About Me

Before taking up acting as a career, Sam was on track to become a Neurosurgeon. Sam completed the MCAT (Medical Colleges Acceptance Test) at the age of 19, and went on to help create exam prep materials for a MCAT prep company. Sam graduated with highest distinction from Duke University with degrees in Neuroscience and Theatre Studies with a Minor in Biology.

Now he's an actor. Sorry, Mom.

As an actor Sam has performed across the country at theaters including the Public, Ars Nova, Chicago Shakespeare Theater and many more. His favorite part he’s ever played is a tie between Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre (mostly because he got to flip in a harness thirty feet in the air), and James in The Jedi Handbook where he actually played 24 different characters (most of them star wars inspired). 

Sam is also an accomplished writer having had two of his shows be semi-finalists for the O’Neill Playwrights Conference. His works have also garnered him a Black Theater Alliance Award for Best Play and a Jeff Nomination for Best New Work (Both of those for the Definition Theater Company production of ETHIOPIANAMERICA at Victory Gardens Theater in Chicago). His works generally revolve around either his heritage as an East African or some deconstruction of blackness/masculinity. His completed works include a trilogy of plays around Race and Violence (Unite the Right, Black Metamorphosis, and JERICHO.), ETHIOPIANAMERICA (an Ethiopian family drama), and two works that are still in development (A Black American Farce and a play about solitary confinement). He’s also in the process of writing a history cycle about Ethiopian Royalty that is set to be in conversation with Shakespeare’s History cycle.

He also tells jokes and has two 45 min sets titled “I’m Ostracized because I’m Ostrich-sized” and “World’s Largest Ethiopian”

Now Sam lives in Harlem auditioning, writing, and performing stand up. He couldn't be happier! If you would like more fun info on Sam, follow the tab below to his FAQ page. You can also enjoy a fun photo shoot of my grad class right before we graduated.