Adam Davenport

Adam Davenport (born May 27, 1984 in Harvey, Illinois) is an American actor, DJ, record producer, singer, songwriter and filmmaker. Davenport made his screen acting debut in Colombian filmmaker Esteban Uribe's Cleanse Pest, Rest as a transgender sex worker who becomes a victim of a hate crime. He has acted in several Off-Broadway productions, including Naked Boys Singing!, and appeared on several television shows, including the HBO series High Maintenance and the Starz series Sweetbitter.[1]

Adam Davenport
Adam Davenport at Lincoln Center
Born
Adam Piernas Davenport

(1984-05-27) May 27, 1984
Harvey, Illinois
EducationYale University
OccupationActor, Musician, Filmmaker, DJ, Record Producer
Years active2007-present

Davenport received critical acclaim for his debut single "My Return Address Is You," which broke into the Top 40 of the Billboard Dance Club Chart, making him the first African-American artist/producer in history to eponymously chart on Billboard for EDM (electronic dance music).[2] He was subsequently invited into the Recording Academy. In late 2018, Davenport released an EDM cover of Eric Clapton's "Change The World."[3]

Background

Author

At 15, Davenport wrote a short story titled Home which was published in the anthology Looking Inward, for which he was presented with an Award of Achievement by former President George Bush, Sr. in 1999.[4] He is also a two-time National NAACP ACT-SO Competition gold medal winner for Colors of the Rainbow (2000) when he was a junior at Marian Catholic High School,[5] and for Blood at the Root: The Legacy of Billy Holiday's Strange Fruit (2001) the following year

Davenport began writing screenplays as an undergraduate at Yale University where he studied filmmaking.

Career

Film

Davenport's short film Midnight Son, which he made as his thesis project while an undergraduate at Yale University, became the recipient of the Panavision New Filmmaker Award, a distinction shared by the first films of Steven Soderbergh, Paul Thomas Anderson and Jared Hess.[6] Made by Davenport when he was twenty-one years old, the project was photographed by cinematographer Tom Stern and starred Academy Award winner Melissa Leo, Jack Mulcahy and Tony nominee David Harbour.[7]

Midnight Son screened at the Clermont-Ferrand International Film Festival in France and "received much praise" for its direction and performances.[8]

Davenport co-wrote a screenplay for a film adaptation of John Kaye's novel The Dead Circus with Kaye, but the project stalled in development due to the film's budget.[9]

Acting

Davenport left Los Angeles and began to work as an actor in New York City, where he began to garner notice for his range of quirky, off-beat and eccentric character portrayals. Per Sally Kirkland, who mentored Davenport since his early days in Hollywood, "He is a character actor in a leading man's body" .[10]

At 27, Davenport became the youngest director accepted into the Actors Studio Playwright/Directors Unit; his interview was with Martin Landau and Mark Rydell. He made his New York stage debut in the opera adaptation of Tom Wolfe's "The Bonfire of the Vanities," directed by Michael Bergmann and opposite opera heavyweights Randal Turner, Adrienne Danrich and Anne-Carolyn Bird. In November 2016 he performed Morten Lauridsen's "Lux Aeterna" and the North American premiere of Howard Goodall's "Eternal Light: A Requiem" with an international choir at Carnegie Hall.[11]

In 2016, Davenport became the first African-American actor to play Hercules onscreen when he was cast to play the mythic hero in Alex Ewen's musical feature film Project Olympus, produced by Road Warrior Entertainment.[12]

Music

In 2017, Davenport signed with the label Independent Ear and released his debut single "My Return Address is You," featuring Shanica Knowles, in late January 2017; the track was released internationally via Universal Music Group and entered the charts at #7 on Dance Mix USA for the week ending 2/11/17.[13] He subsequently became the first African-American producer to eponymously chart on Billboard for Electronic Dance Music after the song charted on the Dance Club chart for 10 weeks, peaking at #23 on September 23, 2017.[14]

Davenport has been an advocate for gay, black artists by opening discussions on the absence of African-American artists in EDM. Per Chill Magazine, "Multi-hyphenated artist Adam Davenport is bringing Black visibility into some of the most whitewashed worlds, including opera and EDM."[15]

Future projects

In a December 2018 interview with Chill Magazine, Davenport revealed his plans to develop an original electronic dance musical for the stage. "I ultimately want to use electronic dance music as a narrative tool. Just as Lin-Manuel Miranda used hip-hop beautifully to advance storytelling on the stage, I have my own story called Weekend Warriors that I’d like to tell on the stage with electronic dance music. I’m willing to do everything myself—write the book, produce the music, DJ the live set, act in it—and so right now I’m at the stage of developing my voice in the genre. I’ll release a concept album or EP of Weekend Warriors before I mount a full production."[15]

