Barry Scott is recognized as one of the most versatile practitioners of his art. He is widely known for his successes as an actor, writer, producer, director, motivational speaker and voice over artist. The founder and producing artistic director of the American Negro Playwright Theatre at Tennessee State University, where his parents and grandparents graduated, Scott has become one of the leading theatre artists in his home town, on top of his impressive acting credits nationwide, including television’s I’ll Fly Away and In the Heat of the Night. He is a member of the Screen Actors Guild, Actor’s Equity Association, American Film Radio & Television Association and serves on the board of the Tennessee Arts Commission. An authority on the life and works of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. , Scott wrote and starred in Ain’t Got Long to Stay Here as a tribute to Dr. King and to teach a generation of students about one of America’s most violent and inspiring times, and the man who literally changed the entire nation. Scott is so convincing in his portrayal of Dr. King, that Coretta Scott King once cornered him between acts of a play to compliment him on his realistic and honest depiction of her late husband. He has performed excerpts of King’s speeches for the Humanitarian Awards Ceremony honoring President Jimmy Carter and was recorded on the March On album benefiting the National Civil Rights Museum. Just a few of the prominent venues in which Scott has recreated Dr. King’s speeches include: the Beacon Theater in New York, the Fox Theater in Atlanta, the Seattle Children’s Theater, the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, the Boutwell Performing Arts Center in Birmingham, the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, the Masonic Temple in Memphis, the Edmund Pettis Bridge in Selma, and the Actors Theater in Louisville. Scott’s professional work as a writer include the plays Lisa’s Story, Harlem Voices, An American Slavery Play, Stones of Promise, Joyful Noise, When I Grow Up I’m Gonna’ Get Me Some Big Words, Oh Freedom, A Man Named York and The Last Negro. His film and television roles include appearances in I’ll Fly Away and Rescue 911, and a recurring role as a minister in the successful series In the Heat of the Night. Many people recognize him as the disabled Vietnam Veteran in the award winning Travis Tritt music video trilogy, Anymore. Scott also co-starred with Jim Varney in Disney’s Touchstone Pictures comedy film Ernest Goes to Jail (1990).
