Wood Harris

Sherwin David “Wood” Harris (born October 17, 1969) is an American actor. He has portrayed the drug kingpin Avon Barksdale on the HBO crime drama The Wire, cocaine dealer Ace in Paid in Full and high school football player Julius Campbell in the 2000 film Remember the Titans. He is also known for playing Brooke Payne on the BET miniseries The New Edition Story in 2017. From 2016 to 2017, he played Barry Fouray on VH1 miniseries The Breaks.Harris was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of seamstress Mattie and bus driver John Harris. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Theater Arts from Northern Illinois University (NIU) and a Master of Arts from New York University. He is the younger brother of actor Steve Harris.While enrolled in NIU, Harris starred in his first major film role in the basketball drama Above the Rim, starring opposite Tupac Shakur, and appeared in many theatrical stage productions of various off-Broadway plays. Harris subsequently guest-starred in a variety of television and film venues before portraying legendary rock guitarist Jimi Hendrix in Showtime’s 2000 movie, Hendrix.Later that year, Harris received his first NAACP Image Award nomination for “Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture” along with the Blockbuster Movie Award nomination for “Favorite Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture” for his role as Julius “Big Ju” Campbell in Remember the Titans. In 2002, he starred in the Dame Dash produced cult-classic film Paid in Full, based on the true story of three Harlem drug dealers with Harris playing the real-life kingpin Azie Faison.He starred as Avon Barksdale, loosely based on the real-life Nathan Barksdale, in the first three seasons of HBO’s original series The Wire, as well as one episode in the fifth season. He also produced his own debut album, Beautiful Wonderful, which was intended for release in 2005.In June 2008, director Martin Guigui revealed that Harris was cast as Nate “Sweetwater” Clifton in Sweetwater, a movie about the first black player in the NBA. As of March 2018, it is still in pre-production.In 2009, Harris starred in the film Just Another Day, as a successful fictional rapper named A-maze. The film centers on a clash between a young up-and-coming rapper and an older one at the top of his game, the former played by Jamie Hector (whose character Marlo Stanfield had a similar role with respect to Harris’s character in The Wire).In 2012, Harris narrated the ESPN 30 for 30 film Benji. In the same year he also played Harold “Mitch” Mitchell in the Broadway revival of A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams; alongside Blair Underwood, Nicole Ari Parker, and Daphne Rubin-Vega.In 2015, he reunited with The Wire cast member Michael B. Jordan for Creed, the latest installment of the Rocky franchise, reprising the role in its sequel.

Written by Dianne Washington

Paid In Full: The 15th Anniversary

Powerful, edgy, intense is what they say. The three words used by TV critics to describe the movie. The streets say real, relatable, a true story, and definitely a classic. On October 25th, 2002, the movie “Paid In Full” was released. Starring Wood Harris as “Ace”, Cam’ron as “Rico”, and Mekhi Phifer as “Mitch” or “Money Makin’ Mitch.” The movie is based on a true story between three Harlem friends named Azie “AZ” Faison, Rich Porter, and Alpo Martine, during the 1980’s, who were notorious drug dealers. Of course, the friendship doesn’t last and things turn very ugly in the end but only one survives it all. Got himself in the game and got himself out in the smartest way possible. The movie is not only a reflection of the streets but it’s also a learning lesson. It can teach you about the realities of the street life and how real things can get. It can also teach you that the street life isn’t for everybody and for the most obvious reason, it’s a dangerous game to play. It’s a hip hop classic that never gets old. A classic that you can enjoy at night after a long day, eating Chinese food and drinking iced tea. Maybe roll a joint and smoke or too as well. It’s exciting, it’s funny, it’s interesting, it’s deep, it makes your head bop along to the soundtrack and there’s not one boring moment in the movie. Altogether, it’s what makes this movie so timeless. 15 years later, watching it is like it just came out. All over again.