Favorite Native American actors
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Greg works as an Actor is in Film, Television, Video, Commercials, Motion Capture, and Voice Over. His Theatrical background includes main-stage productions with: El Teatro Campesino The Mark Taper Forum (Centre Theatre Group) The Berkeley Repertory Theatre The Denver Center Theatre Company In New York he created the role of Knuckles in the theatrical production of Noah's Archives at the Ohio Theatre. Greg did extensive work with the Friends & Artists Theater Ensemble (Los Angeles, CA) and was a founding member, He received a Drama-Logue Award for his performance as Macheath in their production of The Three Penny Opera.- Nathan Lee Chasing His Horse was born on 28 April 1976 in Rosebud Reservation, South Dakota, USA. He is an actor and producer, known for Dances with Wolves (1990), Into the West (2005) and DreamKeeper (2003).
- Actor
- Writer
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Graham Greene was born on 22 June 1952 in Six Nations Reserve, Ontario, Canada. He is an actor and writer, known for The Green Mile (1999), Wind River (2017) and Dances with Wolves (1990). He has been married to Hilary Blackmore since 20 December 1990. They have two children.- August Schellenberg was born on 25 July 1936 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He was an actor, known for Black Robe (1991), The New World (2005) and Free Willy (1993). He was married to Joan Karasevich. He died on 15 August 2013 in Dallas, Texas, USA.May he rest in peace
- Actress
- Producer
Irene Bedard (born July 22, 1967) is an Alaska Native actress enrolled in the Native Village of Koyuk who has played many American Indian characters in a variety of television shows and films. She is best known for her voice role as the title character in the Disney animated film "Pocahontas," and the cult-classic "Smoke Signals" as Suzy Song. She is known for bringing a powerful emotional presence to her characters.
Bedard was born in Anchorage, Alaska, raised primarily in Alaska, but also spent a few years as a child in Washington state. Her father was Bruce Bedard, and mother was Carol Bedard, and she is their oldest of four - Leslie Bedard, Joseph Bedard, and David Bedard are her younger siblings. She is Inupiaq and Yup'ik on her mother's side, and Cree on her father's side. She graduated from Anchorage's Dimond High School in 1985, and then earned a Musical Theatre degree from The University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Bedard's son Quinn Wilson was born in 2003.
Her first role was as Mary Crow Dog in the television production, "Lakota Woman: Siege at Wounded Knee," which depicted the 1970s standoff between police and Native Americans, many of the Pine Ridge Reservation, at Wounded Knee, South Dakota. She received a Golden Globe nomination for the role. Besides the first Disney Pocahontas movie, she also voiced direct-to-video sequel "Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World." Bedard was the physical model for the character. She appeared in a different take of the Pocahontas story in Terence Malick's 2005 film "The New World," as Pocahontas's mother, Nonoma Winanuske Matatiske. In 2005, she was cast in the television mini-series Into the West, portraying the half-Lakota, half-white adult Margaret "Light Shines" Wheeler. In 2011 Bedard portrayed the Messenger in the Academy Award-nominated film, "Tree of Life." In 2018, Bedard reprised her voiced role of Pocahontas for Disney's "Ralph Breaks the Internet."
Her television roles span from 1995, including Stephen Spielberg's "Into the West," "The Spectacular Spider-Man," "Longmire," "Westworld," and "FBI: Most Wanted." She has performed in two Stephen King series, 2017's "The Mist" as Kimi Lucero, and 2020's "The Stand" as Ray Rentner. In the 2017 she portrayed the future Co-President of the United States for the Jay-Z music video "Family Feud," directed by Ava Duverney.
