmas Eve 1770, a young African warrior, who three years prior had been captured and sold into slavery in America, leads a desperate group of runaway slaves as they attempt to reach freedom in the North.

Roots: The Gift

1988

Finnegan Begin Again poster
6.5

A schoolteacher in her early 40s, involved in a dead-end love affair with a married mortician, drifts into a relationship with an aging newspaperman.

Finnegan Begin Again

1985

Uncle Tom's Cabin poster
7.0

The life of an aging black slave, Tom, and the people he interacts with.

Uncle Tom's Cabin

1987

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Behind the Scenes poster
4.0

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine – Behind the Scenes was a fifty minute documentary hosted by Terry Farrell that looked at the creation of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, specifically its pilot episode "Emissary". Written by Stephen R. Wolcott and directed by Donald R. Beck, the documentary first aired on 4 January 1993 as a syndicated special of the by Paramount Television produced current media affairs show Entertainment Tonight, at the time the franchise's primary publicity outlet for anything live-action Star Trek related. In the documentary, Farrell (Jadzia Dax) takes the viewer on a tour around the Deep Space 9 sets. The feature also has interviews with the cast, producers, writers and other production staff members and takes a look at the making of "Emissary".

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Behind the Scenes

1993

Savage Sun poster
NR

This documentary explains the workings of the sun, the body at the centre of the solar system, with a core heat of 30 million degrees. Savage Sun reveals the most spectacular images of the sun ever gathered, captured from many spacecraft and observatories. Internal temperatures can reach millions of degrees Celsius and surface explosions leap tens of thousands of kilometers into space. It is the most awe inspiring and fearsome body in our solar system, yet, without it, life on earth could not exist.

Savage Sun

1999

Star Trek: 30 Years and Beyond poster
5.6

A star-studded tribute to Star Trek on its 30th anniversary, hosted by many of the stars and guest stars from all of the Trek series and movies. Also features a huge number of clips from all of the series and movies. At the end, real-life astronauts Aldrin and Jemison present NASA award plaques to the cast members.

Star Trek: 30 Years and Beyond

1996

Solomon Northup's Odyssey poster
6.8

A free Black man from New York is tricked, kidnapped, and sold into slavery in the South, where he endures twelve years of brutal servitude before finding a way to contact his family and secure his freedom.

Solomon Northup's Odyssey

1991

The Ernest Green Story poster
6.8

Follows the story of Ernest Green, one of the Little Rock Nine who were the first blacks to integrate into an all white school.

The Ernest Green Story

1993

The Greatest Places poster
5.5

A journey to seven of the most geographically dynamic locations on earth. The film features spectacular land forms, diverse wildlife and the people and cultures indigenous to these places. Distinct geographic places include the great island of Madagascar, home to unique limestone pinnacles and the playful lemur; and the greatest desert—the Namib—home of the largest sand dunes in the world that tower majestically over its western border, the Atlantic Ocean. Other locations featured are the great icecap of Greenland, Iguazu Falls in Brazil, the Okavango Delta in Botswana, the Chang Tang Plateau in Tibet, and the Amazon River in South America.

The Greatest Places

1998

Spenser: The Judas Goat poster
7.5

Spenser is hired out by Hugh Dixon to track down the killers of his wife and daughters. He and Hawk are drawn into a huge plot involving assassination attempts on African leader Winston Boyko by some racist terrorist named Paul.

Spenser: The Judas Goat

1994

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Emissary poster
NR

When the troubled Commander Sisko takes command of a surrendered space station, he learns that it borders a unique wormhole.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Emissary

1993

Deep Space Nine: A Bold Beginning poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Deep Space Nine: A Bold Beginning

2003

Mysteries of Ancient China poster
6.8

Archeologists discover a pit filled with terracotta warriors buried to protect the grave of the First Emperor of China.

Mysteries of Ancient China

2016

Othello poster
9.0

Written at the height of Shakespeare’s creativity, Othello explores the tragedy of a love destroyed by jealousy. Provoked by the treacherous Iago’s lies, Othello begins to mistrust his loyal bride, Desdemona. As his suspicions rise, Othello collapses under the weight of his self-doubt, eventually destroying his once-happy marriage. With poetry rivaling King Lear and with the psychological depth of Hamlet, Shakespeare constructs a highly charged tale of prejudice, revenge and the destruction of innocence.

Othello

2005

Spenser: A Savage Place poster
6.5

Candy Sloane, a news reporter that Spenser used to date, hires him out as backup while she investigates a credit card fraud ring that might be operating out of a previously-bankrupt movie company

Spenser: A Savage Place

1995

The New Explorers: The Science of Star Trek poster
6.2

How real is the 'science' in Star Trek?

The New Explorers: The Science of Star Trek

1995

Spenser: Pale Kings and Princes poster
6.7

When Spenser (Robert Urich), his psychologist girlfriend, Susan Silverman (Barbara Williams), and his right-hand man, Hawk (Avery Brooks), investigate a brutal murder in a quaint New England town, they discover plenty of illegal activity and cocaine. This 1994 made-for-television movie brings many of the beloved characters from the 1980s drama series (based on the books by Robert B. Parker) back to the small screen.

Spenser: Pale Kings and Princes

1994