Actor Biography

Multiple Emmy® Award-winning and GRAMMY® Award-nominated Wayne Brady has made his mark on stage and screen as an actor, producer, singer, dancer, songwriter, author and television personality.

A true multihyphenate, Brady's career path and personal life journey have helped him see the world in a unique way. His aspirations have always gone beyond solely starring in various entertainment projects. Under his A Wayne & Mandie Creative banner, he set out to create new content across different platforms that showcase innovation and inclusivity in fun and powerful ways.

A five-time Emmy winner (the first to win Daytime and Primetime awards in two consecutive years), Brady has an impressive TV resume, including "Whose Line Is It Anyway?," "The Masked Singer," "Dancing with the Stars," "Black Lightning," "The Good Fight" and Showtime's "American Gigolo" — each spotlighting different aspects of his immense talent.

This summer, Brady will star in an upcoming docuseries, "Wayne Brady: The Family Remix," premiering this summer on Freeform and streaming the next day on Hulu. The show follows his blended family: his ex-wife, best friend and business partner Mandie Taketa; their 21-year-old daughter Maile; and Mandie's partner Jason. The series is produced by Wayne and Mandie's joint production company, A Wayne & Mandie Creative, along with Fremantle.

In addition to being a force in front of the camera, Brady is heavily active behind the scenes, wearing the hats of host and executive producer for "Let's Make A Deal," "Game of Talents" and "Comedy IQ," which he also co-created through his production company. All of this follows on the heels of the success of his award-winning daytime talk show, "The Wayne Brady Show."

Long an accomplished singer and performer, Brady's musical acumen has always been a personal passion, and he used that as fuel to help win the second season of "The Masked Singer." Off his victory, Brady dropped a brand-new original single entitled "Flirtin' w/ Forever," which quickly climbed the streaming charts, as well as an accompanying music video.

This follows the success of his debut album, headlined by a version of Sam Cooke's "A Change is Gonna Come," which earned him a GRAMMY Award nomination in the Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance category.

In April 2024, Brady returns to Broadway in the all-new production of "The Wiz," leading the cast as the titular character. The highly anticipated musical features award-winning creatives and producers, including Schele Williams, Common, MC Lyte, Amber Ruffin, Hannah Beachler and Sharen Davis, among others.

Brady made his Broadway debut starring as legal showman Billy Flynn in the long-running hit musical "Chicago." Soon after, Brady starred as the groundbreaking character Lola in Kinky Boots, Broadway's Tony Award®-winning Best Musical, with music and lyrics by Cyndi Lauper and a book by Harvey Fierstein. Brady would later headline as Aaron Burr in the Chicago production of Lin-Manuel Miranda's Tony Award-winning juggernaut "Hamilton."

Brady again joined forces with Lin-Manuel Miranda. The duo, along with Thomas Kail and Anthony Veneziale, created "Freestyle Love Supreme." The unique show combined the fusion of hip-hop, improv and comedy, which won a special Tony Award for its innovation and contributions to the theater world. "The Freestyle Love Supreme" team partnered with San Francisco improv company Speechless, Inc., to create freestyle+, an educational training platform committed to making improv globally accessible.

A devotee of Afrofuturism and the sci fi genres, Brady has been working on several stories with his writing partner, Maurice Broaddus. The pair will contribute an original short story to "The End of the World as We Know It: Tales of Stephen King's The Stand," an anthology based on characters from the bestselling novel and featuring a foreword from King. Brady and Broaddus have also penned a dynamic adventure for "Joe Ledger: Unbreakable."

Advocacy is core to Brady's life. He champions the need for more resources and better understanding of mental health issues, especially in the Black community. Brady's public announcement about his pansexuality brings awareness to an underrepresented community, and he continues to support and promote LGBTQIA+ causes and organizations such as GLAAD, GLSEN, Broadway Backwards and Gay Men's Chorus of Los Angeles. Brady is a longtime supporter of the Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, Alzheimer's Foundation of America and SAY The Stuttering Association for the Young.

Brady currently resides in Los Angeles.