Bedard's decades of creative work includes singing, theatre, spoken word, producing television and movies, speaking, and teaching. She fosters a passion of many creative disciplines, and is a great lover, and adopter, of animals. Bedard was chosen in 1995 as one of People magazine's "50 Most Beautiful People." She's served on the American Indian Enterprise and Business Council to the United Nations, and is involved in frequent activist work around the environmental and Indigenous issues.- Actor
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Born in 1946 in Minnesota, Sheldon grew up on the Lower Sioux Indian Reservation being the youngest of eight children. He attended the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico and the Ray-Vogue School of Design in Chicago, Illinois from 1965 to 1969. Drafted into the military in 1969, he served in Vietnam and was awarded the bronze medal while there. Returning home, he worked at the Walt Disney Studios in Southern California as an artistic consultant, developed displays for the New Disney World in Florida and various Disney movie productions, and participated in numerous art shows with the Disney organization. In 1976 he moved to Hawaii, attending the University of Hawaii. Shortly afterwards he made his television acting debut on Sesame Street (1969), where he was a featured actor for four years. Returning to Los Angeles, he affiliated with the American Indian Registry for Actors and participated in many of their productions. He appeared in two feature films: Dances with Wolves (1990) and Son of the Morning Star (1991), co-starred in an episode of "L.A. Law" and in "Miracle in the Wilderness".- Actress
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Actress Tantoo Cardinal is a Member of the Order of Canada, one of the country's highest civilian honors. The order recognizes Cardinal for her contributions to the growth and development of Aboriginal performing arts in Canada.
Arguably the most widely recognized Native Actress of her generation, Cardinal has appeared in numerous plays, television programs, and films, including Legends of the Fall, Dances With Wolves, Black Robe, Loyalties, Luna, Spirit of the Whale, Unnatural & Accidental, Marie-Anne, Sioux City, Silent Tongue, Mothers & Daughters, and Smoke Signals. Recent work includes the films Eden, Maina, Shouting Secrets and From Above.
Her stirring performance in Loyalties earned her a Genie nomination, American Indian Film Festival Best Actress Award, the People's Choice Award at the Toronto Film Festival, plus Best Actress Awards at International Film Festivals in Zimbabwe and Portugal.
Cardinal was recently honored with the 2015 ACTRA Award of Excellence; other honors include Best Actress - Elizabeth Sterling Award in Theatre for All My Relations, and First Americans in the Arts Totem Award for her portrayal of the character Katrina in Widows at the Forum Stage in Los Angeles. She won the American Indian Film Festival's Best Actress Award as well as the first Rudy Martin Award for Outstanding Achievement by a Native American in Film for Where the Rivers Flow North, a Gemini Award for North of 60, and a Leo Award for Blackstone.
Her television credits include recurring roles on the series: Blackstone, The Killing, Arctic Air, Strange Empire, The Guard, North of 60, Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman, The Lightening Field, Street Legal, The Campbell's, Gunsmoke, Tom Stone, Myth Quest, Lonesome Dove, and Renegade Press.com. MOW's include Full Flood, The Englishman's Boy, Dreamkeeper and the PBS documentary Nobody's Girls.
For her contributions to the Native Artistic community, Cardinal won the Eagle Spirit Award. She has also been honored with the MacLeans' magazine Honor Roll as Actress of the Year, the Outstanding Achievement Award from the Toronto Women in Film and Television, an International Women in Film Award for her lasting contribution to the arts, and induction to the CBC/Playback Hall of Fame.- Actor
- Producer
Native American actor, Rodney Arnold Grant was born the 9th of March, 1959. After his biological parents abandoned him, his grandparents raised him from 6 months of age, up until 1982. Rodney has five adult children: three daughters from his ex-wife, all of which were raised by their mother, and two sons from previous relationships. He is now married to Lee-Anne. Over time, Rodney initially has performed in major motion pictures, as well as television appearances. One in particular CBS's Stolen Women, Captured Hearts (1997), opposite Janine Turner and Michael Greyeyes. On the big screen, Rodney is extensively known for his portrayal of "Wind in His Hair" in Dances with Wolves (1990). Inasmuch as Rodney has proven to be eclectic in his acting ability, he can "play the part" in other genus as well.
Rodney has other multitudinous ways in which he contributes to those in "need" -- especially the Native American Youth. For example, The Boys and Girls Club of Cheyenne country, South Dakota, where he is on the Board of Directors. At the present time, Rodney has taken an interim from acting to bestow his time to family, charities, and independent film making.- Actor
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Michael Greyeyes is an actor, director, scholar and founding artistic director of Signal Theatre. He is Nêhiyaw (Plains Cree) from Muskeg Lake Cree Nation in Saskatchewan, Canada. His film work includes the role of Traylor in "Blood Quantum," (Elevation Pictures/ Shudder Original), written and directed by Jeff Barnaby, Sitting Bull in "Woman Walks Ahead," (A24/ DirecTV) co-starring Jessica Chastain and directed by Susanna White. He also appeared in HBO's "True Detective" (Season 3) in the role of Brett Woodard and AMC Television's third season of "Fear the Walking Dead," playing Qaletaqa Walker. He has appeared in numerous feature films, including "The New World," directed by Terence Malick, "Skipped Parts," "Sunshine State," directed by John Sayles, "Passchendaele" directed by Paul Gross and "Dance Me Outside," a cult-classic directed by Bruce McDonald.
