Craig Grant

Craig O'Neil Grant (December 18, 1968 – March 24, 2021), also known as Craig muMs Grant and muMs da Schemer, was an American poet and actor best known for his role as Arnold "Poet" Jackson on the HBO series Oz.^[1]

Craig Grant
Born	Craig O'Neil Grant (1968-12-18)December 18, 1968 New York City, New York, U.S.
Died	March 24, 2021 (aged 52) Wilmington, North Carolina, U.S.
Other names	Craig muMs Grant
Occupation(s)	Actor, poet
Years active	1996–2021

Life and career

Grant was born in New York City and raised in the Bronx.^[2] His father, Samuel, was a locksmith and carpenter at Montefiore Hospital, and his mother, Theresa (née Maxwell), was a teacher.^[3] He attended Mount St. Michael Academy High School, Bronx, New York. He first gained widespread attention as a poet and performer when he was featured in the documentary SlamNation, which followed him and the other poets of 1996 Nuyorican Poetry Slam Team (Saul Williams, Beau Sia and Jessica Care Moore) as they competed at the 1996 National Poetry Slam.^[4]

Grant took the name "muMs" when he was 20 and performing in a rap group. Due to retaining traces of a childhood lisp, a friend suggested he call himself “Mumbles”, which Grant shortened to "muMs", as an acronym for "manipulator under Manipulation shhhhhhh!"^[3]

In Words in Your Face: A Guided Tour Through Twenty Years of the New York City Poetry Slam, author Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz wrote of Grant's time in slam poetry, noting his writing "was street poetry at its purest. Thoughtful, precise but not without humor, his work spoke honestly about the life he and his friends and family lived and the city that he loved."^[5]

muMs performed his poetry on seasons 2, 3 and 4 of HBO's Def Poetry Jam, and was a member of New York City's LAByrinth Theater Company. In October 2007, muMs played a role in A View from 151st Street, a play about people trying to reconstruct their lives after gunfire.^[6]

In September 2014, muMs wrote and performed "A Sucker Emcee", hip-hop and slam poetry, based on his personal recollections.^[7]

In February 2015, muMs' play, titled Paradox of the Urban Cliché, about a young couple living in Harlem, was performed at the Wild Project as part of the Poetic Theater Productions's Poetic License festival.^[8]

In February 2015, muMs played a role in The Insurgents, a play about rage among the free, brave, and disenfranchised, produced by LAByrinth Theater Company.^[9]

Grant guest-starred in the 2016 Netflix series Luke Cage as Reggie "Squabbles", and was featured as a recurring character, Ricardo, on three episodes of Louis C.K.'s web series Horace and Pete.^{[citation needed]} He appeared in two films by Steven Soderbergh, and had supporting roles in films including Bringing Out the Dead, Bamboozled, Birdman, and Good Time.

Death

Grant died in Wilmington, North Carolina on March 24, 2021, aged 52. His manager, Sekka Scher, said the cause was complications of diabetes.^[3][10]

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1999	Bringing Out the Dead	Voice in Crowd
2000	Bamboozled	Mau Mau: Hard Blak
2002	Morning Breath	Grant	Short
2004	Everyday People	Ali
2005	Dark Water	Platzer's Backseat Client
	On the One	Sharif
	Winning Yesterday	Delivery Man	Short
2007	Interview	Cab Driver
	Rhyme Animal	Shiva	Short
2008	Asylum	-	Short
	Ball Don't Lie	Fat Chuck
	Showdown of the Godz	Bernard	Short
	The Brooklyn Heist	Moose
2009	An Englishman in New York	DJ
	The Good Heart	Judge
	Breaking Point	Buster Biggs
2011	Identical	Chief Grant
2013	Side Effects	Wards Island Orderly
	Heads Up	Foster	Short
	Ice	Doughboy	Short
2014	Birdman	Broadway Man
	Lazarus	Rusty
2016	A Northern Star	Edna's Nurse	Short
	Invisible	Museum Guard	Short
2017	The Price	Iji Upla
	Good Time	Denny
	Sketch	Delivery Man	Short
	The Middlegame	Jonathan	Short
	Love Beats Rhymes	MuMs da Schemer
2018	Monsters and Men	Uncle Bobby
	Love Magical	Loan Officer
	The Great Pretender	Barry
	BlacKkKlansman	Jabbo
	Hover	John
2020	The Whistler	Coach Keickman	Short
2021	No Longer Suitable for Use	-	Short
	No Sudden Move	Jimmy
	The Scrapper	Leon
2022	Life After You	Terry Wright
	Bitcon	-

