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Who is Larenz Tate?
American actor Larenz Tate was born in Chicago, Illinois USA, on 8 September 1975, making Virgo his zodiac sign. He has 58 acting credits and is perhaps still known best for playing Peter in the 2004 crime thriller movie “Crash”, which starred Sandra Bullock and Don Cheadle, and was written and directed by Paul Haggis. It follows the lives of several people from Los Angeles, California, and the film won 66 of its 178 award nominations, including three Oscar wins for Best Achievement in Film Editing, Best Motion Picture of the Year and Best Writing.
Larenz is today highly active in the movie industry, and is currently shooting for the upcoming movies “M. D. Is for Mr. Doula” and “Untitled Akon/JoJo Ryder Project”.
Education and early life
Larenz was raised alongside his older brothers Lahmard and Larron, who are today also actors, by their father Larry Tate and mother Peggy; Larenz respects his family’s privacy, and thus hasn’t shared many details about his parents, except that the family moved to Los Angeles, California when Larenz was around seven years old, and he and his brothers were then persuaded by their parents to enroll at Inner City Cultural Center’s drama program; they only began taking acting seriously after their classmate Malcolm-Jamal Warner was cast to appear in the sitcom “The Cosby Show”.
Larenz was the first of the brothers to launch his career, appearing in the 1985 episode “Night of the Meek” of the fantasy horror series “The Twilight Zone”, and he’s been active in the film industry ever since.
He completed his secondary education at Palmdale High School, matriculating in 1993, and then chose not to pursue a college degree but to remain focused on acting.
Roles in TV series
The second half of the ‘80s saw Larenz appear in an episode of two of many series, including the crime action “Hunter”, the comedy “Frank’s Place” and the crime mystery comedy “Sonny Spoon”.
In 1991 and 1992, he played one of the lead characters Curtis Royal in all 15 episodes of the comedy “The Royal Family”, which also starred Sylver Gregory, Mariann Aalda and Della Reese, and was created by Eddie Murphy and Greg Antonacci. It follows the lives of Victoria, her husband Al Royal and their daughter Elizabeth who’s just moved in with her parents together with her three children, and the series won one of its three award nominations. Larenz was then cast to star as Andre Mosely in all 10 episodes of the 1994 comedy “South Central”, but then had no TV series roles in the remainder of the ‘90s.
In 2006, he starred as Shooter Cooper in all nine episodes of the musical comedy “Love Monkey”, which also starred Judy Greer and Tom Cavanagh, and was created by Michael Rauch; it follows a music scout who’s just begun working at an indie label.
From 2007 through 2011, Larenz portrayed Bart ‘Black Shawn’ Johnston in 47 episodes of the comedy “Rescue Me”, which starred Michael Lombardi and Denis Leary, and was created by Peter Tolan and Denis Leary. It follows the life of firefighter Tommy Gavin, the series aired from 2004 through 2011, and won eight of its 36 award nominations.
Larenz’s three most recent TV series roles have been in 10 episodes of the 2016 drama “Game of Silence”, 29 episodes of the crime drama “Power” from 2017 through 2020, and 22 episodes of the crime drama “Power Book II: Ghost” since 2020.
Roles in movies
Larenz’s debut film role was playing Tj in the 1991 comedy “Clippers”, and some of his following roles were in the crime drama “Seeds of Tragedy” in the same year, the 1993 crime thriller “Menace II Society”, and the 1994 romantic comedy “The Inkwell”.
The year 1997 saw him play Ford Lincoln Mercury in the critically acclaimed action adventure drama “The Postman”, which starred and was directed by Kevin Costner. Set in a post-apocalyptic America, the movie follows the journey of a postman, and it won seven of its 14 award nominations. The remainder of the ‘90s saw Larenz appear in the 1998 biographical musical “Why Do Fools Fall in Love”, the 1999 short musical “Will Smith: Wild Wild West”, and the 2000 drama “Love Come Down”.
In 2006, he portrayed Lucky in the popular crime action “Waist Deep”, which starred Meagan Good and Tyrese Gibson, and was written and directed by Vondie Curtis-Hall. It follows a former convict Tyrese whose car’s just been hijacked with his son inside – the movie was nominated for four awards.
Larenz is also known for playing Julian Stevens in the 2017 adventure comedy “Girls Trip”, which was directed by Malcolm D. Lee, and starred Regina Hall and Queen Latifah. It follows four best friends on their way to the annual Essence Festival in New Orleans – the movie won 13 of its 55 award nominations.
Larenz has since had only two film roles: in the 2017 drama “Salamander”, and the 2019 comedy “Business Ethics”.
Coming Soon…October 2020 #BusinessEthics 🎥 pic.twitter.com/WCBpfI3xxF
— Kurtwood Smith (@tahitismith) September 20, 2020
Other credits
Larenz has eight producing credits, which include the comedy movie “Back to the Goode Life”, the comedy film “Business Ethics” both in 2019, and all 16 episodes of the documentary series “Bronzeville”, which aired from 2017 through 2021.
Some of his recent talk-show appearances have been in “Tamron Hall”, “The Jennifer Hudson Show”, and “Sherri”.
Awards and nominations
Larenz has won seven of his 18 award nominations. Some of his wins include a 1990 Acapulco Black Film Festival Award for Best Actor, for his performance in “Why Do Fools Fall in Love”, a 2005 Hollywood Film Award for Ensemble of the Year for “Crash” (shared with colleagues), and a 2015 Black Reel Award for Outstanding Actor, TV Movie or Mini-Series for “Gun Hill”.
Love life and wife
Although Larenz is trying his best to keep his family away from the media’s attention, it’s still known that he’s married and has four children. He and Tomasina Parrott exchanged vows in a private ceremony on 30 November 2006, in front of their closest friends and family members; she’s an actress with 10 credits, and is perhaps known best for playing Cheerleader in the critically acclaimed 2004 crime comedy movie “Starsky & Hutch”, which won three of its 14 award nominations.
Larenz and Tomasina have four sons together, but their exact birthdates haven’t been disclosed.
Larenz hasn’t spoken about the women whom he’d dated prior to meeting Tomasina; he’s married to Tomasina Parrott as of June 2023, and they have four sons together.
Interesting facts and hobbies
Larenz and his brothers have founded the non-profit organization The Tate Bros. Foundation, which aims to help children suffering from sickle cell anemia.
His best friends are American actor and producer Tyrese Gibson, and American musician and actor Ludacris.
Larenz was invited to play Harper in the 1999 romantic comedy movie “The Best Man”, but refused; the movie became a hit, winning eight of its 19 award nominations.
His favorite TV series are “Sanford and Son” and “The Cosby Show”.
Larenz loves to read books in his spare time, and his favorite is Sidney Poitier’s autobiography “The Measure of a Man”.
He’s a fan of boxing, and cheered for Sugar Ray Robinson.
Larenz’s favorite actress is Diana Ross, and some of his favorite movies include “Lady Sings the Blues”, “Mahogany” and “Double Platinum”.
Height, eyes and wealth
Larenz’s age is 47. He has brown eyes and short black hair, is 5ft 9ins (1.76m) tall and weighs around 175lbs (80kgs).
Larenz’s net worth’s been estimated at over $2.5 million, as of June 2023.