Davenport said that he is actively working on a new film project called Tar Baby, "which blends sci-fi [and] horror, film noir, and African-American folklore against the backdrop of the heroin epidemic in West Virginia." Davenport has cast Mya Taylor as the lead and is also collaborating with Marvel illustrator James Rodriguez on a graphic novel adaptation.[15]

Filmography
Year Title Role Notes
2020 Project Olympus Hercules (post-production)
2019 Sweetbitter Greg Season 2, Episode 5
2018 High Maintenance Adam Season 2, Episode 1
2017 Monogamish Sean Outfest Film Festival
Six Degrees of Murder Officer Dodson Season 2, Episode 7
It Gets Better? The Lover Cannes Short Film Corner
2016 Cleanse Prest, Rest Lydia Premiered at the 2016 Budapest Short Film Festival
Deadline: Crime With Tamron Hall Steve Shillingford Season 4, Episode 6
T5 aka Terminal 5 Milli (Fab Morvan) Music video for Riz Ahmed's Swet Shop Boys
2015 I Sabered Maul in the Face Mace Short film; Star Wars parody
2011 The 68th Annual Golden Globe Awards Himself Date to Melissa Leo, Winner for Best Supporting Actress
2007 Midnight Son Writer, Director, Editor, Producer Panavision New Filmmaker Award, Clermont-Ferrand International Film Festival

Recognition

Awards and Nominations

References
  1. "Adam Davenport". IMDb. Retrieved 2018-12-26.
  2. Desk, BWW News. "Photo Flash: Adam Davenport Wins at the Independent Music Awards". BroadwayWorld.com. Retrieved 2018-12-26.
  3. Desk, BWW News. "Adam Davenport Releases Cover Of Eric Clapton's 'Change The World'". BroadwayWorld.com. Retrieved 2018-12-26.
  4. Sandra Del Re (2 September 1999). "George Bush congratulates teen on literary honor". Daily Herald. Retrieved March 27, 2011.
  5. Jolene Evans (August 24, 2000). "William Simpson's admonitions, and a legacy for today's students" (PDF). The Star (Chicago newspaper). William Simpson Essay Scholarship Foundation. p. 3. Archived from the original (PDF) on November 30, 2012. Retrieved March 27, 2011.
  6. Film Independent (June 1, 2011). "FIND Talent Guide::Adam Davenport". Film Independent. Retrieved March 23, 2011.
  7. Small, Courtney (2014-09-25). "Shorts Spotlight: Midnight Son". Cinema Axis. Retrieved 2018-12-26.
  8. "To Catch A Crow - dir. Shay Leonard". www.parentfilms.com. Retrieved 2020-05-29.
  9. Jay A. Fernandez (March 3, 2011). "What Oscar Winners Are Doing Next". Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved March 3, 2011.
  10. Jovan Bramble (January 2017). "ADAM DAVENPORT: From Humble Beginnings to Actor, Model, Writer, Filmmaker & Music Producer". EPN Magazine. Retrieved 22 April 2017.
  11. Carnegie Hall Corporation (November 20, 2016). "Distinguished Concerts Orchestra and Distinguished Concerts Singers International". Carnegie Hall Corporation. Retrieved November 20, 2016.
  12. Liz Calvario (June 6, 2016). "'Project Olympus' Casts Up & Comer Adam Davenport To Play Hercules". IndieWire. Retrieved June 6, 2016.
  13. "Skope News for February 15, 2017". Skope Magazine. February 15, 2017. Retrieved February 15, 2017.
  14. "Shanica Knowles My Return Address Is You Chart History". Billboard. Retrieved 2018-12-26.
  15. "Yes, EDM is Black Music". www.chill.us. 2018-11-26. Retrieved 2018-12-26.
  16. "Adam Davenport". IMDB. Archived from the original on January 8, 2010. Retrieved March 28, 2011.
  17. "ACT-SO: Everyone is a winner". BNET. Retrieved March 28, 2011.
  18. "The 2005 American Gem Short Script Contest". www.filmmakers.com. Retrieved 2018-12-25.
  19. "Cannes Short Film Corner - It Gets Better?". We are moving stories. Archived from the original on 2018-12-25. Retrieved 2018-12-25.
  20. Desk, BWW News. "Photo Flash: Adam Davenport Wins at the Independent Music Awards". BroadwayWorld.com. Retrieved 2018-12-25.
  21. "Charitybuzz: Vincent Tropepe Fashions Runway Experience on February 28... - Lot 1618400". /www.Charitybuzz.com. Retrieved 2018-12-25.
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