Larenz Tate

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Larenz Tate in Biker Boyz (2003)

Larenz Tate (born September 8, 1975 in Chicago, Illinois) is an American actor. Born on the west side of Chicago, Tate is the youngest of three siblings (his two brothers, Larron and Lahmard, are also actors) whose family moved to California when he was nine years old. Convinced by their parents (whose father is teacher, Larry Tate at Suva Intermediate School at the City of Bell Gardens, California) to enter a drama program at the Inner City Cultural Center, the trio didn't take the lessons seriously until classmate Malcolm-Jamal Warner's ascent to fame after being cast on the hugely popular sitcom The Cosby Show. Subsequently realizing that they could parlay their efforts into a tangible form of success, the siblings began to receive small roles and in 1985, Tate made his small-screen debut in an episode of The Twilight Zone -- The Series. Following appearances in such popular television series as 21 Jump Street and The Wonder Years, Tate was cast in the made-for-television feature The Women of Brewster Place before receiving a recurring role in the popular family comedy series Family Matters (1989). He was also a cast member on the short-lived CBS series The Royal Family, starring Redd Foxx and Della Reese. In the video game 187 Ride or Die, Tate voices the main character, Buck.

[edit] Film career

Following numerous small-screen roles, offers began pouring in for Tate, and in late 1992, collaborative filmmaking siblings Albert and Allen Hughes approached him to star in their debut feature Menace II Society. A jarring vision of inner-city desperation and decay, the film found Tate channeling his substantial energy into creating "O-Dog", a trigger-happy teenager. Following up with the little-seen but often-praised television series South Central, Tate would later appear in the family comedy-drama The Inkwell (1994) before re-teaming with the Hughes brothers for Dead Presidents (1995) and taking on the role of a love-stricken young poet in the romantic drama Love Jones (1997). With subsequent roles in such films as The Postman (as the automotively monikered Ford Lincoln Mercury), the Frankie Lymon biopic Why Do Fools Fall in Love (1998, with Tate as Lymon), and 2000's Love Come Down, Tate continued to compel audiences well into the new millennium. Though a big theatrical release had eluded Tate for the first few years of the millennial turnover, Tate would soon turn up opposite Lawrence Fishburne in the high-octane Biker Boyz (2003), A Man Apart (2003), Crash (2004), and as music legend Quincy Jones in Ray (2004). Larenz was also featured in R&B singer Ashanti's 2003 released music video Rain on Me, where he played the jealous, abusive spouse of Ashanti. The video touched on the subject of domestic abuse.