| Larry Owens | |
| Birth Place: | Baltimore, Maryland, U.S. |
| Years Active: | 2015–present |
| Known For: | A Strange Loop |
Larry Owens is an American comedian, actor, writer, and singer. He received a Lucille Lortel Award and a Drama Desk Award for his leading performance in the off-Broadway musical A Strange Loop. He has acted on television shows including Search Party, High Maintenance, Modern Love and Abbott Elementary.
Owens was born and raised in East Baltimore, Maryland.[1] He named Hairspray as a musical he saw growing up that helped him see musical theater as a career path. He loved the work of Stephen Sondheim and nurtured his interest at the performing arts camp Stagedoor Manor.[2]
He trained in acting and improvisational theater at the School at Steppenwolf, where Tarell Alvin McCraney, Amy Morton and K. Todd Freeman were some of his instructors.[3] [4]
Owens moved to New York in 2015 to pursue a professional career in the performance arts. He was a volunteer at the Musical Theatre Factory and there connected with playwright Michael R. Jackson, who wrote A Strange Loop.
Owens performed in the musical theater productions Spamilton and Gigantic.[5] He also performed for Catherine Cohen's Cabernet Cabaret and hosted his own monthly show Decolonize Your Mind with Karen Chee.[6]
In 2019 he received critical acclaim for his performance in Michael R. Jackson's A Strange Loop, performed off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons and directed by Stephen Brackett. Vinson Cunningham write in The New Yorker: "Owens... performs Jackson’s songs with power, humor, and pathos, filling in the textual gaps in Usher’s characterization with an entire life’s worth of mannerism and style."[7] For his performance he won a Lucille Lortel Award and a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Musical, among other accolades.[8] [9]
In July 2021 he starred in the original solo show Sondheimia, performed at Feinstein's/54 Below.
Owens was a staff writer for the truTV game show Paid Off.[10] He acted on season four of High Maintenance as well as the television shows Search Party, Abbott Elementary, Dash & Lily, Life & Beth, and Modern Love.[11] [12] [13] He is a voice actor in the Amazon animated series Fairfax.[14]
Owens is gay.
| Year | Title | Role | Location | Notes | Ref | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | Fat Camp | Darnell | American Theatre of Actors | Off-Broadway | [15] | |
| 2014 | Grease | Roger | The Muny | [16] | ||
| 2014 | Dreamgirls | Tiny Joe Dixon / TV Stage Manager / The Five Tuxedos / Film Executive / Security Guard / Ensemble | Gerding Theater at the Armory | |||
| 2015 | Gigantic | Darnell | Vineyard Theatre | Off-Broadway | ||
| 2016–2017 | Spamilton | Sondheim / Little Orphan Annie | Triad Theatre | Off-Broadway | [17] | |
| 2017–2018 | Puerto Rican Traveling Theater | Off-Broadway | [18] | |||
| 2019 | A Strange Loop | Usher | Playwrights Horizons | Off-Broadway | ||
| 2021 | Sondheimia | Protagonist | Feinstein's/54 Below | Solo show; also writer. | [19] |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes | Ref. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Betty | Devereaux | 1 episode | ||
| 2020 | High Maintenance | Arnold | 1 episode | ||
| 2020 | The Great Work Begins: Scenes from Angels in America | Belize | Television movie | [20] | |
| 2020 | Helpsters | Billy Bug | 1 episode | [21] | |
| 2020 | Dash & Lily | Artsy Guide | 1 episode | ||
| 2021 | Modern Love | Toby Dooley | Episode: "How Do You Remember Me?" | ||
| 2021–2022 | Fairfax | Jules (voice) | Recurring role | ||
| 2021–2022 | Search Party | Idiot / Ritchie | Recurring role | ||
| 2022 | Life & Beth | Clark | Recurring role | [22] | |
| 2022 | Ziwe | Pastor | Episode: "Critical Race Theory" | ||
| 2022–2023 | Abbott Elementary | Zach | 4 episodes | ||
| 2022 | Harley Quinn | Music Meister (voice) | Episode: "It's a Swamp Thing" |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | To Dust | Stanley | [23] | |
| 2018 | A Chest of Drawers | Barnaby Cromwell | Short film | [24] |
| 2019 | Last Ferry | Shane | ||
| 2021 | Puppet Me | Host | Short film | [25] |
| 2023 | Problemista | Craigslist | [26] | |
| 2023 | Dumb Money | Chris | ||
| 2023 | Urkel Saves Santa: the Movie | Santa (voice) | Direct-to-Video | |
| TBA | Silent Retreat | Eric | Post-production | [27] |