Charles S. Dutton kicks off the 2013-14 Bless The Mic Lecture Series at Philander Smith College tonight.

This award winning actor, director and inspirational speaker will appear at 7pm.  

A graduate of the Yale School of Drama, Tony nominee Charles S. Dutton’s career spans theater, television and film. From 1991 to 1994 he starred in the title role and executive produced the critically-acclaimed Fox comedy/drama Roc, for which he received several NAACP Image Award nominations. Dutton has numerous other television credits, having won Emmy Awards for his guest starring roles in Without a Trace and The Practice.  He also won an Emmy for directing the movie The Corner for HBO.  Most recently he can be seen in guest star roles on top shows Criminal Minds and American Horror Story as well as Longmire and Zero Hour.

The Baltimore native is also a veteran of numerous feature films, including Aliens 3; Cry, The Beloved Country; A Time to Kill; Get on the Bus; and Cookie’s Fortune. On Broadway he has starred in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and The Piano Lesson.  He received Tony nominations for the original productions of those titles. He also won both a Theatre World Award and a Drama Desk Award for his performance in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.  In 2003, he starred in a revival of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom on Broadway.

Bless The Mic is a contemporary spin on the traditional President’s Lecture Series. These events, held on hundreds of campuses across the country, have been a way to stimulate the intellectual discourse on the campus. Even today, these series seek to bring in noted scholars, authors, politicians and public intellectuals to expose not only the campus community to their ideas and concepts, but the broader community in which the institution resides.