actor
Personal Information
Born Omar Hashim Epps in Brooklyn, NY, in 1973; married to Yusra Salama, 1993.
Career
Actor. Appeared in the films In the Shadow of Love: A Teen AIDS Story, 1991; Juice, 1992; Daybreak, 1993; The Program, 1993; Major League II, 1994; Higher Learning, 1995; Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood, 1996; Deadly Voyage, 1996; First-Time Felon, 1997; Scream 2, 1997; In Too Deep, 1999; The Wood, 1999; Breakfast of Champions, 1999; and The Mod Squad, 1999.
Life's Work
"There's been a buzz on Omar for a while. He has that star aura. It's an accepted notion in Hollywood that he's the next in line," Higher Learning director John Singleton told People Weekly in 1996. Omar Epps emerged in the early 1990s as a strong actor in less desirable projects. While making an impact in such powerful films as Juice and Higher Learning, he is versatile enough to shine in light comedies such as The Wood, and critics have seen past the flaws in his films to the underlying talent that has set him on the fast track to stardom.
Like many kids in Brooklyn, New York, Omar Epps' childhood was not picture perfect. His mother, a high school principal, raised him and his sister, Aisha Epps, alone. "I saw a lot at a very young age," he told Los Angeles Magazine in 1998, when they included him in a group of "new recruits"-up-and-coming actors and actresses under the age of thirty. "I remember giving clothes off my back to kids, seeing moms smoking crack. Growing up in a neighborhood like that, you don't have any hope, you don't plan for anything. You're just living to live." Apparently, his upbringing did not drag him down. He was writing mini-screenplays at age ten and went on to New York's High School of Performing Arts. "Watch, I'm going to be the first black president of the United States," he said in a 1999 interview with The Washington Times. "If Reagan can do it, I know I can."
Made Major Film Debut in Juice
Epps made his major film debut in 1992 starring in Juice, a story about a group of Harlem teens and a store robbery gone bad. Critic Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times credited the four principal actors for the film's strength, and highlighted Epps' portrayal of an aspiring DJ who gets muscled into participating in a hold-up. In 1993, he played a high school running back in the football drama The Program. In critics' minds, Epps' performance stood apart from the film itself. One critic called Epps "impressive," while calling the film "ambitious but flawed." Hal Hinson of The Washington Post paused in the midst of trashing the movie to note that "Omar Epps has real star presence-he's as much fun to watch with his helmet on as he is with it off." The young actor followed that up with Major League II, playing the character that the original actor Wesley Snipes wisely declined to revisit. The movie, widely considered to be a tired reworking of the 1989 comedy hit, bombed with critics and audiences alike.
Epps returned to dramatic roles in Higher Learning, which was released in 1995. In the film, Epps played a college student caught up in the racial tensions of a modern-day college campus. The movie by young director John Singleton won praise for its powerful portrayal of various culture and social clashes, but was ultimately determined to be too splintered to carry the ideological weight of the issues it raised. Epps' next film project was a small role in a parody that targeted ultra-serious ghetto movies, Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood. The film parodied the very same hopeless role that Epps had made memorable in Juice, to hilarious results.
Worked in Television
From there, Epps took a couple starring roles in the television movies Deadly Voyage and First-Time Felon. In First-Time Felon-the true story of Greg Yance, a Chicago gang member who was sent to a military-style boot camp after a conviction on drug charges-Epps made a critical impression in the lead role. Chris Vognar, a critic for the Dallas Morning News, called Epps in a 1997 review "one of our most underrated screen actors," and stated that he brought "quiet power and dignity to a challenging role." Vognar felt that the film's story of Yance's transformation from thug into law-abiding citizen was "rushed," but that Epps' performance helped give the HBO production "a core substantial enough to make up for most shortcomings." Epps also appeared as the character Dennis Gant on the Emmy award-winning television hospital drama ER from 1996 to 1997.
'Triple-Threat' Talent
Epps was never shy about his aspirations beyond acting. "I'm gonna do the triple-threat thing always-acting, writing, producing-use whatever weapons I have," he told Cosmopolitan in 1999. "50 years from now, I'll be sitting behind a desk, president of my own studio," he said in a People interview. At that point in 1996, in addition to the films he had already finished and his appearances on ER, he had directed music videos for rappers Special Ed and Heather B. "I've got a long way to go, but I'm looking to do it all," he told Los Angeles Magazine, "I want to be the next Ted Turner."