Most recently, he can be seen as Ralph Drinkwater in HBO's acclaimed mini-series "I Know This Much is True," written and directed by Derek Cianfrance and starring Mark Ruffalo, Apple TV+ "Home Before Dark," Disney+ "Togo," and "V-Wars" for Netflix. He has appeared in a wide range of roles, including "Law and Order: Criminal Intent," to the title role in "Crazy Horse" (TNT), and Tecumseh in "Tecumseh's Vision" (PBS) to mini-series such as "Klondike" (Discovery), "Saints and Strangers" (National Geographic), and "Dreamkeeper" (ABC). As a director, he has created numerous theatre works including "Bearing," a searing dance opera that premiered at the 2017 Luminato Festival in Toronto, "A Soldier's Tale" (National Arts Centre), "from thine eyes" (Harbourfront Centre), and wrote "Nôhkom" (directed by Yvette Nolan). He was nominated for a Dora award for his direction (with Cole Alvis) for "Two Odysseys: Pimooteewin / Gállábártnit," a full-length evening of Indigenous opera featuring 2 librettos in Cree and Sami.
He is represented by long-time manager Alan Mills (Mills Kaplan Entertainment) and talent agents MaryJane MacCallum (ARC) and Harry Gold (Talent Works).- Actor
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Cody Lightning was born on 8 August 1986 in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. He is an actor and director, known for Four Sheets to the Wind (2007), Hey, Viktor! (2023) and Brick (2005).- Actor
- Stunts
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Highly recognizable Native American actor, stuntman and singer who is equally capable of portraying cold-hearted villains on the one hand and warm-hearted, open "good guys" on the other, as evidenced by his huge grin and hearty laugh.
The solidly built 6' 3" Richmond has regularly played the bad guy on-screen. He's been on the receiving end of the fists of Arnold Schwarzenegger in Commando (1985), gotten pummeled by Carl Weathers in Action Jackson (1988) and tangled with Steven Seagal in Hard to Kill (1990).
Richmond is the son of movie stuntman Leo C. Richmond and first broke into film and TV in the early 1970s with minor roles in shows such as The Bionic Woman (1976), The Rockford Files (1974) and Magnum, P.I. (1980). From there he quickly picked up work in numerous made-for-TV movies and was kept busy throughout the 1980s and 1990s with appearances in such A-grade productions as Licence to Kill (1989), Best Seller (1987) and Batman Returns (1992). He even found himself in the children's film Curly Sue (1991). In early 1991 Richmond scored the key role of "Bobby Six Killer" in the bounty hunter-themed TV series Renegade (1992) starring alongside Lorenzo Lamas and Kathleen Kinmont. The series was quite successful and ran from 1992 to 1997, turning out over 100 episodes! Additionally, Richmond has starred in plenty of B-movie action films and has become quite a cult figure of the genre.
Since the late 1990s, Richmond has remained busy on several fronts. He's continued acting in Hollywood, is the official spokesman for Indian Motorcycles and is the lead singer for the band "Branscombe Richmond and the Renegade Posse". He's also notched up numerous awards, including being voted "Native American Entertainer of the Year" and "Mr Showman" of the year by the Las Vegas Review Journal.- Actor
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Born in Chamberlain, South Dakota and residing in Montana, Spears has five brothers, one sister, and is Lakota Sioux Tribe. His first role was in the film "Dances With Wolves" as Otter. Michael went on to appear in "Skins", "Into The West", "Yellow Rock", Cyril Morin's "The Activist", and had a guest role on "Longmire". He has an American Photographic Artists (APA) Award for best subject matter in a film. He co-hosted the American Indian Film Institute Awards in 2013.- Eddie Spears was born on 29 November 1982 in Chamberlain, South Dakota, USA. He is an actor, known for DreamKeeper (2003), Hell on Wheels (2011) and Bone Tomahawk (2015).
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- Art Department
Gregg Rainwater was born on 27 February 1966 in Flint, Michigan, USA. He is an actor and art director, known for Street Fighter (1994), Young Justice (2010) and The Young Riders (1989).