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1997–2003	OZ	Arnold "Poet" Jackson	Recurring Cast
2002	Hack	Omar	Episode: "My Brother's Keeper"
2003	Chappelle's Show	Lysol	Episode: "Mad Real World & Ask A Gay Dude"
2003–05	Def Poetry Jam	Himself	Recurring Guest
2004	The Jury	Curtice Redding	Episode: "Last Rites"
2006	The Sopranos	Mop	Episode: "The Fleshy Part of the Thigh"
	Law & Order: Criminal Intent	Cousin Chet	Episode: "To the Bone"
2007	Honesty	Mailman	Episode: "Black Mailman"
	Boston Legal	Joseph Washington	Recurring Cast: Season 4
2008	Law & Order	Freddie	Episode: "Challenged"
2009	Cold Case	Zeb 'Zen' Edwards '09	Episode: "Read Between the Lines"
2013	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	Eddie Baker	Episode: "Beautiful Frame"
	East Willy B	Ray	Episode: "Operation Strike Team"
2014	The Knick	Hernia Patient	Episode: "The Busy Flea"
	Blue Bloods	Leon Bendix	Episode: "Under the Gun"
2015	Nurse Jackie	Wayne	Episode: "Deal"
2016	Horace and Pete	Ricardo	Recurring Cast
	Luke Cage	Reggie "Squabbles"	Episode: "Step in the Arena"
2017–19	She's Gotta Have It	Cash Jackson	Recurring Cast: Season 1, Guest: Season 2
2019	NCIS: New Orleans	Larry	Episode: "Reckoning"
	City on a Hill	Truancy Officer	Episode: "It's Hard to Be a Saint in the City"
2020	High Maintenance	Cedric	Episode: "Screen"
	Bull	Walter Mora	Episode: "Off the Rails"
	The Last O.G.	Reggie	Episode: "Warning"
2020–21	Hightown	Wayne Grasa	Recurring Cast: Season 1, Guest: Season 2
2021	All the Queen's Men	Paul Harold	Recurring Cast: Season 1

Video Games

Year	Title	Role
2005	The Warriors	Additional Soldier
2008	Midnight Club: Los Angeles	Ian
	Grand Theft Auto IV	The Crowd of Liberty City
2009	Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned	DeSean

Documentary

Year	Title	Role
1998	SlamNation	Himself

References

1. Collins-Hughes, Laura. "Versifying Above the Footlights". The New York Times. September 14, 2014. p. AR6.
2. Soloski, Alexis (September 23, 2014). "'A Sucker Emcee,' a Rhyming Autobiography". The New York Times. Archived from the original on September 24, 2014. Retrieved 10 July 2021.
3. Genzlinger, Neil (March 27, 2021). "Craig muMs Grant, Actor and Slam Poet, Dies at 52". The New York Times. Retrieved March 29, 2021.
4. Fay Watson (March 26, 2021). "Craig 'muMs' Grant dead: How did the Oz actor and poet die?". The Daily Express. Retrieved May 12, 2021.
5. Aptowicz, Cristin O'Keefe. (2008). Words in Your Face: A Guided Tour Through Twenty Years of the New York City Poetry Slam. Soft Skull Press, pg. 135; ISBN 1-933368-82-9
6. Isherwood, Charles. "A Shot in the Night and Its Aftermath". The New York Times. pg. E3
7. Kozinn, Allan. "Craig Grant Show Opens Labyrinth Season". The New York Times. July 26, 2014, pg. C2
8. Collins-Hughes, Laura. "After Poetic Confessions, Resenting the Applause", The New York Times. February 17, 2015. pg. C3
9. Brantley, Ben. "Returning Home Is No Escape". The New York Times. February 24, 2015. pg. C1
10. Barnes, Mike (March 27, 2021). "Craig MuMs Grant, Actor Who Played Poet on 'Oz,' Dies at 52". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved March 29, 2021.

External links

• Craig Grant at IMDb