This post is about NYC-based actor Beau Baxter, who has been seen on TV in Murphy Brown, The Deuce and Blue Bloods, and on Broadway in Hand to God.
Growing up in Augusta, Georgia, Beau Baxter got his first taste of performing on the school bus impersonating friends, teachers, a very unpopular principal, and Freddie “Boom-Boom” Washington. Often encouraged by pals to get into stand-up comedy, Beau did not catch the acting bug until after graduating college. While living in Atlanta, he answered an open casting call for the final episode of the critically acclaimed TV show I’ll Fly Away. He ended up with a featured appearance during the climax of the episode and never looked back.
Beau moved to Los Angeles, where he found early success in commercials, including one for the popular Got Milk? campaign. Episodic television roles followed on the Drew Carey Show and Rodney.
In 2006, Beau moved to New York City and was soon cast in one of his all-time favorite roles – NFL insider Reggie Greengrass on The Onion Sports Network web series. The show lampooned ESPN-style sports shows, and the overly earnest, self-important, hyper-focused analysis of professional sports. The show won a Peabody Award and was adapted for television by Comedy Central as Onion SportDome. Beau’s character of Reggie Greengrass was the only character to transcend the jump from the internet to TV.
In 2010, he was cast as Skip McGee in the late Curtis Hanson directed HBO movie Too Big to Fail, opposite James Woods.
In 2015 Beau was cast in the Broadway hit Hand to God, as an understudy to the role of Pastor Greg. He made his Broadway debut for a week in August 2015.
Beau has worked frequently in television, including guest appearances on 30 Rock, The Deuce, Blue Bloods and Murphy Brown. A regular sketch player on the Late Show with David Letterman, Beau most notably played a local Nobel prize winner three years in a row, garnering raucous laughter and applause, including a tip of the cap from Dave himself on the elevator after the show.
He is well-known for his role as NFL insider Reggie Greengrass on The Onion Sports Network web series and Comedy Central’s Onion SportsDome.
Interview With Beau:
1. Are you a religious man? If so, do you have a religious goal or motivation compelling you to do your work?
I wouldn’t say I’m religious, exactly. But, I’m a believer, I believe in prayer, I’ve felt it work. I do think that storytelling is God’s work (whatever one perceives God to be). Storytelling is a vital, integral part of life. To see the human condition Illuminated makes us all better people.
2. What has been your favorite project to work on?
It’s difficult to pick a favorite. Performing on Broadway for a live audience, in a wonderfully written play, with a Tony nominated cast is hard to beat. However, The Onion was some of the funniest, most well written material that an artist could hope for.
3. What draws your audience in most to your sketch characters?
Full commitment to the truth of what you’re playing, especially in comedy, is critical to drawing in the audience.
4. What was your interest in college?
My interest was chasing girls, drinking beer and having fun.
5. Why did your interest change in college and do you feel that your college interest led you to acting or that you needed it to push you into acting (because it sounds like you have had a knack for acting for quite a long time!).
I was hoping to find an interest/passion in college, but didn’t. I took the best job offered to me out of school, but quickly knew that going to a job every that I didn’t find important, that I wasn’t passionate about, was not for me.
6. Have you done more work on Broadway than Hand to God?
I haven’t, but would love to. I would do it in a New York minute!
7. Do you prefer acting on television or a live stage?
I love them both. Theater allows you to tell a story in real time, from beginning to end. The energy that you draw on from a live audience is exhilarating and invaluable. In television and film, there are so many moving parts. It’s exciting to be a part of that complex, collaborative process.
8. Did you move to NYC because it had better opportunities for acting than LA?
I was a little burned out on the Los Angeles scene and needed a change of scenery. New York City had always been my favorite place to visit – it’s so alluring; just a fascinating place. I had always imagined myself living here and in 2006, when I got cast in a film that was shooting here, I decided it was time to give it a shot!
9. Why do you think your Reggie Greengrass was so successful?
I think it was a combination of excellent writing, excellent direction, and my love for and commitment to the material.
10. It’s ironic that your first role was in a production titled, I’ll Fly Away. Have you ever thought of that as a metaphysical predictor for the course of your life?
No, I honestly hadn’t thought of it in that context, but I suppose it is. I packed up some belongings, and drove all the way across the country. I didn’t “fly away”, but it would have gotten me there a lot faster!