According to a Newsweek article, many young, black actors had found a niche in Hollywood in the early 1990s that, by the late 1990s, had gotten smaller. At the 71st annual Academy Awards, no African American was nominated for a major award. And although African Americans make up 25 percent of moviegoers, every black film released in 1998 foundered both commercially and critically. In spite of this apparent downturn for black actors, Epps worked on a steady flow of TV appearances, dramatic made-for-cable movies and commercially-successful films. Often, Epps' performance in a film or TV movie would be the only quality about the production that critics found redeeming. "It's gotten a little better in the last few years for us getting the roles that make people take notice," Epps told Newsweek. "The rest of it is on us to make things happen." Epps found no reason to think success was not possible. "When Will Smith gets $20 million for a film, it's a good time to be black in Hollywood," he told Cosmopolitan.
Became Marquee Actor in 1999
Epps truly became a marquee actor in 1999 with four major motion pictures opening with him in starring roles. He co-starred in the film remake of the hip 1960s TV show, The Mod Squad, playing the part of Linc alongside Claire Danes and Giovanni Ribisi. The three play outlaws who pay their debts to society by going undercover for the Los Angeles Police Department. The film did not fare well with critics, with many echoing the opinion of critic Owen Gleiberman in Entertainment Weekly, who called the film "stylishly hollow." Recovering from the negative press, Epps moved on to The Wood, a lighthearted film about three childhood friends reliving the past on the eve of one of the friend's wedding. Epps played the role of the narrator in this cinematic glimpse of African American middle-class life in the 1980s. While some critics applauded a more "normal" portrayal of the average black teen-shifting away from the more-prevalent violent gang movies-others found little innovation in the "buddy-movie" genre. As always, critics distanced Epps from the faults of his film project with one San Francisco Chronicle writer lamenting "When will Epps...get a picture worthy of his obvious talent?"
Epps' next project, In Too Deep, failed to answer that question. The film had Epps in the role of an undercover cop trying to bring down a criminal organization run by the character played by L.L. Cool J, but lacked emotional depth. Both Epps and Cool J were lauded for their gritty performances but Mike LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle complained, "the script doesn't give [Epps] many specifics to work with." Epps' last project of 1999, Breakfast of Champions, a comedy also starring Bruce Willis and Nick Nolte, brought Kurt Vonnegut's novel of the same title to the big screen.
Also in 1999, Epps started broadening his horizons even more, starting an independent record label called The Label, and making plans to release a rap album with his duo Wolf Pack called The Birth. Comparing his musical aspirations to his acting, he told The Washington Times: "I've been doing music for like nine, ten years. It's not someone else's words I'm delivering, there's not a director's version that's not edited, it's me. This is what I come home and do each day." It all started with writing, Epps told The Washington Times, "because I was a writer since I was eight-poetry, plays, screenplays, love letters, music, whatever. Being a writer, acting came from just trying to emote off of the paper, and once I found a stage, that was it." As a critically-acclaimed "leading man on the rise," Epps seems poised to succeed in whatever field he chooses.
Works
Selected filmography
- In the Shadow of Love: A Teen AIDS Story, 1991.
- Juice, 1992.
- Daybreak, 1993.
- The Program, 1993.
- Major League II, 1994.
- Higher Learning, 1995.
- Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood, 1996.
- Deadly Voyage, 1996.
- First-Time Felon, 1997.
- Scream 2, 1997.
- In Too Deep, 1999.
- The Wood, 1999.
- Breakfast of Champions, 1999.
- The Mod Squad, 1999.
Further Reading
Periodicals
- Chicago Sun-Times, January 17, 1992.
- Cosmopolitan, April 1999, p. 55.
- Dallas Morning News, September 6, 1997, p. 4C.
- Entertainment Weekly, April 2, 1999, p. 66.
- In Style, April 1, 1999, p. 192.
- Jet, September 15, 1997, p. 57.
- Los Angeles Magazine, November 1998, p. 86.
- Newsweek, April 5, 1999, p. 66.
- People Weekly, November 18, 1996, p. 100.
- San Francisco Chronicle, August 25, 1999, p. C1.
- Washington Post, September 24, 1993.
- Washington Times, April 2, 1999, p. C16.
- Additional information for this profile was obtained from the Internet Movie Database, http://www.imdb.com (August 15, 1999); E! Online, http://eonline.com/facts/people/bio (August 15, 1999); Raygun Magazine, http://raygun.com (August 15, 1999); Geocities, http://www.geocities.com (August 15, 1999); Astrophile, http://www.astrophile.com (August 15, 1999); Asylum, http://asylum.aol.com (August 15, 1999); and Sidewalk, http://denver.sidewalk.com (August 15, 1999).
— Brenna Sanchez
