Film & TV / Theatre & dance
Vondie Curtis-Hall
born 1956 · actor, film and television director
Detroit-born actor and director, Dr. Dennis Hancock on Chicago Hope, who wrote and directed the Detroit-set cult film Gridlock'd.
- Born
Detroit, Michigan
age 69- Field
- Film & TV, Theatre & dance
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Vondie Curtis-Hall was born in Detroit, and though little has been published about his childhood there, the city came back into his work at a key moment. After starting on stage, including Broadway, he became a familiar face on television as Dr. Dennis Hancock on the CBS medical drama Chicago Hope in the late 1990s. In 1997 he wrote and directed his first feature, Gridlock'd, a dark comedy starring Tupac Shakur and Tim Roth as two Detroit musicians trying to get into rehab while dodging drug dealers and police; the story is set in Detroit, although the film was shot in Los Angeles. He went on to direct films such as Glitter and Waist Deep and many television episodes, and later played the journalist Ben Urich in Marvel's Daredevil. He is married to filmmaker Kasi Lemmons.
Highlights
- Wrote and directed Gridlock'd (1997), set in Detroit
- Dr. Dennis Hancock on Chicago Hope (1995–1999)
- Ben Urich in Marvel's Daredevil (2015)
- Directed Glitter (2001) and Waist Deep (2006)