American actor Rob Brown is best known for his performances in films such as Finding Forrester, Get Carter and Take the Lead.
Born in March 1984 in New York, Brown is studying at Amherst College. He did not have any previous acting experience before he snagged the role of Jamal Wallace in the 2000 film Finding Forrester, alongside Sean Connery. He originally applied as an extra, in order to find money to be able to pay off his mobile phone bill. In the movie, he plays an intelligent high school student who befriends a secluded Pulitzer-winning author. His performance was well-received by critics.
Rob Brown’s next major film was the true-to-life adaptation Get Carter, released in 2005. Here, he performed as basketball player Kenyon Stone, who plays for the Richmond High School Oilers, being coached by Ken Carter (Samuel L. Jackson). He would be later benched, along with the rest of the team, because of their’ poor academic performance. Singer Ashanti also appeared on the film.
In 2006, Brown played the lead role Rock in the movie Take the Lead. He is one of the students who are taught classical dance by Pierre Dulaine (Antonio Banderas) after receiving detention for the rest of the year, and later is asked to join a dance competition.
His recent films include the 2007 mockumentary Live! alongside Eva Mendes. He also appeared the 2008 war drama Stop-Loss, which also stars Ryan Philippe and Abbie Cornish; it was well-received by critics, but flopped in the box-office. He is slated to appear in the 2008 film The Express, where he plays Heisman Trophy winner Ernie Davis, who was diagnosed with an incurable type of leukemia, and died at the age of 23. Brown is also the spokesman of the “Light the Night Walk” campaign of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.
At present, Rob Brown stars as accomplished trumpet player Delmond Lambreaux on the HBO series Treme.