Occupation Actor Children 1 Height 1.78 m | Years active 1999–present Website derekluke.com Siblings Maurice Luke, Daniel Luke | |
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Born April 24, 1974 (age 42) ( 1974-04-24 ) Jersey City, New Jersey, U.S. Spouse Sophia Adella Luke (m. 1998) TV shows Trauma, Hawthorne, 13 Reasons Why Movies Antwone Fisher, Captain America: The First, Notorious, Madea Goes to Jail, Glory Road Similar Sophia Adella Luke, Josh Lucas, Jamal Woolard, Djimon Hounsou, Denzel Washington Profiles | ||
Derek Luke (born April 24, 1974) is an American actor. He won the Independent Spirit Award for his big-screen debut performance in the 2002 film Antwone Fisher, directed and produced by Denzel Washington. Since 1998, he has been married to actress Sophia Adella Luke.
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Early life
Luke was born in Jersey City, New Jersey, the son of Marjorie Dixon, a pianist, and Maurice Luke, a former actor. His father is from Georgetown, Guyana. Derek attended freshman year at Linden High School and graduated from Henry Snyder High School in 1993.
Career
An audition with casting director Robi Reed-Humes for the role of Antwone Fisher went well enough that Luke was called in to meet Washington, one of Luke's childhood idols.
Luke played one of the four male leads in Spike Lee's 2008 war film Miracle at St. Anna, replacing Wesley Snipes, who had to leave the film due to his highly publicized tax problems.
Luke played a small part as a nurse in the 1999 episode "White Collar" of the sitcom The King of Queens, and appeared on the NBC show Trauma. He played one of the group members of Mayhem in the Moesha episode "Mayhem at the Jam Esp" (March 19, 2001).
He plays Alicia Keys' love interest in her music video for "Teenage Love Affair". He played singer Monica's love interest in her music video for "So Gone". Luke played Sean 'Puffy' Combs in the 2009 film Notorious, and James 'Boobie' Miles in the 2004 film Friday Night Lights.
Glory Road, which was released in the U.S. in January, 2006, forty years after the "fabulous five" forever altered the landscape of college basketball. Derek Luke was cast to play Bobby Joe in the movie.
Luke was cast to play Gabe Jones, a member of the Howling Commandos in Captain America: The First Avenger, released in July 2011.
In June 2011, Luke also began starring in the TNT original medical drama series HawthoRNe as Miles Bourdet, an assistant surgeon from Chicago.
From February to April 2013, Luke played the character of "Gregory" in the FX series The Americans. In 2015, he played Malcolm Devoe, head of security for Empire Entertainment on the TV series Empire and Cookie's secret love interest.