CENTER VALLEY, Pa. – Actor, director and producer Blair Underwood will be the featured speaker at Penn State Lehigh Valley's 2015 commencement ceremony to be held 11 a.m. May 9, at Stabler Arena in Bethlehem.
A charismatic and versatile actor, Blair Underwood has found success acting in television, on stage and on the big screen. His success has been driven by the underlying belief that, in order to achieve longevity in the acting business, you must diversify yourself and become as flexible as possible.
Underwood’s first big screen role was in the movie “Krush Groove.” From there, he burst into the national spotlight in the NBC hit series “L.A. Law” in a role that earned him a Golden Globe nomination. Underwood has appeared on television as a recurring guest star in the final season of “Sex and the City,” a role for which he garnered two NAACP Image Award nominations; in the ABC drama “Dirty Sexy Money;” opposite Gabriel Byrne the HBO drama series “In Treatment;” in the CBS award-winning comedy “The New Adventures of Old Christine;” as Jackie Robinson in HBO’s “Soul of the Game,” for which he received another NAACP Image Award nomination; in Showtime’s “The Wishing Tree;” in TNT’s award-winning “Heat Wave;” and as the president of the United States in the NBC suspense-drama “The Event.”
Underwood has received 12 industry nods from the Golden Globes and the NAACP Image Awards, with five wins from the NAACP Image Awards. In 2000, People magazine named him one of its “50 Most Beautiful People,” and in 2004 named him one of the “Sexiest Men Alive.”
Involved in numerous charitable organizations, Underwood’s dedicated support of the Muscular Dystrophy Association won him the 1993 Humanitarian Award. He is also co-founder of Artists for a New South Africa (ANSA, ansafrica.org). Founded in 1989 with Alfre Woodard, Danny Glover, Mary Steenburgen and other friends in the arts and entertainment community, ANSA supports a democratic South Africa with equal rights and opportunities for all citizens.