In a sweltering photo studio on a 90-degree day in downtown Los Angeles, Sterling K. Brown is keeping his cool. Although it’s summer, hisꦇ outfit screams fall, and it’s 🌠clear that it is going to take more than a thick wool turtleneck and wide-wale corduroys to make him break a sweat.
“You know, this is brand-new to me,” he says between shots, reflecting on the attention. “My job for the past 15 years has been showing up, saying lines and going home. Now, the fact that people care what I have to say about anything . . . well, that’s something I’m still getting used to.”
He’d better get up to speed pretty quickly, because Brown has gone from “that guy in that show” to Emmy-winning star of “The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story,” and he’s a co-star of the new NBC dramedy “This Is Us.” Add a couple upcoming movies intꦗo the mix, and it’s easy to see that he’s having a bit of a moment.
“All this time it’s been, ‘Prove yourself, prove yourself, prove yourself,’ and now it’s♔ like, ‘Would you like a seat at the table?’ Because of ‘The People v. O.J.’ people want to collaborate with me, and that is so cool.”
🉐Sterling exudes cool. As we move to a nearby bar, people just want to talk to him, and he’s friendly to anyone who tries, responding to those around him with a deep, loud and uninhibited laugh. He orders a chicken and༺ bacon sandwich and a margarita; not your typical Hollywood-actor fare.
“Well, yesterday I ran 6 miles, and I will go to the gym tomorrow,” he says, settling into a booth and raising his salt-rimmed glass. “I try to go Monday through Friday b꧑ecause it makes me feel good for the rest of the day. ✤I don’t drink caffeine, so the exercise functions as the wake-up.”
Sterling has slipped almost effortlessly into his LA lifestyle, living wi💟th his wife, actress Ryan Michelle Bathe, and two young sons in Culver City on the Westside. It’s been around a decade since he moved here, having grown up in St. Louis. His mother was a schoolteacher, and his father was a grocery clerk who passed away when Sterling was only 10.
“I know unequivocally that he loved me with every biꦛt of his he🌳art,” he says. “For those 10 years he poured all the love that he had into his son, and I still feel it. I just try to pour it right back into his grandsons.”
Not unlike Chris Darden, the co-prosecutor he pla𝓀yed in “The People v. O.J.,” it’s obvious that Sterling is a man of integrity. He regularly attends church — he even squeezed in an appearance at his local house of worship before this morning’s photo shoot — and is genuine in his dedication to his faith.
“What I am first and foremost is a child of God,” he says,♔ “and I believe we all emanate from the same source, and that source is love and kindness an🤪d intelligence. I am trying to be a walking embodiment of that grace.”
Which can be tough for any man, but particularly so when confronted by the multiple temptations of his chosen industry. How does he hold on to his integrity in an environment fam🦂ous for its hedonistic and materialistic qualities?
“It’s a good question, it’s a good question,” he says in contemplation. “I’m not a saint, and I fall. But in the midst of that you try to be as forgiving of yourself as you would be with someone else. ‘One day at a time’ is really the answer, because you’re right — there’s all kinds of crazy stuff that happens because you’re in front of the camera. You have to be very conscious about what you receive and what you say no to.”
Luckily for Sterling, he’s had many ye⭕ars of regular work without having to deal with the temptations of fame. He found his passion for acting first at Stanford University, and then at NYU Tisch School of the Arts. Despite his many years in Los Angeles, he says he still feels more like a New Yorker.
“My first time in New York City was my callback for NYU, and I was walking around with my head craned all the way up, looking at the buildings and the lights and going to Times Square . . . I loved it,” he says. “The energy and the sense of community you have in New York City is incomparable.”
A🔯ll this time it’s been, ‘prove yourself, prove yourself,’ and now it’s like, ‘Would you like a seat at the table?’
- Sterling K. Brown
Sterling was very engaged with New York’s theater scene, and only left the city for the reason maꦡny men pack their bags and move: for the love of a woman. He’d met Ryan when they were both in their freshman year at Stanford and lived in the same dorm, meeting for the first time while both performing in a play. However, the path of true love didn’t run⛄ smoothly.
“There were a lot of ups and ☂downs,” he says, including three years to get it going, multiple breakups, and then another three-year period where they didn’t even talk. After Ryan moved to Los Angeles, they picked things up and tried the long-distance thing.
“Eventually she said, ‘This is ridiculous — we’re together but we’re not together, so how do we make this work?’ I said, ‘I’ll move!’ I’d have never left if it weren’t for her. But, you know, LA🃏 has done all right by me.”
Indeed it has. First, there’s that little detail of the Emmy, for which he refreshingly didn’t hide behind the “It’s just an honor to be nominated” line in the weeks leading up to his big win. “To be honest, it would be really cool to win!” he laughed. “Just the other day I was looking at past African American Emmy nominees. . . Don Cheadle, Jeffrey Wright, James Earl Jones, Danny Glover. To be in that company is very, very cool.”
And next up is a lead role in the heartbreaking television drama-with-a-twist “This Is Us” — from the writer and directors of the movie “Crazy, Stupid, Love” — in which he gets to co-star with his wife. “This is actually our third time on-screen together,” he says of Ryan. “She’s a wonderful actor and I always learn🃏 from her.”
Plus, of course, the offers keep coming in. He’s taking meetings🐠. He’s working on a strategy. And, most importantly, for the first time in 15 years, he’s being invited to the table.
“This is what I know,” he says. “I know that I will have another job. Now I have white people’s problems, working out what is the best thing for me . . . And it feels so good.”
Fashion Photos by Jim Wright
Crew Credits: Fashion Editor: Serena French; Stylist: Anahita Moussavian; Groomer: Leah Rial from Exclusive Artists
Fashion credits for first photo: Turtleneck, $438, and trousers, $128, both at
Fashion credits for second and third photos: 🥃(Left) “Baxter Check” suit, $1,045, and shirt, $195, both at ; Tommy Hilfiger sneakers, $150 at ; (Right) Jacket, $1,234, and shirt, $375, both at ; Jeans, $198 at ; Tommy Hilfiger sneakers, $150 at
Fashion credits for fourth photo: “Hopsack” jacket, $5,075, shirt, $645, and jeans, $695, all at Brunello Cucinelli, 136 Greene St.; ꦚCommon Projects sneakers, $411 at
Fashion credits for fifth photo: Hilfiger Edition turtleneck, 𓃲$329 at Tommy Hilfiger, 681 Fifth Ave.; Jeans, $645 at Brunello Cucinelli; “Double the Fun” sneakers, $ไ160 at