Larry Owens (actor)

Larry Owens is an American comedian, actor, writer, and singer. He received a Lucille Lortel Award and a Drama Desk Award for his leading performance in the off-Broadway musical A Strange Loop. He has acted on television shows including Search Party, High Maintenance, Modern Love and Abbott Elementary.

Larry Owens
Born	Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
Occupations	Actor writer singer comedian
Years active	2015–present
Known for	A Strange Loop

Early life and education

Owens was born and raised in East Baltimore, Maryland.^[1] He named Hairspray as a musical he saw growing up that helped him see musical theater as a career path.^[1] He loved the work of Stephen Sondheim and nurtured his interest at the performing arts camp Stagedoor Manor.^[2]

He trained in acting and improvisational theater at the School at Steppenwolf, where Tarell Alvin McCraney, Amy Morton and K. Todd Freeman were some of his instructors.^[3][4]

Owens moved to New York in 2015 to pursue a professional career in the performance arts.^[2] He was a volunteer at the Musical Theatre Factory and there connected with playwright Michael R. Jackson, who wrote A Strange Loop.^[2]

Career

Theatre

Owens performed in the musical theater productions Spamilton and Gigantic.^[5] He also performed for Catherine Cohen's Cabernet Cabaret and hosted his own monthly show Decolonize Your Mind with Karen Chee.^[6]

In 2019 he received critical acclaim for his performance in Michael R. Jackson's A Strange Loop, performed off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons and directed by Stephen Brackett.^[5][3] Vinson Cunningham write in The New Yorker: "Owens... performs Jackson’s songs with power, humor, and pathos, filling in the textual gaps in Usher’s characterization with an entire life’s worth of mannerism and style."^[7] For his performance he won a Lucille Lortel Award and a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Musical, among other accolades.^[8][9]

In July 2021 he starred in the original solo show Sondheimia, performed at Feinstein's/54 Below.^[5]

Television

Owens was a staff writer for the truTV game show Paid Off.^[10] He acted on season four of High Maintenance as well as the television shows Search Party, Abbott Elementary, Dash & Lily, Life & Beth, and Modern Love.^{[1][11][12][13]} He is a voice actor in the Amazon animated series Fairfax.^[14]

Personal life

Owens is queer.^[6]

Filmography

Stage

Year	Title	Role	Location	Notes	Ref
2012	Fat Camp	Darnell	American Theatre of Actors	Off-Broadway	[15]
2014	Grease	Roger	The Muny		[16]
2014	Dreamgirls	Tiny Joe Dixon / TV Stage Manager / The Five Tuxedos / Film Executive / Security Guard / Ensemble	Gerding Theater at the Armory		[16]
2015	Gigantic	Darnell	Vineyard Theatre	Off-Broadway	[15]
2016–2017	Spamilton	Sondheim / Little Orphan Annie	Triad Theatre	Off-Broadway	[17]
2017–2018			Puerto Rican Traveling Theater	Off-Broadway	[18]
2019	A Strange Loop	Usher	Playwrights Horizons	Off-Broadway	[2]
2021	Sondheimia	Protagonist	Feinstein's/54 Below	Solo show; also writer.	[19]

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Ref.
2020	Betty	Devereaux	1 episode	[5]
2020	High Maintenance	Arnold	1 episode	[2]
2020	The Great Work Begins: Scenes from Angels in America	Belize	Television movie	[20]
2020	Helpsters	Billy Bug	1 episode	[21]
2020	Dash & Lily	Artsy Guide	1 episode	[5]
2021	Modern Love	Toby Dooley	Episode: "How Do You Remember Me?"	[13]
2021–2022	Fairfax	Jules (voice)	Recurring role	[14]
2021–2022	Search Party	Idiot / Ritchie	Recurring role	[12]
2022	Life & Beth	Clark	Recurring role	[22]
2022	Ziwe	Pastor	Episode: "Critical Race Theory"
2022–2023	Abbott Elementary	Zach	4 episodes	[11]
2022	Harley Quinn	Music Meister (voice)	Episode: "It's a Swamp Thing"

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Ref.
2018	To Dust	Stanley		[23]
2018	A Chest of Drawers	Barnaby Cromwell	Short film	[24]
2019	Last Ferry	Shane		[23]
2021	Puppet Me	Host	Short film	[25]
2023	Problemista	Craigslist		[26]
2023	Dumb Money	Chris
2023	Urkel Saves Santa: the Movie	Santa (voice)	Direct-to-Video
TBA	Silent Retreat	Eric	Post-production	[27]

Awards and nominations

For A Strange Loop

2019

• Nominee, Antonyo Award for Best Actor in a Musical Off-Broadway^[28]

2020

• Nominee, Drama League, Distinguished Performance Award^[29]
• Winner, Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Actor in a Musical^[5]
• Winner, Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Musical^[30]
• Winner, Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Musical^[5]
• Winner, Obie Award, Special Citation to the Creative Team and Ensemble^[31]